Read part 1 of this story, Gone to the dark side.
An LRPC vs a sailboat – the cost of ownership
The purchase price of a LRPC is comparable to an offshore catamaran of similar length and age. The cat’s performance is more affected by weight when compared to a LPRC (also known as LRC), so equipment and comforts may be sacrificed.
The most common question I am asked about owning a powerboat compared to a sailboat is focused on fuel costs: “The cost of fuel must be prohibitive,” they say.
In my opinion, many of the costs of boat ownership (power vs sail) are based upon the size of the boat, rather than the vessel’s type. They are very similar. I’ve identified the major cost centres for a cruising boat to try to compare them.
• Marinas
• Insurance
• Maintenance
• Fuel
• Provisioning
Marinas: Most marinas charge per metre or by boat length overall, although catamarans may be charged more due to their greater beam. We enjoy mixing up our cruising – we love time at anchor but also welcome the benefits and convenience of marina life to pick up or drop off guests, to reprovision, and to clean the boat (for maintenance as much as cosmetics). However, Southern Star could have survived the entire five months in Fiji without a marina berth, other than requiring refuelling prior to her return trip. So, marina costs are comparable – and often a discretionary spend.
Insurance: In my experience, this is one of the highest costs of cruising, and one over which we have little control. I calculated the cost of the annual premium as a percentage of the hull value to compare insurance costs.
From Dec 2016 to Oct 2020, we cruised Southern Star on the US East Coast, from Florida to Nova Scotia, Canada, wintering in the Bahamas. Our insurance for the boat during those first four years was quite reasonable – it cost about 0.6% of the hull value. After returning to New Zealand with the boat, we found that the cost of insuring with Mariner Insurance NZ for coastal cruising was similar, at 0.5% of the hull value.
Our insurance options for the trip from New Zealand to Fiji offered a very limited choice of providers, and was much, much more expensive! The Fiji trip premium cost over $24,000 per annum. This was 2.2% of hull value. Fortunately, on our return to New Zealand we were able to fall back to a less expensive New Zealand coastal coverage rate and received a pro-rated credit on the annual premium for the rest of the year from our provider.
So, the time spent in Fiji cost us about $2,000 per month for insurance, which was comparable to cruisers with sailing yachts as a percentage of hull value.
Maintenance: Maintenance on Southern Star is without a doubt easier than it was on my previous sailing yacht Defiant. I have an oil change manifold system for engine oil changes –
I only need to turn on the valve to the respective engine, pump out and refill the oil. So, maintenance is much more enjoyable, quicker and less messy.
LRPCs usually have robust fuel systems with easy, convenient filter changes and fuel management. I take fuel from either the port or starboard tanks (to maintain an even trim) and polish it through multiple filters. This process keeps our fuel clean and minimises the chance of problems.
We also have a ‘wing’ engine, also called a ‘get-home’ engine. This Yanmar is on a V drive on the port side of the boat opposite the generator. It has its own fuel tank, a start battery shared with the generator, and its own shaft and propeller – a truly redundant, get-home engine that will push the boat at about four knots should the main engine fail.
So, we have two engines, and a generator to maintain. My experience in Fiji was very similar to most other cruisers we met. I had to make repairs on my water maker (a sensor) and replace a boost pump (from my spares). My generator needed an impeller replacement, I had to repair the forward head controller circuit board and the main engine needed a new start battery alternator – I had to source one in Fiji since my ‘spare’ turned out to be the wrong type.
We have more systems onboard Southern Star than most cruising sailboats, so maintenance is more involved and therefore more expensive. But if a sailboat has a generator, water maker and electric winches and davits, those maintenance costs would be similar. I would consider our maintenance and repair costs pretty low on this trip – significantly lower than those of many sailors we talked to.
Intuitively, maintaining a power boat in the long term would be similar to a sailboat of the same value, especially when you include the long-term cost of replacing spars, sails and rigging. The overall costs are more a function of the systems, and those are very similar in all long-distance cruisers, whether sail or power. Haul-out costs for antifouling etc. are a function of boat length. LRPCs do have more systems below the waterline requiring maintenance, and as mentioned, this is scheduled as part of the regular haul-out – in our case every two years.
Cost of fuel: The most debated point when sailors and power-boaters get together is the difference in the cost of fuel. The difference is a function of engine efficiency and hull speed for the power boat and the amount of time a sailboat spends sailng rather than motoring. There’s an old joke shared among power-boaters: “What is the difference between a sailboat and a power boat? Well, a sailboat motors only 90% of the time!”
We carry 5564 litres of diesel on our LRPC and we have a 3000nm range at a cruising speed of 6.5 knots (1700rpm) burning 13lph. When we fuelled in Fiji, we had travelled over 1455nm, which took 242 hours and included a return trip to the Northern Lau Group, as well as generator time at anchor. We took on 3200 litres at Nawi Marina when our tanks were still nearly half full.
During the five months away on our Fiji trip we travelled 3374nm. We burned (including generator run time) approximately 6386 litres of fuel. The average cost of fuel between fills in Opua and fills in Fiji was NZ$2.15 a litre. The fuel cost for the entire trip was around $13,762. This is about $2700 per month for the five-month journey. Of course, this varies with the amount of distance you wish to travel – we could have stayed at Musket Cove all season long and spent significantly less on fuel but instead chose to do quite a lot of travelling around Fiji (over 1,000nm).
Provisioning: The cost of provisioning is the same as for any sailboat and depends on the tastes and preferences of the crew. However, Southern Star has been designed with more refrigerator, freezer and storage capacity than most sailboats, enabling us to provision more fully prior to the voyage, taking advantage of bulk pricing and being able to store items which are not available or very expensive overseas. So, we could live with very reasonable food and drink costs while cruising.
Summary
I purchased my cruising/liveaboard yacht Defiant when I was in my thirties, thinking that sailing was the only way to ‘explore the world.’ After 30 years, and seeing my wife’s discomfort and unease whenever we were heeled over hard on the wind, I realised that 1000-mile passages on Defiant were unlikely for us. In addition, moving around the boat, handling the sails and gaining access for maintenance became more challenging as we ‘matured.’
One winter’s day docked in Opua Marina, we were invited on board a Nordhavn 57, home port Anchorage Alaska, bound for Noumea. It was a revelation to us both – one that began our journey to the dark side. Five years later, we sold our house, sold Defiant, and purchased our own Long-Range Power Cruiser, Southern Star.
These special vessels make it easier to continue exploring and enjoying a lifestyle that we would likely have given up a long time ago. If this story has got you thinking, why not take a look at some of the many options for going to the dark side?
