More Yachts

Ugh. Since I still can’t sleep well at night, I’ve been binge watching more yacht videos. I made a previous post about expedition yachts but doing the math, it will take a lot of money and time to make ocean crossings. For example, for a Nordhavn 60, it can do 6,000 nautical miles at 5.6 knots with a mileage of 2.67 nmpg. It’s about 3,000 nautical miles from New York to Southampton (England) so the trip will take 22 days non-stop and use up 1,124 gallons of diesel. If we use $2.50/gallon for marine diesel, the fuel cost for the trip is ~$2,800. For something like a 70 foot sports cruiser, cruising at 17 knots will only give you 0.2 nmpg, making every trip expensive. Also, the yachts that I can afford look very uncomfortable to live in full-time. Maybe I just need to downsize a lot.

Another option is a solar yacht. There is a company called Silent Yacht that makes solar powered catamarans. They have 55, 60, or 80 foot models starting around $1.5M. The good thing about a catamaran is the amount of living space onboard. There is room for a several salons, galley (kitchen) and 3-4 bedrooms. One of their older models did an Atlantic crossing and all of it on solar power. Like expedition yachts however, cruising speed on solar is 4-6 knots so any long distance trip will also take forever, especially if the sky is cloudy.

The main problem with catamarans is that it takes a double berth at a marina so if I wanted to dock this thing and live in it, it would cost a lot more. Another option would be a hybrid powered yacht by Greenline. Their boats are mainly diesel powered but also have solar panels and electric motors to drive the boat short distances. Kinda feels like a plug-in hybrid of the sea. Problem here is the maximum range for smaller boats seems to be only 1,000 miles which is likely not enough for cross ocean travel. Maybe I’ll just go on a cruise ship.

All this is wishful thinking at this time. Without a kidney transplant, I’m not going anywhere.

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I actually spent a few hours looking at real estate along the ocean in SoCal. It doesn’t look good. There are only a few places that have houses with docks: Belmont Shores, Naples, Huntington Beach, and Newport Beach. Basically everything is over $2M if you want a private dock.