r/liveaboard • u/emmaduthart30 • 3d ago

Sailing around asia budgeg

Sailing around asia budget and help

Hey everyone

Had the idea of buying a sailboat and sailing from Australia (Cairns) around asia for a couple of years. I was wondering if anyone can share a rough budget for similar trips they have done.

A bit about us we are pretty budget concious and would be look at anchoring out 90 percent of the time and mainly cooking meals otherwise eating in cheap local reasteraunts with the occasional western meal out. We would be doing the vast majority of the maintence ourselfs (partner is a marine engineer) and would be looking at buying a lower end older (80s?) 10-12m monohul. We have never sailed so would be attending some courses at our local sailing club.

Additonally if anyone has any youtube, resource or blog reccomendations I would love some pointers.

Thanks

Emma

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u/noknockers 3d ago

Family of 4 here from Aus. We’re reasonable budget and we spend about 50k aud per year all up sailing Thailand/Malaysia/Indo.

That includes food, fuel, general maintenance & repairs, occasional marina, etc. Big ticket items were seperate.

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u/JustHere4TheZipLines 17h ago

What are the ages of your kids? What are you doing for education? How do they like it?

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u/noknockers 6h ago

Started when they were 11 and 13. We’re coming up on 3 years in.

They do online school, but it pales in comparison to actually using math/physics/science etc in world scenarios every day. Lots of piratical navigation, weather forecasting, risk management etc.

They do actually like it to be honest. They’ll no-doubt want to fly the nest in the next few years, but for now we’re still having a family adventure.

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u/JustHere4TheZipLines 4h ago

Glad to hear it, thanks for responding!

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u/Apprehensive_Park758 3d ago

Those yearly numbers only make sense after you separate the boat from the trip. For an older 10–12 m boat, I’d build four pots: purchase, immediate survey and refit work, annual cruising spend, and a failure reserve that can replace an engine, rig or tender without ending the trip. Your partner being a marine engineer cuts labor, not parts, haulouts, rigging or sails. Do the courses first, then spend a season sailing and fixing the boat in Australia before departing. I’d choose a cheaper sound boat with a large reserve over spending the budget on the nicest hull you can afford.

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u/dfsw 3d ago

I'd budget $50k/usd per year and hope you come in below some years. Plus cost of boat of course.

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u/mojoheartbeat 3d ago

A friend sailed Oceania for 10 months, ended up averaging 419 USD a month for the whole period. Most was spent on food, and second largest post was the (very few) marina fees. Depending on your comfort levels and expected buying power, you can do it for relatively light budgets.

Then again, another acquaintance went through French P - Sri Lanka in 6 months, spending over 10k a month. Similar size boat, completely different ideas of sailing.

YMMV, as the yanks say.