How much is that kitty in the window

Always the first thought, albeit not the first voiced, in anyone’s mind when I tell them I’m planning to go sailing to Tahiti on a catamaran is, “Where the hell did this idiot get the money??” Well, make no mistake, I am an idiot. My brothers got the brains, all I have is balls. Got your attention yet? Good. I can say balls, it’s my blog.

SO… Money. It’s always about money. Before I go on a two paragraph diatribe against the menacing greenback I have to say, I worked my butt off for that money. I will say this though, you can manifest anything you want in your life, you just need know how. I recommend starting with the Law of Attraction by Esther Hicks.

And, here’s how I did it …

First of all, I’m a mechanic. Pretty much a glorified car mechanic. I’ve been a tinkerer all my life, and I enjoy working with my hands and figuring out how things work. I managed to parlay those skills into a 17 year career fixing broken crap. Yep. That’s it. I fix things. I’m pretty good at it now, but when I started I had no idea what I was doing. It was fake it till you make it. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s second rule of success is: Break some Rules. Well… that includes s t r e t c h i n g the truth on your resume’. Guilty. I had no idea how to do some of the jobs I’ve landed in my life. No. Clue. But I knew I’d learn as I went.

So I’m a mechanic. I make roughly $20/hr ($33 by the time I actually quit my job). I lived on my sailboats. For 4 years I paid no rent, only slip fees, and I whole-heartedly recommend everyone do that for at least 6 months of their life. It puts into perspective what really matters, especially materialistically.

I flipped cars and motorcycles, because I know how to fix them. I fixed up my boats and made a bit of profit on them (though it wasn’t really profit, as I spent money to upgrade them). I did side jobs on the weekends, sometimes working 16 hours on Saturday to put a little money in the boat fund. I busted my ass and saved. A huge chunk of it was from overtime. $33/h X 1.5 X 10hr/wk X 3/yrs… you do the math.

So I saved a bunch of cash, and got an education about boats along the way. I had a boat burn down, spent a year refitting a 44′ monster monohull, spent a year living in the quarter birth of a Catalina 27′, and learned to sail my engineless Islander in and out of the slip…. but that’s quite a few more posts. 🙂

The boat cost me $65k. Two months of refit with upgrades including:

  • Hard top
  • Solar controller/panels
  • New tri-color light
  • Windlass/Anchor/Swivel
  • Lewmar 50ST winches
  • VHF
  • Delorme
  • EPIRB
  • IPAD for Navigation
  • Engine spares
  • New exhaust elbows/hoses
  • Auto bildge switches
  • LED lights
  • Cockpit cushions
  • Windex
  • Paint nonskid
  • Rebuild heads
  • Repaired deck as needed
  • 12v chargers for everything
  • Speargun/fishing rod holders
  • Third reef point in Mainsail

= Just over $12k.

Those refit costs are for me doing everything myself. The only thing I paid for was a fiberglass expert to come lay up the glass on the hard top, as I had never done anything that big before and it was very expensive material. Everything else I handled myself.

Till next time, fair wind and following seas!