Purchases Beyond Boat Yard Work

In our last post, we covered our plan and budget vs reality for our boat yard work. In this post  we’re looking at the surprising number of items that we ended up buying that went well beyond the work that we had done at Just Catamarans. This includes parts, tools, unique gear, special clothing, etc. We’ll skip those items we consider “household” supplies as these would be essentially the same products we would use if we were living in an actual house ashore.

The boat spent the majority of time in 4 locations, so that’s where where we bought most of these items: Key Largo, Dania Beach next to Fort Lauderdale, Lake Worth Lagoon close to Palm Beach, and then sporadically throughout The Bahamas. Since we were in Florida before crossing, we had no trouble finding anything we needed or having it shipped through someone like Amazon. The flip-side of being in Florida was that we were constantly surrounded by the temptation to spend our money whether in bars, restaurants, malls or a places like West Marine.

Ah, West Marine…If you own a boat in the US, you likely have bought something from the “Home Depot of boating.” Like for most things, opinions will vary, but you can’t deny the lurking presence of the 800lb gorilla of boating supplies, especially in South Florida. Sign up for an account to get some money back based on what you spend. Even better, go with someone that has a professional account to save even more. We spent a lot of money in their stores, and ordered a few things online, the catalog for which is vast. Care should be taken though, as they do not ship things anywhere near as fast as Amazon, or even Walmart online.

Boat Owners Warehouse (which people like to ref to as The BOW), is another place where we bought a few items. They offer a lot of specialty fittings and other unique, hard to find items in Fort Lauderdale.

Sailorman is another popular store in Fort Lauderdale. They are a new and used store, and carry a large number of items under consignment. Based on when you take a look, you may find some great prices for a “previous loved” item.

Nance and Underwood is a well-established business for sails, rigging, lines, or anything else associated that you may need. They were subcontracted by a number of companies in the marina, which is how we became aware of them.

Seafarer Marine carries a very large stock of hardware and accessories, and we used them to source some of the unique latches and cabinet fittings on the boat.

Sun Power Diesel is a Yanmar and Northern Lights approved dealer and is located right in the same marina so we got all our spares and supplies there for our engines and generator.

Provided you have a mailing address to use, don’t be afraid to use Amazon. A lot people likely employ the same tactic as we did by looking for something in an actual store so you can see it, touch it, try it on, smell it, whatever you need and then compare the price online. Add to that their 2-day, 1-day and in some places same-day delivery through Amazon Prime, and you have fast access to most of what you’ll be looking for.

Otherwise, we shopped at pretty standard locations like Home Depot, Lowes, and even Napa, as well as Ross and Marshall’s for some long sleeve sun shirts.

Item Supplier Cost US$
Oil pads, funnels Napa Auto Parts               21.04
WiFi range extender, mouse, surge protector Office Depot             193.63
Oil pads Napa Auto Parts               21.29
Clip-on fan, screws Ace Hardware               20.42
Permatex blue thread lock Napa Auto Parts               29.56
Screws KLI Shell Hardware                 8.27
Toilet seat x3, toolset, batteries, etc Home Depot             163.00
Fenders x 4, deck brush, PFD, oil, dock lines West Marine             774.97
Twine, rope dip West Marine               29.54
Boat name letters Fast Signs               53.00
Computer mouse, bike pump, air needles Walmart               22.05
Passageway lock keys x5 Southport Hardware               22.87
Catches x4 Seafarer Marine               17.81
Deck wash adapter, dock lines, flags, PFD, Handheld VHF, mats, wire West Marine             774.68
shower hose Home Depot               24.37
Zap straps, pliers, flex hose Home Depot             119.05
Dingy patch kit Amazon               34.33
Flag pole West Marine               28.61
Hose adapter, VHF antenna West Marine               47.33
Lines, eye splice, whipping twine West Marine             147.76
Bell Automotive 12V air pump Advance Auto Parts               42.39
Oar, deck brush, clean pad, adhesive, dingy repair kit West Marine             210.55
Dingy lock & cables Amazon               69.32
3 X F7 Fenders Sailorman             318.00
Garmin InReach  Amazon             476.99
Dometic CFX 40W fridge/freezer with cover Amazon             681.00
Hex tool set, silica packs Amazon               21.00
Rope, lines, shackle spares, carbine Nance & Underwood         1,906.40
Filters, oil, gaskets, belts, o-rings Sun Power Diesel             443.10
Oil, coolant Sun Power Diesel               93.97
Portable bins, diesel can, moving blankets, magnetic pickup tool Harbor Freight Tools               83.52
Impeller – 5 spares Sun Power Diesel             262.19
Engine impeller puller assembly Sun Power Diesel               23.12
Florida Waterway Guide, The Exuma Guide Bluewater Books             111.19
Bin, nuts, sockets Home Depot               15.64
3M oil diapers Amazon               53.21
ACR EPIRB, bilge pump, caulk, fuses, water pump, wire West Marine         1,220.08
silicon, fuses, electrical tape Wards Marine Electric               26.69
Engine belt, anodes Sun Power Diesel               64.47
Outboard servicing Gil’s Outboard             583.85
2 X PFD with harness, caulk, gear hammock, cotter pins, cotter rings West Marine             500.67
Solar deck lights, motion sensor lights Lowes               70.56
Shackles fast release Florida Rigging             181.64
Plastic clips for securing dingy fuel line Rob’s Hardware Spanish Wells                 5.00
Hardware store  – solar lights, nylon straps, paint scrapers Top II Bottom               26.34
Explorer Charts – Exumas & Ragged Islands Sandpiper Arts & Crafts               68.00
Marine hardware store – dingy handhold line, thimble 3/4, screws Seafarer Marine Supply               41.56
Rope for anchor, splice, PFD cushion Seafarer Marine Supply             192.81
Explorer Chart – Near Bahamas Sandpiper Arts & Crafts               68.00
Chris Parker weather updates – 3 months Chris Parker               95.00
Jerry can 2 gal Spanish Wells Marine               17.53
Bolts for dinghy pad eye Spanish Wells Marine                 1.00
ice trays with cover x 3, notebooks, cord Walmart               29.80
Portable Hard drive Best Buy             128.38
Pens, spotlight, tape, flag, heatshrink, flextube, etc Amazon             378.58
Bic lighters Amazon               20.73
Butane torch & canisters Amazon               30.81
Batteries, PFD lights, felt tape Amazon               56.48
Laptop HP with 2yr insurance; Epson printer w/ ink Office Depot             984.26
Long sleeve shirts Ross               38.13
Long sleeve shirts Marshalls             121.85
Ram Suction iPad mount Amazon               66.26
Long sleeve shirts Ross               10.68
Long sleeve shirts TJ Maxx               29.93
Storage bins, Tupperware, boat toilet paper, wasp spray Walmart             298.89
Total       12,723.15

We were surprised at the extent of this list once it was all together.

While it may be a stretch to call long sleeve shirts “boat gear,” we’re including them as sun protection from the longer periods of time in the sun than compared to any land-based activity. Of interest, there is so much cover from the huge hardtop and helm cover, it was easy to stay in the shade most days.

There was some saving to be had if we had not bought things in the Bahamas. For example, the guide books were almost 50% more than if we bought them in Florida or through Amazon.

We included the ice trays we bought at Walmart as a boat item since they had covers to keep the water from spilling while underway.

We had too many generator cooling impellers with five. We planned to have enough to replace them every month based on the problems other people were having. but ours lasted 6 months and only needed to be replaced once we were back in Florida during our lighting strike repairs.

Our two biggest outlays of cash were to Westmarine and Nance & Underwood. Between those two companies we tried to buy one of each item that could likely fail, for which we did not already have a spare or could not steal one from elsewhere on the boat. For example, there are three heads on the boat so in theory any once piece could be “borrowed” until we got back to Florida. For the rigging, there are many of the same types of blocks, pulleys, lines, etc used in more than one place around the boat. They aren’t all going to fail at the same time so we got one of each size/length of line and each type of block/pulley in case something broke.

Something to keep in mind while you’re planning to or already out buying stuff, is that you’ll never be finished. There’s always one more thing to think of, or more more item you need at the store. Many books and blogs from people with much more experience than us talk about this. Just accept that you’ll always feel this way and accept it. You may only be 80% through your list, and that’s good enough. Get out there and compensate as you go since you can’t possibly think of everything, even if you checked everything off on your list.

A bit off topic, but related to this is a tendency of some folks to try and buy themselves safety/security with at the expense of necessary knowledge, or what you may call core skills. This is a very individual thing, but more important than a fancy toy is your knowledge/experience and therefore personal ability. An example would be (and I’m paraphrasing Fatty Goodlander here), it’s better to invest in knowledge associated with your ground tackle so you don’t drag, rather than buying a fancy anchor alarm that will alert you after you’re actually dragging. One of our favorite drills was Man Overboard (MOB) under sail. If you are heading offshore and you both can’t perform one of these, your new satellite phone won’t solve that problem. You need to practice.

If you recall from previous posts, for planning additional costs we like to use the rule of thumb of approximately 20% of purchase price. After the administrative costs and boatyard work added to this list, we are at around $78,500, which is approximately 17% of our original purchase price.

In the next post we’ll look at provisioning costs.

 

Plan and Budget vs Reality for Boat Yard Work
Provisioning Cost

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