I live in France, and my parents (both teachers in highschool) bought one 10 years ago. It is an old one (built in the 1980s), lots of work to had to be done but they could afford it on a 10 years mortgage.
Harbour is about 4k/year, wich is definitely not nothing and lots of people can’t afford it, but they manage.
Idk how it is where you live, but from what I’ve seen, on most of Northern Europe coasts (France, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Sweden) it’s far from impossible to own a nice sailboat even when you’re not really rich.
Sailboats from the 80s-90s with some work to do would range from the 30-35k for 10-11 meters to 60-70k for up to 15 meters.
Of course, if you want to have the most recent one and if you can’t/don’t want to do most of the repairs yourself, it’s another story.
It may have something to do with our sailing culture from the 70s-80s, where lots of people actually built their sailboats to go and travel the world.
And just to be clear, I’m not saying it’s easy and everyone can do it. Lots of working class people can barely make ends meet, so owning a boat wouldn’t be possible. But in Europe, it’s not reserved for the super rich either.
Canadian here. big boats are cheap as hell, it’s the maintenance that gets you if you can’t do it yourself, and it’s not insubstantial either way. If youve a boat with some old marine GM motor, ain’t so bad, but a lot of people buy a cheap boat not realizing it’s a Detroit in there, 40,000 dollar rebuild.
I’m working as a power BI guy in Europe and my colleagues sail. They don’t own the boats, they rent them and go out for an afternoon. They’re planning to get together with some friends and rent a 15 meter boat for a week over the summer to sail around the islands in the adriatic. The prices don’t sound too outrageous, as long as you’re going with a group and sharing the expenses, and getting a boat that’s not exactly “new”.
you can live a decent life in europe as a working class person.
In what world do you live in where teachers and engineers are buying 15 meter open ocean rated sailboats?
That’s a big boat. Storage fees alone would be crippling for most people.
I live in France, and my parents (both teachers in highschool) bought one 10 years ago. It is an old one (built in the 1980s), lots of work to had to be done but they could afford it on a 10 years mortgage.
Harbour is about 4k/year, wich is definitely not nothing and lots of people can’t afford it, but they manage.
Idk how it is where you live, but from what I’ve seen, on most of Northern Europe coasts (France, Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Sweden) it’s far from impossible to own a nice sailboat even when you’re not really rich.
Sailboats from the 80s-90s with some work to do would range from the 30-35k for 10-11 meters to 60-70k for up to 15 meters. Of course, if you want to have the most recent one and if you can’t/don’t want to do most of the repairs yourself, it’s another story.
It may have something to do with our sailing culture from the 70s-80s, where lots of people actually built their sailboats to go and travel the world.
And just to be clear, I’m not saying it’s easy and everyone can do it. Lots of working class people can barely make ends meet, so owning a boat wouldn’t be possible. But in Europe, it’s not reserved for the super rich either.
Canadian here. big boats are cheap as hell, it’s the maintenance that gets you if you can’t do it yourself, and it’s not insubstantial either way. If youve a boat with some old marine GM motor, ain’t so bad, but a lot of people buy a cheap boat not realizing it’s a Detroit in there, 40,000 dollar rebuild.
BC comes to mind…oh wait. We’re doing that thing where posters unwittingly reveal they’re broke as fuck and 5 thousand is a huge amount of money.
I’m working as a power BI guy in Europe and my colleagues sail. They don’t own the boats, they rent them and go out for an afternoon. They’re planning to get together with some friends and rent a 15 meter boat for a week over the summer to sail around the islands in the adriatic. The prices don’t sound too outrageous, as long as you’re going with a group and sharing the expenses, and getting a boat that’s not exactly “new”.
you can live a decent life in europe as a working class person.