‘Bust out another thousand’: They dumped their NYC abode for a 38-foot sailboat — 2 expenses nobody warned them about ate the savings they expected

They also figured leaving New York City rent behind would stretch their money. For context, the median Manhattan renter paid $2,212 a month in gross rent in 2024, as New York City’s Rent Guidelines Board reports. Instead, Miller and Guy found two costs that kept surfacing: repairs and marina fees.

About a year in, burned out, they left the boat in the Bahamas, visited family and friends and eventually sailed the boat back toward New York City instead of the Pacific.

Ongoing repairs becoming the norm

Miller lists a $1,000 alternator, then a plumbing breakdown that decommissioned the toilet. The couple tinkered with it themselves for two months before calling in a pro. When the autopilot died, a replacement costing around $3,000 was out of reach, so someone had to be at the wheel the whole time they were underway — a headache for two people working remotely.

The couple isn’t alone — boaters have been reporting similar sentiments for years.

In a 2013 article, sailor and author Jimmy Cornell reported on a survey of cruisers on 57 boats. Thirty-one said spending matched expectations. Of the rest, Cornell wrote in Cruising World, “When actual costs exceeded expectations, the root was repair and maintenance.”

And as Darrell Nicholson, who tallied the costs of his own four-year circumnavigation in a Practical Sailor account, put it: “The single biggest time and money consumer on a world cruise is maintenance.”

More recently, Yachting World asked a range of experienced bluewater cruisers about their budgets and reported in October 2024 that “most cruisers are spending between 20% to 40% of their average monthly expenditure on boat maintenance and running costs.”

Marina expenses add up fast

Fuel costs and dock fees came on top, Miller says, with a night at a marina sometimes topping $100. This varies by location. Take the Santa Cruz Port District in California, which prices dockage by the foot. It bills recreational visitors $1.50 to $1.75 per foot per night, which works out to $60 for a 40-foot boat.