WORKING TOGETHER
Kaj Maass and Malin Andersson / Bavaria 38 Ocean Cross Ocean
Outside the fantasy world of Youtube channels, it’s actually quite rare to see under-30s off cruising. Why? Because ‘living the dream’ involves such long-term planning and stringent savings that the plan often dissolves before it can be brought to fruition.
But it can be done, as proved by Swedish sailors Kaj Maass (28) and Malin Andersson (29).
“We’ve been sailing since we were kids with our families,” says Kaj. “Not racing sailors, but typical Swedish holiday sailors. Kaj, an engineer, and Malin, a pre-school teacher, met eight years ago when Kaj had a 20ft keelboat, They spent their last summer before university cruising and camping.
After university, they began saving hard and three years ago bought a Bavaria 38 Ocean. While still working, they moved on board.
Cross Ocean cost them €80,000. They chose the Bavaria 38 because they were looking for a boat with a centre cockpit. “We feel safer and we wanted an aft cabin and a good, sea-safe galley,” explains Kaj.
Extras and upgrades for long-distance cruising cost them another €30-40,000. They fitted a new engine, replaced the standing rigging, bought a Hydrovane and satellite communications. They dropped the rudder and the keel and reinforced the area around it. Of the total budget, around €10,000 was spent on safety equipment.
“We decided not to fit a watermaker or generator. I know how hard work it is to maintain that,” says Kaj. “We wanted to concentrate on the things that matter in the real world.”
SKIMPING AND SAVING
The couple stopped working last June and have taken an absence of leave from their jobs for one year – “but we have budgeted for being away for three years if we want to,” says Malin.
They don’t deny that skimping on all but the basics while working was hard. “Our contemporaries were spending a lot of money on weekend trips and we were putting it all in the boat. We didn’t go to any fancy nightclubs or restaurants. We decided to spend our money on living experiences and not buying things and I think it gives you more satisfaction,” says Kaj.
“We asked people what do we need per month and we saved enough for €2,000 per month for three years. Our budget has been stretched getting down here, with the cost of marinas. It has been around €2,500 per month.”
Their advice to other younger sailors planning to go before settling into a career and raising a family is: “Don’t dream too big. Set up a realistic plan. We saved around 80% of our income for two years. Our goal was to save €4,000 a month,” says Kaj.
Anyone thinking of doing the same should have realistic expectations of the ‘liberated’ life of the longterm cruiser. Kaj puts it perfectly when he says that cruising is “small problem solving all the time.”
“Living on board is like a job,” Malin agrees. “You need to plan more of your day: for example, doing the laundry. But we love living on board and we enjoy being close to nature – you can explore a lot of places.”
“The most important thing we have learned is the need to slow down. It’s work all the time – planning navigating, maintenance,” says Kaj. “But you can decide what you want to do. We share the responsibility and talk about our fears, and if we need help or we need a break for a while. We are quite organised and we are working together.”
‘We wanted to spend our money on living experiences and not buying things’