Vagabond Sailing brings vagabonding to the high seas

What do you get when combine CouchSurfing with sailboats? Vagabond Sailing, of course. Vagabond Sailing (a name inspired by Rolf’s Vagabonding) aims to be a way for vagabonds and travelers of all stripes to connect for a group travel experience on the high seas.

Sailing might not be the first thing that pops in your head when you think of budget travel, but Vagabond Sailing is hoping to change that. By providing a website where travelers can pool money, organize trips, rent boats and hire knowledgeable crews (with licensed captains), Vagabond Sailing is hoping to entice more budget travelers to leave the land behind.

Vagabond Sailing is the brain child of Robert Patrick and veteran sailor Marco Grasso. The two first met when Robert used CouchSurfing to find a place to stay in Italy. One of Robert’s couchsurfing hosts was Marco’s girlfriend at the time, and Marco and Robert met through her and became friends.

Eventually Robert returned to Rome for an extended stay and ended up spending some time sailing the Italian coastline with Marco and his father. Those trips, and the sense that they should available to anyone, inspired Robert and Marco to create Vagabond Sailing — a way for anyone to get out on a boat and enjoy the open seas, no sailing experience required.

The problem is there aren’t many ways to do that. Joining a yacht club is complicated and expensive. Toss in boat rental fees and the logistical hassles of coordinating a group of people, planning a route, reserving moorings, etc and it isn’t hard to see why most vagabonds stick to the shore.

As Robert recently put it in an e-mail, “the problem with sailing is that there is a somewhat high entry barrier, so a typical student really can’t afford to just take up sailing so easily.”

Like its land-loving inspiration, CouchSurfing, the Vagabond Sailing website aims to smooth the logistical aspects of trip planning; offering a place for travelers to post trips, hash out routes, plan meals and things to do at sea, as well as share post-trip photos and form a community of sailing travelers.

To help mitigate the normally high costs of sailing, Vagabond Sailing is trying to create a community that can pool resources. And Vagabond Sailing does offer some very affordable trips — as low as 250 Euro for a seven day trip.

That price doesn’t include costs like food, fuel, or port fees, but that’s because those costs can be so variable. For example, if you sleep in a bay every night then port fees can be avoided. If you fish and eat your catch every night, then it will be much less expensive than if you decide to dock every night, go out partying, and eat in fancy restaurants the whole time.

In short, the day-to-day costs of sailing will be roughly the same as those of traditional travel. Go with the cheapest option — sleeping at anchor, eating cheap, and finding your entertainment on board — and the costs aren’t much more than a typical European travel budget: about 35 euro a day.

That may sound a little expensive, but, having been fortunate enough to be raised by sailing parents, I can assure you a little splurge to get yourself sailing around the Mediterranean coastline will be an experience well worth the temporary dent in your travel budget.

That said, even with the group buying power of Vagabond Sailing, sailing won’t be in everyone’s budget. Still, if you’re interested, or just curious what sailing is like, head over to the website and check out the list of trips currently available. Also see the promo video below that Robert and Marco recently put together.

Be sure to read through the FAQ for more details on how Vagabond Sailing works (you can reserve a spot on a trip today for just 50 euro) and create a profile so you can join the discussion about upcoming trips.

Also, on the outside chance that you’ve got a boat and are looking for people to sail with, Vagabond Sailing is always looking to sign up more skippers.

[Photo credit: katiew, Flickr]