JC wrote:
My wife and I have never owned a boat.* Through some amount of research we have tentatively decided that we MIGHT like to own a trawler.* Any or all advice on this decision is welcome.
Charter one for a week.* With no experience a charter company may require you to take a skipper along, but you'll run the boat the whole time and get the experience of being on board for days in a row.
That's the best way to find out if you even like the experience.* Not the experience of being ON a boat--- if it's someone else's* boat there's no pressure on you so most people enjoy it and come away thinkng, "Boy, I'd like to do that more.* Maybe I shold buy a boat."* But the experience of being RESPONSIBLE for the boat, your safety, navigation, docking, etc. yourself.* Two different things entirely.* Some people who like going out on boats cannot deal with being totally responsible for every aspect of owning and using a boat themselves.
So you need to find out which kind of boater you are before you spend a dime on anything (other than a charter).* The kinds of boats most of us on this forum have are expensive in the overall scheme of things.* While the market is still depressed, we're talking a type of boat that can range from $30K for an old one that will take more work to make it usable and reliable than most people want to deal with to perhaps $1.5 milliion.* The majority of us on this forum have boats that are problaby in the $80K to $250K range.
Add to this the annual ownership costs---- moorage, insurance, electricity, fuel, service, maintenance, repairs, and upgrades--- and owning a boat like these is a fairly major committment for most people unless they have tons of disposable income.* If a person is forking out a large initial purchase price and then a pretty steep annual ownership cost and NOT getting that money's worth in terms of enjoyment, new adventures, a better relationship with one's boating partner, etc., it's money that might as well have been burned.
And getting a boat with the intention of making it all back when you sell it is an unrealistic dream.* Most of the time.* People will say, "Our boat is worth twice what it cost new." In terms of the dollar figure, probably true.* In 1998 paid well over twice what our GB36 cost new in 1973.* But that's not an increase in the value of the boat, it's a decrease in the value of the dollar.* In terms of actual value, our GB has lost value as does almost every boat with the exception of collector boats like vintage Hacker Craft, Gar Woods, Chris Crafts, etc.* Some boats lose value slower than others, and there is the occasional example of a boat that actually gains value.* But don't get into boating with the idea that it's an "investment."* It's not.
We bought our boat with the full expectation of never getting a single dime back on what we put into it, both in the purchase price and operating costs.* It's a hobby--- we put money in and get enjoyment and eperience back.* When we're done with the boat we'll probably take it out and sink it for a fish habitat or something.* We don't expect to see a penny of what we've paid for our boating experience come back to us in the form of money.
It's like flying.* Over the course of the last almost 40 years I've spent tens of thousands of dollars on flying. I never bothered to keep track of any of it and I could care less what the total is.* To fly a de Havilland Beaver on floats up and down the Inside Passage more times than we can remember with my wife and experience the things we experienced was worth whatever money we spent doing it.
In my opinion, you have to approach boating the same way.
*
-- Edited by Marin on Sunday 19th of September 2010 01:49:59 PM
. Have you boated with friends? Do you enjoy working with your hands?
