How often do you use your boat

Our marina is like most others - lots of boats that never move, never get touched (and some are relatively new). Then a few people who are on the boats a lot, but seldom leave the slip. Then there is us and a few friends who are on our boats every week, anchored just about every weekend/holiday, and take several longer trips each year. We run our boat from March 1 to Dec 31, but even when winterized from Jan to Feb we spend at least a few nights on board (just can't leave the slip). Average 100-150 engine hours per year. Would put on more but some of our favorite weekend anchorages are less than an hour away from the marina.

Twelve predicted log contests a year, four raft-ups a year and an annual 200 mile round trip to Catalina, plus overnighters at marinas in the harbor (San Diego.)

kelbylinn said:

We live and work about a mile from the boat. Being on dauphin island, AL we have a long season. We usually head for the boat nightly for a couple of beers and go out at least every other weekend for an overnight stay. In the winter we head south and made it to Key West last year and were liveaboards for four months or so. Still need that diver though to keep the stuff off the bottom.

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Kelbylinn....this is what we hope to do ..would ;;ove to bend your ear sometime to get some advice...

ancora said:

Twelve predicted log contests a year, four raft-ups a year and an annual 200 mile round trip to Catalina, plus overnighters at marinas in the harbor (San Diego.)

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Not to mention that you slip your boat on the best harbor in the country!

We measure our boat use two ways. First, I go at least weekly all year. Often we stay the night as it is located 60 km from home. March-May I'm on her 3-4 days a week doing projects. Then we go away for an extended trip. This year we targeted 3 months at sea, but for several reasons our trip lasted 10 weeks. We expect to be out another 2-3 weeks on her before the winter and hope to do some winter cruising as well.

We told ourselves, our purpose was to see British Columbia. Because of the financial commitment in the original purchase, we agreed we would spend at least 2 months away every year and have pretty much followed through with that goal.


Jim
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We use ours on average 280 days a year. Of those, about half we don't move as we're at a marina for the entire day, so days of movement about 140-150. Some years more and some less. Total hours per year range from 800 to 1200 with just under 1000 being our norm.

There are far more users who use theirs under 100 hours than over.

Dry storage facilities generally have detailed records of usage as it describes how many launches and retrievals they must do. They depend on lack of use to make a profit. In talking to the owner of one dry storage facility on a lake, he averaged 12 days of use per year per boat. That included some that never were used and the highest I believe was around 80 days. Now, those numbers are a bit distorted as many of the higher usage people preferred wet storage.

Codger2 said:

Not to mention that you slip your boat on the best harbor in the country!

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Agreed. Ok... one of the best... and definitely the best, consistent weather!

We see the same thing in San Diego. Lots of boats don't move. We were club sailors for years before buying our boat. But we fully knew the realities of our life. Demanding jobs , 2 young kids , 2.25 hour drive , etc. Plus, unlike the east coast, there aren't a lot of places "to go" on the west coast. But, we do have a huge bay with great weather 300 and something days a year.

However, for us the boat was both a recreational tool... ie getting out on the water, and equally (or even more so) a water front condo for us to escape the heat and enjoy all that San Diego offers us and the kids. We only get down there every 2 to 3 weeks, but those are usually 3 nights and sometimes more. The boat is out running for a couple hours - usually at least one day during those trips It's expensive. But so far, money well spent.

We spend 40-50 days per year cruising on our boat, all of it between May and September, hauling it out for the cold months. I have also spent lots of time working on her in the boat yard, which I generally enjoy.
I justify the operating and maintenance expense by comparing that cost with the cost of a foregone tropical vacation.

Ddog said:

I justify the operating and maintenance expense by comparing that cost with the cost of a foregone tropical vacation.

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I don't ever in any way attempt to justify the operating and maintenance nor the purchase cost as I know that's a losing battle. I boat because I enjoy it more than the alternatives. Only one part of the world we really want badly to visit that we can't get to by water. Actually can get there by water but distance may prevent us from going that route. That's Australia and New Zealand and the other Pacific Islands.

Oh one thing I've done that you can always do if it makes you feel better. Compare your costs to those if you owned some boat many times the size. For instance, "we don't spend nearly as much boating as if we owned a 256' Lurssen, yacht name "TV", which charters for $982,000 per week. Oh and it requires a crew of 25.

BandB said:

Oh one thing I've done that you can always do if it makes you feel better. Compare your costs to those if you owned some boat many times the size. For instance, "we don't spend nearly as much boating as if we owned a 256' Lurssen, yacht name "TV", which charters for $982,000 per week. Oh and it requires a crew of 25.

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I feel positively responsible, now!

BandB said:

For instance, "we don't spend nearly as much boating as if we owned a 256' Lurssen, yacht name "TV", which charters for $982,000 per week. Oh and it requires a crew of 25.

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Why rent when you can own for €130,000,000?

CPseudonym said:

Why rent when you can own for €130,000,000?

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Just thinking of how many boats we could have for $150 million.

BandB said:

Just thinking of how many boats we could have for $150 million.

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Well, at least one anyway

BandB said:

Only one part of the world we really want badly to visit that we can't get to by water. Actually can get there by water but distance may prevent us from going that route. That's Australia and New Zealand and the other Pacific Islands.

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A poor substitute for a leisurely "pick your own destinations/stay as long as you like" DIY voyage, but you could cover much of that on a cruise ship repositioning voyage. Cruise ships head to Australia in September, often from Seattle or Vancouver after cruising to Alaska, to cruise our summer.
We are considering visiting Canada next year (their $ has tanked as much as ours), and including an Inside Passage cruise in the trip.

gaston said:

50+ boats on the marina ranging from $1.8m to $30000 some have never moved in 3 years some are polished every month and never taken out .Most are used as somewhere to spend the afternoon on with friends but never go out . Of the 50+boats I see 8 are used as floating weekender's .Is the marina I'm on any different to where you live ? I'm out and about and away from the marina at least once a week am I strange ?

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We are somewhere in the middle. When we bought our first boat we said that if we didn't average taking the boat out twice a month, then we'd stop being boat owners. We have always easily taken the boat out 24 times a year ever since. We leave the dock more in the spring and summer, and less in the fall and winter.

However, we do quite a bit of dock-queen trips too. We treat our boat as a second home or a vacation home. So just going down to the boat for an evening or an overnight has now become a common usage, and we have decided that counts as a day...

There aren't many opportunities for oceanfront property in our area for $500/mo or so, and that's how we justify the expense.

YMMV of course.

BruceK said:

A poor substitute for a leisurely "pick your own destinations/stay as long as you like" DIY voyage, but you could cover much of that on a cruise ship repositioning voyage. Cruise ships head to Australia in September, often from Seattle or Vancouver after cruising to Alaska, to cruise our summer.
We are considering visiting Canada next year (their $ has tanked as much as ours), and including an Inside Passage cruise in the trip.

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We're not cruise ship fans. If we go there by air...oh that dreaded word...then our plan would be to charter there. While we want to see the land attractions, we want to see and experience them from the water.

There is one other option. Ship a boat there and keep it there a year or so.

mattkab said:

However, we do quite a bit of dock-queen trips too. We treat our boat as a second home or a vacation home. So just going down to the boat for an evening or an overnight has now become a common usage, and we have decided that counts as a day...

There aren't many opportunities for oceanfront property in our area for $500/mo or so, and that's how we justify the expense.

YMMV of course.

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I believe that completely counts as using the boat.