North to DownEast?

(Mid Coast actually)

So I love Maine. It's where I want to be. I'm not there. not likely to be anytime soon. I used to spend a week or two there every Sept.

When.. Assuming when ever happens in; the next 2 years

Questions;
Shop and buy my boat there? Or find one near here (mid Atlantic area)

Take her up the coast? (Not something I've the nerve to try yet.) Could probably find a friend to make the trip with me)

How long does it actually take with nightly stops? Only way I'd try

Let's Say Cape May to Kittery? .

Big question,
Can one live on/in the hook or slip on less then $3-400 a month in Maine? (30ft or less)

Cape May to Kittery doing 50-65 mile days:


Cape May to Barnegat
Barnegat to Statue of Liberty State Park
SoL to Branford, Ct
Branford to Point Judith, RI
PJ to Onset, Ma
Onset to Marblehead, Ma
Marblehead to Kittery


Add several days for weather, sightseeing and call it ten days.


$300/mo for a slip will be tough, but easy for a mooring.


David

Moorings are the norm in Maine David this I know. Thanks for the route waypoints!

Most slips are rented by the season. It might work out to $400/month in some places. Others, it'll be twice that.

I can't picture living aboard on a mooring. I don't think I've seen that in my travels in Maine, but I'm sure someone's doing it somewhere. Doesn't seem worth the effort, frankly. You'll be moving all the time for pump-outs and filling up on water anyway. Even with a good solar system, you'll be spending a lot of time managing your energy budget. And then there's heat and air conditioning. Most would find that a rough life.

On the other hand, cruising the coast of Maine in season, stopping at marinas once in a while and anchoring out in between, is very doable, and well within that budget.

Yes as much as I love Maine,
I don't know that I could live there. because of cost !

DeniseO30 said:

Yes as much as I love Maine,
I don't know that I could live there. because of cost !

Click to expand...

I think I'd rank winter -- and related issues -- as more difficult to solve than cost. Heat, winter water (including hot water), winter pump-outs... and even in a slip, icy docks and midnite trips to the bog wouldn't be high on my list of fun things to deal with on a daily basis.

OTOH, boats can move, unlike dirt dwellings... so maybe Maine in summer, somewhere warmer in winter?

-Chris

Yep, enter the term snow bird

I keep my boat at a marina on Mount Desert Island. A seasonal slip here is $115 a foot with a 30' minimum. That covers the period from May 1 through the end of October - 6 months. So a 30' boat would cost $575 a month. If you want shore power that adds $7.50 a day, which brings the monthly total to $802.50 for a 30 footer. The same space in the winter is $150/mo but shore power, water and on-shore restrooms are not available. Almost all recreational boats are hauled out for the winter here. I have heard of people living aboard in the winter in Belfast and Portland, but it wasn't easy.

T, Mt D is not one of my fav places thankfully. But it's not much cheaper anywhere in maine. Stonington, Camden and Belfast were my haunts

CaptTom said:

Most slips are rented by the season. It might work out to $400/month in some places. Others, it'll be twice that.

I can't picture living aboard on a mooring. I don't think I've seen that in my travels in Maine, but I'm sure someone's doing it somewhere. Doesn't seem worth the effort, frankly. You'll be moving all the time for pump-outs and filling up on water anyway. Even with a good solar system, you'll be spending a lot of time managing your energy budget. And then there's heat and air conditioning. Most would find that a rough life.

On the other hand, cruising the coast of Maine in season, stopping at marinas once in a while and anchoring out in between, is very doable, and well within that budget.

Click to expand...

I know several people that live aboard for the summer on moorings. You do need to be self-sufficient for power. A couple of hundred watts of solar panels will handle that for a small boat. You do not need air conditioning. A diesel fired heating system would be nice for foggy days and the ends of the season. Water will be an issue, but that normally just means a trip to the town dock (by dinghy if you don't mind gerry canning your water. Pump outs can be an issue in many places, but most people I know just go outside the three mile limit and pump overboard. The biggest problems will be parking if you have a car and finding a spot for your dinghy when you are ashore, but you can usually make a deal with a boat yard for parking and buy a dinghy permit for the local town dock ($20 to $250 for the season depending on location).

Cruising from place to place and anchoring out is cheap. Nightly mooring rental runs from about $25 to $50 and marina space costs $2.75 to $4.25 per foot per night with power generally running $15 extra. So a stop at a marina with shore power for a 30' boat will run you at least $100 per night. To stay under $400 per month you would have to limit yourself to no more than 12 nights on moorings in cheap places and one marina night a month. That means anchoring out at least 17-18 nights a month.

Mooring costs run $1,200-$1,500 for a seasonal mooring ($200-$250 per month for the 6 month season.)

DeniseO30 said:

T, Mt D is not one of my fav places thankfully. But it's not much cheaper anywhere in maine. Stonington, Camden and Belfast were my haunts

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Denise your options are pretty limited in Camden, Belfast and Stonington. Marina space in Camden is available at Lyman-Morse Wayfarer. They don't give anything but a nightly rate of $4.25/ft plus $15 per night for power. Marina space there is "limited" The only rental dock space in Stonington is at Billings Marine. They don't give prices on their web site or mention seasonal slips. I would guess they would be at least $100 per foot for the season. Billings is a working boat yard and is pretty noisy early in the morning. In Belfast your options are the town dock at $2 per foot per night (no power) or the Front Street Shipyard where a seasonal slip will cost $100/ft for 29' or less and $120/ft for 30-39', plus $10 per day for 30 amp power. In Rockland there are slips available at Rockland Landings Marina for $2,275-$2,675 for June through September. Those rates include power. Other than that and Mount Desert Island (Dysarts in Southwest Harbor - mentioned in my earlier post) you are going to have to go down to Boothbay or Robinhood to find dock space.

I have the pdf for the town of Camden's mooring and dockage fees. (resident and non) much cheaper.
http://www.camdenmaine.gov/vertical/sites/%7B12179FA6-CABE-432E-868D-862BE81D9F03%7D/uploads/2016_Fees_Recommended_by_Harbor_Committee.pdf


but I'd assume the list gets full even before spring. if there is a waiting list

My Oday was set up for living on the hook, Sold the dink with it. But weeks on the hook is not the same as months.

"Wanting is not the same as having"

That is why so few people really love maine.. the powers that be made it so costly that only deep pocket tourists can afford it.

Even a cabin rental in the woods goes for big bucks!


But now I'm ranting and that's wrong Sorrrreee

From what I know of Camden the waiting lists for dock space or moorings are years long. Also I think most of the space there is floats that you need a dinghy to access.

Marina space in Maine is very expensive, but that is largely due to the short season. The "powers that be" have nothing to do with that. If you are going to make it running a marina that is open 4-5 months a year you have to charge a lot.

Owning your own mooring is pretty cheap. I pay $260 per year in fees to keep my mooring. That includes the town fee and $120 to have the mooring winterized and then set up in the Spring by a mooring service company. On top of that I pay an average of about $200-$250 per year for replacing chain, pennants, etc.

The prices above are pretty close, although I think you can cut the daily slip rental down quite a bit if you stay out of the touristy places and go for the fringes of the big bays. Obviously, there are reasons some places are more popular than others, and you pay in other ways when you're trying to live in more isolated locations.

As for what it costs to run a marina, I know quite a bit about our own marina's finances in Southern Maine. Nobody is getting rich, believe me. The truly successful ones either run multiple other businesses (restaurants, repair yards, brokerages, etc.) out of the same facility, or have multiple locations.

Travelling through Maritime Canada, I'm seeing a lot of marinas. Most here were originally created by the federal government, and a lot of the overhead has historically been covered by them. There seems to be a transition going on to push more of the costs to the provinces and municipalities, and to turn the old fishing ports into recreational marinas, with some mix of public and private management and expenditures. It'll be interesting to see which models end up succeeding.

We could do a whole new thread on the finances of running a marina. It's an interesting subject.

On the question of where to buy, my boat was built in Maine and I had her trucked to Florida where I put the finishing touches on her.

I've always regretted that. My suggestion is buy the boat now and take her north on her own bottom.

CaptTom said:

The prices above are pretty close, although I think you can cut the daily slip rental down quite a bit if you stay out of the touristy places and go for the fringes of the big bays. Obviously, there are reasons some places are more popular than others, and you pay in other ways when you're trying to live in more isolated locations.

As for what it costs to run a marina, I know quite a bit about our own marina's finances in Southern Maine. Nobody is getting rich, believe me. The truly successful ones either run multiple other businesses (restaurants, repair yards, brokerages, etc.) out of the same facility, or have multiple locations.

Travelling through Maritime Canada, I'm seeing a lot of marinas. Most here were originally created by the federal government, and a lot of the overhead has historically been covered by them. There seems to be a transition going on to push more of the costs to the provinces and municipalities, and to turn the old fishing ports into recreational marinas, with some mix of public and private management and expenditures. It'll be interesting to see which models end up succeeding.

We could do a whole new thread on the finances of running a marina. It's an interesting subject.

Click to expand...

The thing is that from Penobscot Bay east there are no slips for rent other than what has been mentioned and Northeast Harbor (very expensive for seasonal space - $2,500 a month for a 30 footer plus $225 for power). There are a few nightly slips in Bar Harbor, but they are EXPENSIVE. Farther east there are no slip rentals. When you go to an out of the way spot, you will likely not even find moorings for rent.

Denise:

You might also want to check out Buck's Harbor. The marina there has moorings but no slips. You can rent a mooring on a transient basis and get their services included or, if you have your own mooring, you can become a "member" for an annual fee. Last time I checked the annual fee was well under $1k.

Buck's Harbor Marine Yacht Charters and Marina - Buck's Harbor MarineBuck's Harbor MarineMaine Yacht Charters | Sail and Power Boat Cruising Charters | Daily, Weekly, Seasonal Yacht Cruising Charters | Down East Maine, Portland, Rockland, Camden, Bel

And the last time I talked with the Harbormaster (Sarah Cox) she indicated there were private moorings available for purchase or space to plunk a mooring with permit from her.

Thank you every one! It has been mo$t enlightening I know how to handle being on a mooring and should I ever find a way there, clearly it is the only option.

Can I assume marina services like short haul winter storage are also very high cost?

Winter storage is quite variable in cost. I store my 33' boat at a yard that is inland a few hundred yards. They haul/launch the boat with a hydraulic trailer. My annual cost including haul/launch, pressure wash after haulout and inside cold storage runs about $2,500. In contrast my 36' sailboat which is stored outside costs about $2,100 a year. The cost of the sailboat reflects the cost of unstepping/stepping the masts. If it was power, outside storage would run about $1,500. Note that I do all my own winterizing on both boats and also cover and uncover the sailboat.

Storage at a yard on the water is quite a bit higher. Locally inside cold storage runs about $100/ft, but that includes haul/launch and pressure launching. That sort of yard normally doesn't allow owner work on the boat so you would be looking at around a minimum of $1,000 for winterizing/commissioning depending on what you had done. Outside storage runs about $60/ft plus winterizing/commissioning and covering.

The farther south you go the more it costs for winter storage.

"I can't picture living aboard on a mooring. I don't think I've seen that in my travels in Maine, but I'm sure someone's doing it somewhere. Doesn't seem worth the effort, frankly. You'll be moving all the time for pump-outs and filling up on water anyway. Even with a good solar system, you'll be spending a lot of time managing your energy budget. And then there's heat and air conditioning. Most would find that a rough life."

I do this easily, It mostly depends on how the boat is outfitted.

Air cond in Maine would require a noisemaler as it would in the FL Keys , but the rest is simply a matter of choice.With 55F water temps air cond is not a major factor. Heat IS!

2 examples.

My 90/90 MS has oil fired central heat , gravity fed (Dickinson) no electric required, and with a eutetic reefer system in a custom box the engine is required to operate every 4th day , we use 3 days between runs and no problems.

Water is 200G , which for ex sailors is heaven.

The 50ft Lobster boat also has an oil fired range , a single 85W solar panel and a RV propane reefer, fed a new bottle once a month.120G of FW.

No problems with endurance on the hook or on a mooring , its all simply a matter of outfitting.

It's hard to even wrap my mind around some of the costs quoted here for Maine and I guess most of the NE coast.

My membership, on the hard storage, Mooring (we build our own), and insurance with Boat US for my 30 ft boat was under $1000 a year.

I'm only getting older in years LOL