Why are you selling your boat?

There are lots of posits in various threads about people planning to sell their boats in the next year or two; it sort of makes me sad.

Every sale has its own reasons that are specific but are there some generalities?

Getting older so cruising no longer enjoyable or safe? (Starting at what age?)

Competing interests?

Financial? Declining use?

Upsizing ? Downsizing?

Maintenance?

It seems most of the posts fall in to the first category of having done it for 5 to 10 plus years and moving on?

Mostly competing interests for me...currently have a slow boat. Either need to travel faster by boat (not sure Ican afford the fuel) or use my motorhome more.

Maintaining the larger, older liveaboard when it's not being used all year round doesn't make as much sense anymore.

The sad part is that every day it keeps getting closer to the way I wanted it years ago...but now priorities have changed.

Gonna still have some kind of boat(s).... just not a liveaboard which I now have done 3 times for over 16 years.

Everyone ages out at different times. While I know one gentleman who is 98 and still boating the average age for aging out is 84.

I will probably be in the competing interest class. I've been doing this since the 60's. It used to take me 2 hours of boat time to get to a world of plentiful oysters, crab, salmon, clams and shrimp. Now it takes me 6 hours and there is a limit and I need a different license for each. I can actually catch more seafood with my American Express card in town than I can on a 2 week boating trip. It just might be time for me to move to a 5 star resort in Central America and leaving the boating to the next generation.

tiltrider1 said:

Everyone ages out at different times. While I know one gentleman who is 98 and still boating the average age for aging out is 84.

I will probably be in the competing interest class. I've been doing this since the 60's. It used to take me 2 hours of boat time to get to a world of plentiful oysters, crab, salmon, clams and shrimp. Now it takes me 6 hours and there is a limit and I need a different license for each. I can actually catch more seafood with my American Express card in town than I can on a 2 week boating trip. It just might be time for me to move to a 5 star resort in Central America and leaving the boating to the next generation.

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Where were you getting seafood then - 2 hours away - and now?

We had to sell ours just before my 75th birthday. Being the cheerful owner of stage 4 metatastic prostate cancer my balance is no longer capable of me being safely on deck.

70 years of fun boating came to an end.

tiltrider1 said:

Everyone ages out at different times. While I know one gentleman who is 98 and still boating the average age for aging out is 84.

I will probably be in the competing interest class. I've been doing this since the 60's. It used to take me 2 hours of boat time to get to a world of plentiful oysters, crab, salmon, clams and shrimp. Now it takes me 6 hours and there is a limit and I need a different license for each. I can actually catch more seafood with my American Express card in town than I can on a 2 week boating trip. It just might be time for me to move to a 5 star resort in Central America and leaving the boating to the next generation.

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You reminded me of the 70's & 80's when seafood was that plentiful all it took was knowing how to land it. I had a routine, drop the crab pot with last weeks salmon head go fishing for a few hours to limit out for the day, go ashore and get clams and/or oysters, pick up the crab pot usually with the limit for the day and decide what to cook for dinner with a drink in hand. Ah, those were the days. I would come home after a weekend and offer fish to friends and family.
Now I am like you, it is cheaper to go to the store.
To fish for it now requires dumb luck and all day while something is left out thawing for dinner.

ETA: to stay on topic, not selling the boat.

bowball said:

Where were you getting seafood then - 2 hours away - and now?

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In he 70’s we could crab and fish all over just about all of the time everywhere. A quick run to Bainbridge Island would get us clams. Hood Canal would get us shrimp and oysters. You can still do some of it now but the restrictions usually mean you won’t be able to do it on a nice day.

My wife is retiring in 2.5 years. She's not a boater, so we'll be land cruising. Don't want to sell, but don't want to do the maintenance if I'm not cruising. I should have about 40,000 miles on my boat by that point and seen much of what I wanted to.

Realistically, I'm probably down sizing to a weekend cruising boat that can live in a boatel while I'm land cruising during the summer.

Ted

Boy this is a potentially very depressing thread.

I usually sell the boat when I get everything done to it that I want to do.

Because

We bought this 72' trawler because my old mother want come on board with us...and finally after 3 hour on board she said : "when I will come back to my flat ? "






We sold our "long-cours.62" who was perfect for the use we do, able to go everywhere, small draft (air and water ), very low consumption, able to stand up alone, if finally we can sale our actual I want built a near similar to the Long-cours ...but my wife pretends : "we are too old to built a boat again" and unfortunately not rich to order one


The actual is a perfect trawler but too big for two, the former was a perfect "passe-partout"

kthoennes said:

Boy this is a potentially very depressing thread.

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Can be, but really...its like life in general. If a serious boater who fulfilled most of your dreams on the water....you know its time, it's inevitable, and you move along with happiness, pride and no regrets. Like Ted and I posted...chances are a boat will be with us again...even if its the 12 foot aluminum skiff I can put on my Ranger that I tow behind the motorhome.

I have seen much of the western hemispheres oceans, now I want to explore some inland lakes and rivers and rekindle my Alaskan salmon fishing pleasures.

Life is still good.

psneeld said:

Can be, but really...its like life in general. If a serious boater who fulfilled most of your dreams on the water....you know its time, it's inevitable, and you move along with happiness, pride and no regrets. Like Ted and I posted...chances are a boat will be with us again...even if its the 12 foot aluminum skiff I can put on my Ranger that I tow behind the motorhome.

I have seen much of the western hemispheres oceans, now I want to explore some inland lakes and rivers and rekindle my Alaskan salmon fishing pleasures.

Life is still good.

Click to expand...

I concur. We are moving forward slowly selling our Mainship which BTW is the 2d boat we have owned since our "this is our last boat" declaration. I was diving yesterday (44 years of diving) and came up and told my wife I'm cold. Realized that age and time sometimes conspire to make a hobby not quite as fun as it used to be but I wouldn't do it differently. Boating is in that category. We have had some great times on this "last boat" even if it turns out this really is the last one. Life is good and we enjoy it.


Don

Greetings,
Mr. b. We're going to be downsizing because our boating interests have evolved over the last 18+ years or so.

Similar to a young family having an SUV or van for the family and after the kids leave the nest, trading it in for a sedan.

psneeld said:

Can be, but really...its like life in general. If a serious boater who fulfilled most of your dreams on the water....you know its time, it's inevitable, and you move along with happiness, pride and no regrets. Like Ted and I posted...chances are a boat will be with us again...even if its the 12 foot aluminum skiff I can put on my Ranger that I tow behind the motorhome.

I have seen much of the western hemispheres oceans, now I want to explore some inland lakes and rivers and rekindle my Alaskan salmon fishing pleasures.

Life is still good.

Click to expand...

This. Plus I was starting to "lose" the boat meaning the projects were starting to mount up and I wanted to sell while the boat was still prime.
Now we have a travel trailer and were doing the land travel thing.

It's a smart man that realizes it is time to move on. Too often you see a boat, RV, plane, whatever that is slowly dying from neglect because someone tried to hang on too long. Saw a Class B a few days ago like that. Guy inherited it from his dad and thought it was great. However a bad roof leak had rendered it in bad shape. Don't want that kind of project.
We were never able to realize our dream of having a trawler but did have large motorhomes and saw much of our country and have no regrets. Recently bought a cabin in Colorado so looking for a B to travel back and forth and short trips.

We fell into the category of competing interests. Owned a 34' cruiser (weekender) for years, and dearly loved it. At some point we began traveling extensively out of the country, work became more intense, bought an ocean-front place in FL, and we got more involved in our kids' activities. Finally realized we were not using the boat nearly as often as we should, so made the hard decision to sell.
We've missed it ever since then, and fast-forward ten years, circumstances have changed significantly. We are retired and find ourselves in search of a trawler. Hope to do some significant cruising while we have our health, time & resources.

kthoennes said:

Boy this is a potentially very depressing thread.

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I was thinking the same thing by the time I got to your post (#9).

Then it occurred to me that there is a lot of potentially positive results from reading this thread, too. Number one being: ENJOY IT WHILE YOU CAN!

And another thing is, although it’s sad on the surface to read that circumstances, age and/or health has dictated that someone sell their boat, there are all the great memories people have made on the water. My family is still making them, and threads like this remind me TO ENJOY IT WHILE I CAN!

(Sorry, didn’t mean to yell that again… ?)

We’re too much away from our family, mainly our grandkids while they are still 3 and 5. Wife is not happy.

I wonder if the solution for some is to charter a week or two after they sell. Charter as you enter the boating lifestyle before buying then chartering as you exit it to give you more flexibility.

I bought my wooden GB42 when it was 14 years old and sold it when it was 43 and enjoyed it until I didn't. I lived aboard for five years, ran it from San Diego to Long Beach and Catalina Island and from Panama Cty to as far north as Chattanooga and as far south as Key West. We enjoyed it, but after a while with the desire waning to exert the effort to cruise to very distant places, the boat became what we call a bay boat around here just slowly running to local destinations most of which we wished to return from to home in the same day which meant long hours watching the same old scenery passing by. And the maintenance!!! The current boat fulfills the desire to have a boat with vastly less maintenace required and the speed and comfort to fulfill our current boating needs. One day this one will probably be sold for something even lighter and faster probably with an outboard engine or two.

Comodave said:

I usually sell the boat when I get everything done to it that I want to do.

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:lol:

Our exit plan is simple. We get out when one of the following occurs:

1) Physically incapable of handling the boat

2) Physically incapable of living on the boat

3) Financially incapable of maintaining the boat.

4) One of us dies

kthoennes said:

Boy this is a potentially very depressing thread.

Click to expand...

Karl, old classmate, insightful as always.


Just sold my 42' Rawson/Monk for a combination of goals achieved, intentions not met and declining future anticipated.


I bought the boat six years ago with certain expectations:


1. Family and friends swarming aboard for good times. First two years were pretty much just like that; inevitably declined in subsequent years, family and friends have other demands on their time. My wife not a boat person, but a good sport, spent several weeks.



2. Extended cruising. Had multi-week cruises each year, often alone (see 1 above) My 5-month Prince William Sound cruise was highly satisfying; had company for about 40% (see 1 above)


3. Desire to teach my two grandsons the way of the sea ("the rabbit comes up out of his hole, runs around the tree...") In-law politics/pathologies have dashed that hope.


4. As the friends and families thinned out, I found I spent a lot of my boat time with a good book and a drink with my feet propped up by the fire. Got a really good chair for that at home and it doesn't require a 900 mile rt trip to Tacoma.



5. Time maintaining/time boating quotient was turning strongly negative. One morning last June I woke up in my bunk (alone), anticipating a day of dockside labor and decided that was enough.


6. At 78, I am in surprisingly good health and lucid (I think), but I'm smart enough to know that a day will come when I'm neither.


So the boat is gone, as of November 10 last...but I caught myself pricing a narrowboat charter from Glasgow to Edinburgh last night.

I don't think I mentioned this, but we're installing a dinghy derrick on the aft deck roof -- not really for the dinghy but to hoist your wheelchair on board, and the boys will be happy to wipe the tepid oatmeal from your chin as you take the helm when we launch out to Lake Superior in five years. And I installed a bell to ring 26 times when we come into Whitefish Bay.

bowball said:

I wonder if the solution for some is to charter a week or two after they sell. Charter as you enter the boating lifestyle before buying then chartering as you exit it to give you more flexibility.

Click to expand...

Maybe, but in my case, I don't need a "solution". My solution was 30 plus excellent years of boating. We considered it our "vacation" every weekend from early April to end of October. Then there were the winterizing and commissioning weekends. Plus many weekends doing upgrades or larger maintenance projects.
And we met many good friends thru boating.

We did it, we enjoyed it, and now we've moved along to something else.

AlaskaProf said:

Karl, old classmate, insightful as always.


Just sold my 42' Rawson/Monk for a combination of goals achieved, intentions not met and declining future anticipated.


I bought the boat six years ago with certain expectations:


1. Family and friends swarming aboard for good times. First two years were pretty much just like that; inevitably declined in subsequent years, family and friends have other demands on their time. My wife not a boat person, but a good sport, spent several weeks.



2. Extended cruising. Had multi-week cruises each year, often alone (see 1 above) My 5-month Prince William Sound cruise was highly satisfying; had company for about 40% (see 1 above)


3. Desire to teach my two grandsons the way of the sea ("the rabbit comes up out of his hole, runs around the tree...") In-law politics/pathologies have dashed that hope.


4. As the friends and families thinned out, I found I spent a lot of my boat time with a good book and a drink with my feet propped up by the fire. Got a really good chair for that at home and it doesn't require a 900 mile rt trip to Tacoma.



5. Time maintaining/time boating quotient was turning strongly negative. One morning last June I woke up in my bunk (alone), anticipating a day of dockside labor and decided that was enough.


6. At 78, I am in surprisingly good health and lucid (I think), but I'm smart enough to know that a day will come when I'm neither.


So the boat is gone, as of November 10 last...but I caught myself pricing a narrowboat charter from Glasgow to Edinburgh last night.

Click to expand...

Interesting. While I’m younger, I can see myself in this though I’m just starting the voyage.

I’m driven by learning new skills so I’m excited. I do outsource almost all the work though, which is expensive but so far I can absorb those costs.

I can see within four years finding out like you that it’s not worth it and fewer people come with me and either a. Getting a smaller boat and just use periodically or b. Moving on to a newer hobby to learn. Or getting even more involved!

I plunged in to it, to really decide.

I love your idea of narrowboat rentals; I looked at that too!

I can envision keep a boat until I'm dead... or can't physically get on the boat, hopefully both a long time off. My lady likes boating and wants to keep it.



Also have other toys that I'm keeping... as long as I still use them a bit. Kayaks, windsurfers, and other water toys. Still have a plane that I'm using less and less, but might revitalize that and take a trip to Alaska. Gonna keep it.


Think the snowboard will go... but probably have a few more seasons in it.



Tent camping is no longer, too much work for the benefit. No more tent.


I'll revisit this when I hit 90.




.... actually, I'm thinking of downsizing boats and getting a go fast boat to satisfy my third childhood. Can't afford a go fast woman.

Seevee said:

Still have a plane that I'm using less and less, but might revitalize that and take a trip to Alaska. Gonna keep it.

Think the snowboard will go... but probably have a few more seasons in it.

I'll revisit this when I hit 90.

.... actually, I'm thinking of downsizing boats .

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Well, the plane went when I hit 74, mostly because there wasn't enough time for boat and plane, although, I have to say the best reason to own an airplane is to get to your boat faster. It had been to Alaska; made the roundtrip about eight times in the 20 years it and I lived there. But that decision to sell was also informed by anticipation of cognitive decline.

Quit skiing at 70 after 50 years, mostly because I am too lazy to do the annual conditioning. I have the knees of the 190# boy I was at mountain warfare school, and the body of the 220-pounder I am today.

kthoennes said:

I don't think I mentioned this, but we're installing a dinghy derrick on the aft deck roof -- not really for the dinghy but to hoist your wheelchair on board, ...

Click to expand...

Very thoughtful, Karl, don't wait for me.


Ad summum!