View Single Post
Old 10-27-2012, 07:28 PM   #10
Marin
Scraping Paint
 
City: -
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 13,745
When you say "coastlines" what coastlines do you mean? Eastern Seaboard, New England/Canadian Maritimes, Gulf Coast, southwest coast, Pacific northwest, BC, SE Alaska? Some combination of the above? Lotta different coasts and each one can pose different preferences in terms of an ideal boat for the area.

RTF is spot on (again, you need to stop that RTF) in saying that you don't HAVE to have twins, just as you don't HAVE to have a single. Twins and singles both have their advantages and disadvantages on top of which personal preference plays a major if not THE major role.

As a single data point for you we have a twin and at our cruising rpm we burn a total of between 5 and 6 gallons an hour which gives us 8 knots. The single engine version of the same boat (with the same engine) will burn a little more than half that amount to go the same speed.

As JAT said, $40k is a pretty small budget for a cruising boat of the type most of us on this forum have. Not that you can't get a decent boat for $40k. But it's most likely not going to be something you'd want to venture too far from shore in unless it's a junker larger boat and you put $80k into fixing it up.

You need to define what you want to do pretty thoroughly, and in a fair amount of detail before you can start narrowing down the "what kind of boat" list. Once you know realistically what you want to do you can start figuring out what sorts of boats are best suited for doing it.

Most of us can list makes and models of boats that can be had in fair to excellent condition for $40k but I don't think they'll be what you are currently envisioning. They will be great for coastal or river cruising, however. The one I tend to point to when hearing this sort of query is the Tollycraft 26. A single gas engine unless it's been repowered with a diesel, well built, can go pretty fast, and it's reasonably efficient for the kind of power it has. I've put a photo of one at the bottom. Other people can suggest other boats with good reputations in that price range.

Don't forget that buying the boat is just the beginning. There are annual ownership costs to consider, too. Ownership costs are everything except finance payments if you finance the boat. So moorage, insurance, fuel, maintenance, repair, and upgrade costs--- basically anything you have to fork out money for to continue to own and operate the boat.

While some will argue this, and it does depend on the age and condition of the boat you buy, a rough rule of thumb that if nothing else is useful for figuring out what you can afford to do and what you can't is to figure on ten percent of the purchase price of the boat for annual ownership costs every year you own the boat.

Now some years it may be a lot less, although moorage, fuel, and insurance costs are consistent. But some years you may need no repairs and minimal maintenance. Other years you may have to replace a shaft or engine mounts or install a new exhaust system or you decided you need a new radar or a radar period if you don't have one. So the ownership costs for that year can far exceed ten percent of the purchase price.

But over time, that ten percent of the purchase price per year seems to be accurate enough that you can use it to determine of owning a particular boat is within the budget.

So a $40k boat will cost you perhaps $4k a year to own and operate. It will be different for every boat, of course, but it's a safe number to use at the outset when determining what's realistically possible and what isn't.
Attached Thumbnails
Tolly26.jpg  
Marin is offline   Reply With Quote