Hey, I'm a sailor turned power boater. . .I'll throw in my 2 cents!
The sailboats I'm going to talk about are the production sailboats across dozens of different brands who churned out hundreds if not thousands of boats over several decades. These boats can be had from "free" to a buck a pound in various levels of condition. The volume of used mass production sailboats keeps their prices down as there is an endless supply to choose from. These are the boats I think of when someone starts a "sailboats are soooo cheap to operate" discussion with me when they find out I went to the dark side. It's obvious these people have never properly refit a sailboat.
So, you are starting out with a 30-35 foot boat you can pick up for $3k-$7k in usable condition. They are cheap to buy. There really is no comparison in the trawler world. Maybe the small power cruiser market is closer?
Now, none of the "sailors" I know have any idea about life expectancy of equipment. For example, a standard response I get about how old the standing rigging is, is; "It's stainless steel, it'll last forever"
Then again, in my neighbors case, he only sails his 35 year old original rigging in 7-9 knots of winds. It's starting to brown around the swages, but might last him years until he sells it to the first person who show's up with $1500
Same goes for sails. I don't know of anyone who thinks sails wear out. If a seam opens up, they hit with the sewing machine and keep going. Sail cover starting to rot off? That's what god made sail tape for! Hell, I've seen large holes in a mainsail due to rats that were "fixed" by laminating layers of sail tape together. Looked like crap, but worked since he was a fair weather sailor. Sail shape? It's a triangle, right? It's not bagged out, it's kept in a bag. . .
I've seen plenty of running rigging used until the sheath separates, only to be replaced by Homedepot line off the spool.
There is an endless supply of used boat hardware for cheap if something breaks.
If the inboard engine breaks, you replace it with a transom bracket and "craigslist" special outboard for $350.
These boats have zero systems to maintain, so there isn't much to break or fix.
In my experience, sailboaters of the above type tend to be cheap or broke. And the sailboats themselves seem to be able to tolerate much more neglect and "duct tape n' bailing wire" band aides then a trawler.
I would say that sailboats aren't so much cheaper, it's that they can be used cheaply. I took care of my boat "the right way" and spent a chunk of money on it. I got 25% back when I sold. I wish I would have went the cheap route in the end. . .
Who knows, maybe trawlering would be cheaper too if there were warehouses filled with used engines from scrapped trawlers like there is used sails from scrapped sailboats. One local chandler tried to give me sails just so he could free up shelf space :lol:
But as has been mentioned before, I'm not sure you can get a good comparison going since there are so many variables.