Annual costs...

Am considering the purchase of a Grand Banks 50’ ish trawler. I can afford to purchase without debt...Boat is older but refurbished recently and immaculate....I plan to run the Carribean with south Florida as a base....can anyone throw some numbers out about what it will cost to keep the beast alive annually... have been boating all my life but nothing that I could live aboard.. but I have been in the RV scene for years...so I am not naive to “holy crap” that was expensive....thanx for your time and consideration to this matter!!!

Hi first poster
Might as well ask how long is a piece of string.
Far to many variables.

Insurance may run ~$2500-$4000 per year. Maybe more based on your experience and where she is during hurricane season. A slip in South Florida can run $1500-$2000 a month or more. Fuel $2-$3/mile if you’re going slow. A lot of variables and you haven’t fixed anything yet.

Keep the news coming... much like the RV world. $ can be highly variable... just trying to wrap my head around the dent in my retirement fund to expect...nothing that I haven’t expected so far...

A lot will depend on how much you can do yourself.
Are you scrubbing your boat bottom monthly, or paying?
Are you doing oil changes and normal annual service or paying?
Wash and wax?
When you haulout, the DIY (do it yourself) or $100+ per hour boatyard?

Ted

I had always heard that you will pay approximately 10% of the boat value per year in expenses.

I did not believe this but looking back on my year over year expenses with me doing a majority of the work this is a pretty good number.

This includes dockage, and insurance in the calculation.

O C Diver said:

A lot will depend on how much you can do yourself.
Are you scrubbing your boat bottom monthly, or paying?
Are you doing oil changes and normal annual service or paying?
Wash and wax?
When you haulout, the DIY (do it yourself) or $100+ per hour boatyard?

Ted

Click to expand...

As a former marine mechanic... I certainly am capable of the many day to day fixes.... but I do not plan on carrying every tool known to man or monkey...so the answer to your question will vary depending on the situation...if I’m at a yard in fort pierce Fl... big jobs and annual maintenance... haul outs/ bottom cleaning prolly hired guns... I am a diver too so regular scrub downs on me...if I’m broke down in Turks....well it will be whatever it takes to get rolling again...

Ty K9...

k9medic said:

I had always heard that you will pay approximately 10% of the boat value per year in expenses.

I did not believe this but looking back on my year over year expenses with me doing a majority of the work this is a pretty good number.

This includes dockage, and insurance in the calculation.

Click to expand...

This ^! I didn't want to believe 10%. However, after replacing my fuel tanks a while back (GB-42), I became a believer!

Good luck.

Start with constants; dockage, insurance and depreciation. Now add what you'll spend on fuel and transient dockage and regular maintenance (oil, filters, etc.). From there you'll just have to guess at repairs.

Giggitoni said:

This ^! I didn't want to believe 10%. However, after replacing my fuel tanks a while back (GB-42), I became a believer!

Good luck.

Click to expand...

Yeah but that's a one off.

The real variable is how well the previous owner(s) cared for it.

10% is a fallacy IMHO.

A 55fter for $100k is $10k/year
A 55 fter for $2,500,000 is $250,000/year? Really?.......REALLY?

Get our boat maintained in Australia @ $100/hr
Get our boat maintained in Thailand @ $25/DAY
10% blown out of the water

I have been enjoying "Trying Not To Sink" videos on YouTube for a while. They have a Hatteras 58MY and produced this video named "Cost to purchase and operate a 65 foot yacht" Though its a bit bigger than you are contemplating I think you may find it informative...

Is the older immaculate refurbished GB 50ish wood or fiberglass? That could be a factor.

Tom.B said:

The real variable is how well the previous owner(s) cared for it.

Click to expand...

And how long you expect to hold onto the boat. A few years you may get away with deferred maintance but .... At the end of the day you own a depreciating asset.

Greetings,
Mr. V. Welcome aboard. Good advice thus far.

Finding a nice little corner of paradise and sitting there for a month or two will probably be less $$ than cruising thither and yon. You still have to eat so that is pretty well fixed also. More cruising=more fuel and maintenance. More sitting=more dockage fees.

In the end, ANY formal calculations are guesses, at best. You can add, subtract and cypher to your heart's content but the bottom line is, are you having fun?

Simi 60 said:

10% is a fallacy IMHO.

A 55fter for $100k is $10k/year
A 55 fter for $2,500,000 is $250,000/year? Really?.......REALLY?

Get our boat maintained in Australia @ $100/hr
Get our boat maintained in Thailand @ $25/DAY
10% blown out of the water

Click to expand...

Good for you. I don't think I'll find a $25 per day tech around where I live. Tamrow's video presents a couple that plan to spend about 19% to 24% per year of the original cost of their boat. Pretty well thought out, I might add. After about ten years of ownership of our GB42, 10%, perhaps even as high as 15%, is about right on. I might go through several years of minimal cost, then have to replace my teak deck or rebuild an engine...or... I'll stick with an estimate of 10% per year of the cost of the boat.

Simi 60 said:

10% is a fallacy IMHO.

A 55fter for $100k is $10k/year
A 55 fter for $2,500,000 is $250,000/year? Really?.......REALLY?

Get our boat maintained in Australia @ $100/hr
Get our boat maintained in Thailand @ $25/DAY
10% blown out of the water

Click to expand...

I guess it depends on your location then.

I'm in Florida as is the OP. I bought my boat for $130K so using 10% I'm at 13,000/ year. I do most of my own work.

Here is 2017 - $12,100
Dock rent just shy of $600/ month = $7200
Insurance = $2400
New A/C = $2000
New intake hoses = $500

For 2018 so far - $14,400
Dock rent didn't change = $7200
New backend for generator = $3000
Insurance = $2700 (thanks hurricanes)
Pending bottom job (DIY) = $1500

k9medic said:

I guess it depends on your location then.

Click to expand...

And reality/maths.

Like I pointed out, do you really think people with, for example, a Fleming 55 spend 10% or
$250,000 a year on maintenance?

Giggitoni said:

Good for you. I don't think I'll find a $25 per day tech around where I live.

Click to expand...

I am not in $25/day land......yet.

And one mans tech is another's counting to 5. Boatbuilding and repair work is easy for those who do it for a living.

I reckon you guys have to travel a lot less miles to find cheap countries than me. I have an 8000nm trip ahead of me so will be going for good when we do it.
You can just nip down the road to a yard in mexico , panama or similar for big savings, surely.
Summer vacation and a refit

Simi 60 said:

And reality/maths.



Like I pointed out, do you really think people with, for example, a Fleming 55 spend 10% or

$250,000 a year on maintenance?

Click to expand...

Maybe not ONLY maintenance, but complete ownership costs? Yes. Well... maybe a little less, but the 10% number is not a rule... it is a suggestion... a guesstimate... quoting it as a hard and fast certainty is not in the spirit of the thread.

On our old ‘87 Krogen Manatee, we’ve managed to keep our expenses below 10 %, even with a steady stream of projects, but for the last 2 years she’s been behind our residence so dockage only costs 200 bucks for annual condo maintenance. I do most work, but haul outs and paint ad about another 1200 annually. A lightning strike added another 7K or so in wiring & parts, but countless hours in labor in 2015 & 2016.

This is another one of those depends questions. Is the boat new or is it 30 years old. Is it in top shape or is there deferred maintenance. Do you like the boat the way it is or are you planning changes.

What ever your budget is you will spend it. If your budget is too small you will fall behind and one day you will own junk. If your budget is too big you one day be selling a like new boat for pennies on the dollar.

I think the 10% rule is a pretty good guess for the average boat in average condition. Less if the boat is newer than 10 years and more if older than 20 years.

Very hard to say but hoping you have no major breakdowns (engine, electronics, etc) my best guess is anywhere north of $12K per year ; provided:


-you try to do all repair & maintenance yourself,
-anchor whenever possible. Go to marinas only very occasionally
-go slow
-stay out of bars & restaurants


Good luck

The other part that hasn't been addressed is "make it mine" cost. When you buy a boat, there is the fist provisioning from the galley ware to linens and towels for the stateroom. Some of us have spent quite a bit more in the first few years on things like some new electronics, anchors, fenders & dock lines, furniture, window coverings, floor coverings, and the list goes on.

Then there is the deferred maintenance list. Those are items overlooked by the previous owner and missed by the surveyor.

Obviously, some of this stuff is optional or may be transferred from a previous boat, but there will be a significant cost to "making it mine".

Ted

annual costs

Great info.Drinking it all in.

Don't do lazy budgeting on something this important. In an RV, do you intend to cross the country, put on 30,000 miles a year and stay at the finest parks or to just stay parked in a national park?

Think of intended use and budget each component of ownership. Do you intend to anchor in the Bahamas or dock for a week at Atlantis? Fort Lauderdale or Jupiter? How many miles cruising in a year and then break down consumables and fluids versus routine maintenance vs major repairs. Use the budgeting to learn. Check out marina prices in different areas. Check out yard situations, haul out costs, bottom painting costs.

And if you own a house will you rent it out?
Income from that will probably pay for your cruising lifestyle and some.
Which reminds me.....we need to go back and kick the possums out and put paying tenants in their place.

Greetings,
Mr. S. "...kick the possums out..."?