Budgeting the Cost of Boat Ownership

Cool Beans,


"Nothing happened, I hope my post didn't imply that My response was in context to BandB's original post and list of things to budget for. I used my boat as an example, and made a rough estimate based on her list. Unless I misread the list, it basically asks you to eventually plan on rebuilding/replacing everything on the boat. When I estimated a rebuild/repower it really throws the budget into a whole 'nother category for me. Outside of major engine work or catastrophic drive train issues, the budget looks a lot more friendly "


Whew!!! - that sounds a lot better. FWIW we had our 38 Bay with 175 Hino's for 4 seasons (bought used) and the total expenses came to about $14K over all 4 years (fuel not included). When we sold the boat to buy the 45 we recouped more than that with the sale proceeds.
Good luck with you new boat.

I'm thinking more about this discussion and could possibly rationalize a 10%/yr $# if it included depreciation...That way a new boat would be close to 0% for repairs maybe 1% for maintenance and the balance (almost all) depreciation for the first few yrs.
After that depreciation starts to decrease and repairs increase...Maintenance about the same???

Not a hard rule.

Like my 50¢ a mile for auto running costs, you make sure you're ready to cover it, if not used now, then more is there for later.

If you're very lucky, then some will be left over toward purchase price of the next one.

Reading back issued of magazines , Yachting from the wooden boat 50's and 60's the 10% was for a YARD to maintain the boat. Based on new price.

New bottom paint on winter haul (to slow drying out) and then 2 coats before launch,
hull paint at least every 2 years , a reserve for the engine.

Back then auto engines or Palmer , Crown and others were sea water cooled so would be shot in 6-7 years.

Anything constructed of wood , hull, deck house still needs care and maint as any leak is a disaster , causing rot.

k9medic said:

I just helped a friend locate and buy a boat. During the initial planning stages I mentioned the cost of the survey.

He said he could not believe that he would spend almost $1500 only to potentially walk away from the boat if the survey was bad. I told him if he couldn't afford to walk away from $1500 then he had no business buying a boat of that size. It sank in and he got a great boat.

I have always figured that the boat will cost me 10% of the purchase price per year to keep and maintain. I added it up once and told my wife that if I ever did that again I would sell the boat.

In the end you can make memories or you can make excuses.

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Very profound: "make memories or make excuses"! Thanks for that.

When we first bought Irish Lady we chose to be part time cruisers for 2 years. At the end of 2 years we would make the decision to sell one of our 2 small homes (snowbirds) or the boat. That was 4 years ago. My wife insisted that we keep all three. It’s the most expensive choice. Two of three are always unoccupied but still have all of the costs.
The boat dock fees for a”home “ slip still need to be paid so there is somewhere to come back to after a trip. So while the home slip is paid but empty you get to pay for transient marina slip fees while cruising. I’m not complaining just pointing out that costs could be higher than anticipated.

For a new buyer, the previous advice is good and people should know what they are taking on.

I try not to obsess about boating costs too much, and I have OCD so it can be a challenge at times.

The memories and fun we have had, and hopefully continue to experience in the future are worth every cent.

Fletcher500 said:

For a new buyer, the previous advice is good and people should know what they are taking on.

I try not to obsess about boating costs too much, and I have OCD so it can be a challenge at times.

The memories and fun we have had, and hopefully continue to experience in the future are worth every cent.

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Since we have always collected all the costs of boating - I can say that it has been worth every cent to us.

My experience thus far is that whatever you budget is not going to be enough...lol
So we have our boat fund, and then another fund that we HOPE we won’t have to dip into but it’s there if we need to.

Yep, when I'm renovating some part of our home, or one of my many rental properties I make a plan and budget every expected cost, and time expected - then I double both - comes out pretty close Will probably be the same for the boat. But actually I haven't kept up with boating costs in the past, and don't expect to in the future Fortunate that we can pay for most from cash flow

Rather than determining how to budget, maybe a better question would be, "What are some ways you are saving money on boat ownership?"

I know that, for me, the NUMBER ONE way is by having Chardonnay in a charter arrangement where I get half the charter revenue and the operator has trained people and long time suppliers that reduce the cost of ownership drastically.

just to precaution potential new boat owners , when I bought my boat I was thinking around 3k a year . plus 3k for a project as it is a old boat .but we are in about 4k in 3 months with no major projects done .
1.a nice toilet and hose a grand.
2.cooling hose kit, trans cooler, raw water pump kit ,gaskets riser close to a grand
3. new muffler ,wood ,epoxy exhaust hose to the 180 .call it a grand and it covers the dock lines.
4. monitoring system . a grand .

this is not counting any usage 60 to 100 a night for transient dockage.
on the bright side my owners association went down 150 every 6 months

ljk said:

Rather than determining how to budget, maybe a better question would be, "What are some ways you are saving money on boat ownership?"

I know that, for me, the NUMBER ONE way is by having Chardonnay in a charter arrangement where I get half the charter revenue and the operator has trained people and long time suppliers that reduce the cost of ownership drastically.

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Is this allowable in FL in many marinas? Do you need a biz license or do people do it on the DL?

I don't have an interest in it, but my understanding in SoCal its a no go. I don't know much about the topic of chartering, but from what I have heard the local marinas won't allow it unless the person has a biz license and they apparently don't give many of these out.

Marinas are now mostly full after the last 2010-2013 slow down, and they basically let you know that. IE, follow the rules, or you are out which I am fine with.

ljk said:

Rather than determining how to budget, maybe a better question would be, "What are some ways you are saving money on boat ownership?"

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For us it was waiting and buying a perfectly sound but heavily discounted boat without finance that we could live on at anchor.
Living at anchor saves us $25,000/ year in marina fees and car ownership.
Being away from land and car prevents frivolous spending.
Doing a slow trip to another land, once there, will save us that much again in living, labour and yard costs.
Renting out the house will add that much again to the cruising kitty.

Financially, for us, buying a boat to live aboard is money in the bank.