what is, aside from the moorage, insurance and regular maintenance?
Those are most of them. "Maintenance" usually first (especially hired maintenance), then moorage, then insurance. AND... the occasional (but slightly more discretionary) cost of a significant upgrade, like some new electronics, for example. Moorage in two forms: home dock, and transient marinas/moorings. Fuel well behind all those combined.
Annual underwater work is one of the biggest subsets of our maintenance category. Another is system replacement, for when something craps out (like an AC, water heater, etc.).
In the context of this conversation, we are comparing the annual expenses between 400 HP and 1800 HP engines. The moorage will be a major expense, but it will be the same for any vessel of similar length. Insurance probably won’t be much different either. As for maintenance, common sense tells me that servicing a trawler diesel engine is easier and cheaper than maintaining a high-speed beast.
So, the only thing left is fuel. Do the math - compare 2 GPH to 20 GPH, and if you're cruising 500+ hours a year, fuel consumption will easily be your highest annual expense, especially with Canadian fuel prices.
Like I said, some depend how much "foot" you use on your throttles. If we run at our hull speed, approx 8.5 kts, we see about 2.0-4.0 GPH total (depending on wind, tide, current, etc.)... even with 1800 available HP. Maybe using only 2 or 3 of those 1800. OK a little more, but not much.
Yes, if we're on plane at 30 kts, fuel goes south quickly... but we often have a choice about that... whereas with a displacement hull, not much choice available. Even then, 30 kts for an hour or so sometimes makes for a decent visit at the destination (not a recommendation) or gets us out of the slop sooner.
Even with our longer semi-annual ICW trips, and usually 200-250 days aboard during a given year, we've usually only racked up a couple hundred actual engine hours/year.
-Chris
