10% Rule, am i missing something

[lustyd]

I regularly see this 10% rule for maintenance, say if you spend 100k on a boat it will cost you 10k per year to maintain

It's pretty accurate I find, but you have to understand that the rule is 10% to maintain current condition. Condition deteriorates over time regardless of maintenance, and so expectations lower on older boats, lowering costs.

All that to say, it's more about the owner than the boat. Someone who owns a £1M yacht will spend a lot more keeping it nice than someone who owns a £10k yacht in general.

You also have the issue that for a given boat length an item will cost either the square or the cube of the length because for ropes they have to be thicker, and sails have more area and fuel costs relate to tonnage. If you double the boat length, the stainless steel in the winch isn't just doubled. Marinas give you area, not length. Even electrical cables need to be thicker on a longer boat unless the voltage increases but then all the kit gets more expensive!

 

[Bouba]

The worst part is getting the appointment, waiting on your boat....and nobody shows up. Rinse repeat.....in fact that’s when you start calculating how many of those lost days would be better spent deep in the lazaret doing it yourself

 

[lustyd]

Thankfully only the wealthy folk with pricey boats have to wait around. The rest of us practice boat yoga regularly

 

[Momac]

The percentage for running and maintenance increases with time. The boat may more or less maintain its purchase value but all other costs increase with inflation.
Considering my present boat I started with maintenance including mooring fees below the 10% mark and probably above 10% now. But I have only managed this by doing almost all jobs myself since about 2015.

 

[Sticky Fingers]

My mooring fees in a Solent Marina berth are currently just over 10% of the value of the boat, this is a 25 year old 48’ flybridge motor boat. Maintenance, insurance, repairs, upgrades depend on what I’ve done but budget about 5%. I do very little myself, all professional trades. As time passes, these percentages will rise for the reasons Momac has mentioned.

 

[ylop]

True, but how many million-pound boats are there in Oban, and how many in Solent Marinas?

Don't get me wrong, looking at the map, Oban looks like my kind of cruising area, but are there the facilities that a million-pound boat is likely to want?

Sadly a million pounds is not that hard to spend on a boat anymore. 40ft Sirius DS, Moody DS's, brand new mid sized Halberg Rassy tricked out with all the gadgets (electric winches/furlers/multiple plotters/thrusters) for a couple sailing alone, including the VAT etc must all be getting very close to that sort of number? There's not loads of them around but they are there. I don't know what big Mobo's cost, but I suspect there's even more of them which "new today" would be million pound boats. I don't know what facilities a million pound yacht wants? I suspect its not that different to what a £250K yacht wants - and there are plenty of them around.

 

[TiggerToo]

Sounds about right to me.

 

[Mister E]

Leaving aside fixed costs mooring insurance etc. I recon on a boat that is raced then 10% is probably on the low side.
They use expensive sails and matching crew kit isn't cheap.