30k Boat costs

L

LWinter

New Member
Joined
11 Aug 2020
Messages
7
Visit site
Hi all,
Posted in the liveaboard forum but was told I may get a better response here. Looking at getting a motor boat to live on, most of the time moored up but would be nice to travel on nice days. (Would obviously undertake all the relavent training). I'm a single 27 year old so don't need anything too extravagant!

I'm new to boating, should I be weary of older boats? My budget is around 30k, from what I've seen elsewhere online annual costs of running a boat maybe around 10% of the cost of boat is that mostly correct?

I'm quite drawn to some of the older princess motor boats, however I've been informed that they are super expensive to run due to twin engines that have hundreds of HP each i'd be better off looking for something with less power, something like this would be more economical and affordable to run?
1965 JG Meakes Sealion 34, Shepperton Surrey - boats.com
Say I wanted to take this from Portishead down to Penzance in multi stop trips at a relaxed pace, how much would fuel cost, any easy way to work this out?
Thanks!
 
The 10% annual cost thing is optimistic for your price range and for what you want to do.
Biggest expense will be a mooring (For a pontoon type mooring that will be £4K plus for an 8mtr boat plus any service charge)
For motor boats, going at speed gets expensive. Depending on fuel type, availability of petrol can be problematic in some areas.
Dont want to put you off but have you thought about a canal boat or a Norfolk broads type boat rather then a traditional motor boat?
 
A rule of thumb pretty accurate
Fuel consumption .

Hp / 5 @wot = max L/hr

Or 1 L for every 5 Hp per hr

it won’t be pulling 65 Hp at 9 knots assuming the hull and sterngear are clean .
So for the sake of easy maths lets work with 50 Hp / side .
If so this makes 10Lr ....x 2 = 20 L ish for each 10 miles .There will be tides helping and others pushing against.So let’s assume they balance out over the two trips .....there and return .

So use a generic ( google marina trip planner ) planner , work the distance out , and it feels like 2 L per mile .
Find the price of a L , go from there .

Steel boats rust from the inside ....it’s counterintuitive I know .The outside has been protected normally .
Rain water finds its way into unprotected areas inside and the rest you should know .It takes a particularly expert surveyor used to looking at steel to find this .You need to satisfy yourself via a good survey £1-2K it’s a viable floating .

So if we switch to a 300 Hp twin Priny .( not the £45 K example ^^ )
Say 250 Hp taken to cruise that’s 50 L hr x 2 = 100 so your trip will be 5 x more expensive in fuel .But quicker as the speed will be double around 18 knots .

But the Priny is made of plastic and if it’s ok now ( made it this far ) there’s no reason to suggest it won’t make more decades .

Finally as you inferred a pair of aged 300 Hp , probably Volvos will bleed you of cash with on going maintenance compared to the beautiful listers in the steel boat .Steel boat has a generator too I see ...useful btw .

Do not even think about a boat with aged Volvo Penta outdrives ( see the many threads dominating this forum ) or a petrol powered one .
 
Last edited:
I think the other thing is that many liveaboards cease to become movable. Or cease to become moveable very easily. I think day to day living on them takes over the maintenance needed to keep the engines/gearboxes/steering/ navaids up to spec for seaworthy use. Particularly on older boats. If it's your home, do you bother storing stuf so it doesn't fly all over the place in a seaway?

If you are going to work everyday and paying marina fees, does a full engine and outdrive leg service seem justified if you haven't used the engines for 6 months?

I think the early princess boats like the 32 are great boats but would still be cramped to live on. Probably 12 - 15 m2 living space. So smaller than the smallest French ski studios.
 
The Sealion was sold stc but is back up for sale so make of that what you will.
The Princess is not vat paid so you’d have to add that if you’re a fine upstanding citizen :)
 
Have you considered a sailing yacht? Lots of room inside, just one smallish engine to look after and sailing to go places is lovely if you are not in a rush. Actual sailing is not especially difficult to get from A to B on suitable days.
 
The Princess shown is more than 50% over budget. I discounted that. The fact that the Sealion is back up for sale is completely arbitrary without further information.
 
kashurst said:
Have you considered a sailing yacht? Lots of room inside, just one smallish engine to look after and sailing to go places is lovely if you are not in a rush. Actual sailing is not especially difficult to get from A to B on suitable days.
Click to expand...

Sacrilege! Not a terrible suggestion but one that will get you black balled at the AGM for sure
 
No, but the survey I recommended would. At the end of the day at 30k every boat will be a risk but I'd sooner take a Dutch steel barge for longevity over a highly stressed Princess of similar value in the risk department
 
Oscar24 said:
The 10% annual cost thing is optimistic for your price range and for what you want to do.
Biggest expense will be a mooring (For a pontoon type mooring that will be £4K plus for an 8mtr boat plus any service charge)
For motor boats, going at speed gets expensive. Depending on fuel type, availability of petrol can be problematic in some areas.
Dont want to put you off but have you thought about a canal boat or a Norfolk broads type boat rather then a traditional motor boat?
Click to expand...
Thanks! Exactly what I needed to know. I would think about mooring costs separately as I've been looking at a few in my local area, I guess I wanted a rough guide as to how much I should expect to spend on maintenance etc yearly, others have suggested 10% but maybe that is a bit optimistic. Definitely thinking about some of the wide-beam boats / norfolk broads one, just depends where I plan to base it I guess, the thought of being able to take it coastal really wows me hence why I was leaning towards a motorboat / yacht style for sea worthiness, but Bristol / avon canals are lovely and another option for me but then I'd have to get something smaller as the canals aren't huge, low bridges etc.

Portofino said:
A rule of thumb pretty accurate
Fuel consumption .

Hp / 5 @wot = max L/hr


So use a generic ( google marina trip planner ) planner , work the distance out , and it feels like 2 L per mile .
Find the price of a L , go from there .

Finally as you inferred a pair of aged 300 Hp , probably Volvos will bleed you of cash with on going maintenance compared to the beautiful listers in the steel boat .Steel boat has a generator too I see ...useful btw .
Click to expand...
Thanks! I need to read maths for dummies by the looks of it - It's just I seen some forum posts saying crossing the channel in his boat was about £400/500, happy to take things slower when I do venture out.
kashurst said:
Have you considered a sailing yacht? Lots of room inside, just one smallish engine to look after and sailing to go places is lovely if you are not in a rush. Actual sailing is not especially difficult to get from A to B on suitable days.
Click to expand...
The thought of sailing scares me! - I don't have anyone in the family that have sailed and watching a few youtube videos I'm still stumped - I've driven cars for years so feel safer with a motor? I'm not sure :-D I feel a lot of the sailing yachts are a bit smaller if anything or the outdoor area isn't as nice as there are ropes/equipment etc everywhere! But it does seem a hell of a lot cheaper when doing long distances if you don't need to use fuel.

Also the boats I linked were just examples - I'm really at the start of my journey really just good to get ideas of what would and wouldn't be suitable for someone like me, as well as things to watch out for. Everyone has been super helpful so far. My job allows me to take a lot of time off for nearly half a year, so most of the time I would be moored up somewhere around Bristol but it would be nice to either go up some of the canals or go coastal - But i'm assuming I can't do both because of the limitations of the canals round here / size of boat etc.
 
A canal or river boat will probably be the cheapest and easiest to operate - but will probably not be suitable for coastal sailing.
Have you considered doing a boat training course to get a better idea of whats involved? Motor boats don't work quite the same as cars.
 
I think the 10% rule is better represented by what the boat cost new and adjusted to include inflation. Boats most certainly dont become cheaper to run as they age. Quite the opposite
 
kashurst said:
A canal or river boat will probably be the cheapest and easiest to operate - but will probably not be suitable for coastal sailing.
Have you considered doing a boat training course to get a better idea of whats involved? Motor boats don't work quite the same as cars.
Click to expand...
Yes, would definitely be doing training beforehand. I think a river boat may be a better place to start! Thanks
 
That little Princess 330 is good value if vat paid , remember the Channel Islands are not UK EU vat status paid.

The 330 has been re engines with Kad 43 engines so is good value in that dept , bomb proof Princess quality , wouldn’t depreciate too badly , engines cheap ish to service compared to some .

If you want the Princess live aboard lifestyle look at some older models like the 385, 37 , 38 more boat for about the same money .

You would also get an older Broom Crown or similar type Aquafibre with half as much more living space as the Princess for same money , not as sea friendly but still cape able of sea passages.
 
46k for a '89 330 may be good value (I dont see it but I'll take it as market value, good is another opinion) but if the OP could find one for 30k I dare say there is a very good reason to look closely.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top