Anyone else thinking about giving up sailing?

flaming said:
Just a thought, but have you considered not having a mooring, storing the boat ashore and just getting the boat launched when you need it? Might even work out cheaper and you wouldn't need to antifoul at all. Then when you did use it she'd be waiting for you on the service pontoon.
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I have thought about that, but I'm lucky enough to own my own mooring, which costs me about £150 per annum in CEC and servicing charges. With antifouling (forty quid for a tin of Nautical) that's still a lot less than the yard would charge for a summer ashore, quite apart from the cost of lifts. You are absolutely right that it could make sense for some people, and if my mooring cost more it could make sense for me.
 
maby said:
Unless your location line is out of date, we are neighbours - takes less than two hours to get to the east coast! I was really referring to people who live in London and have the boat in Scotland - or the Med.
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No. Location info still current - the western side of Herts, close to the borders with both Bucks and Beds.

It would take less than 2 hours to get to the East Coast. It also takes less than 2 hours to get to the Solent. I chose the Solent.

To me that is "somewhere else a long way away" (picking up the comment in your earlier post). I wish it were 5 minutes from home, but it isn't. I guess we just have a different view on what constitutes "a long way".
 
You are not alone. I'm seriously considering dumping the boat at a good price and going back to flying. My period of boat ownership has reduced the value of my investment considerably and the aircraft I sold to get in to sailing has increased in value by about 25%.

Forgetting the money though the hassles with crews, flying to Greece and back, the new taxes ( yotties viewed as rich cash pots ) and the continuous maintenance are all contributing factors.

A couple of weeks a year in the sun can be had on a charter or just lying on a beach.
 
I have two seasons sailing, on on the wet the other on the hard.

On the hard I get to do stuff on the boat.

On the wet I get to enjoy what I did on the hard and have a great deal of fun.

I have no plans to retire for several decades...
 
Angele said:
No. Location info still current - the western side of Herts, close to the borders with both Bucks and Beds.

It would take less than 2 hours to get to the East Coast. It also takes less than 2 hours to get to the Solent. I chose the Solent.

To me that is "somewhere else a long way away" (picking up the comment in your earlier post). I wish it were 5 minutes from home, but it isn't. I guess we just have a different view on what constitutes "a long way".
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:)

Two hours is manageable - we'll work from the house all day, grab a quick bite, then pack the car, put a harness on the cat, pack him too and be on the boat by nine. We'll stay there till probably Monday evening, then be back in the house for two or three days, taking care of post, visiting elderly relatives and catching up with customers - all manageable at a couple of hours travelling distance, but less so at five or six hours. If the boat was five minutes from home, I would be beginning to question the justification for having the home - you can buy a very big boat for the price of a relatively small house!
 
mjcoon said:
I thought lay-up was doubly problematic with wooden boats? (Unless they are so sheathed to be more like "WRP"...

Mike.
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It's not a problem if done right. If laid up all year round then a mud berth is preferable to stop the boat drying out too much in the summer. In winter you can lay up ashore. All you need to do is make sure the boat doesn't get too damp and also that the elements are kept outside. Same as for a GRP boat really.
 
nimbusgb said:
My period of boat ownership has reduced the value of my investment considerably
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No-one - in his right mind - invests in boating.

I consider every penny spent on the boat as 'written off' (never to be seen again).
Money well spent it is too.

You can't take it with you. I have no ambition to be the richest corpse in the cemetery.
 
OR4751 said:
No-one - in his right mind - invests in boating.

I consider every penny spent on the boat as 'written off' (never to be seen again).
Money well spent it is too.

You can't take it with you. I have no ambition to be the richest corpse in the cemetery.
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FWIW, as a young & impecunious man with a small but growing family commitment, I did initially justify buying a boat by assessing total boating costs (depreciation, maintenance & interest) and comparing this to the cost of chartering a similar boat. IIRC, I needed to use the boat for at least 3 weeks holidays a year for ownership to be cheaper than chartering. As long as I got those 3 weeks plus a few weekends it was definitely cost effective to own.

As we got older & better off, I bought a bigger & more expensive boat. We also moved much further from the sea to further my career, so the equation changed & I started to realise that ownership could not be justified in pure financial terms. Fortunately, by then the family were enjoying boat ownership too & no longer questioned the cost.
 
Not an investment but over 25 years of aircraft ownership I've traded up 8 times, each time with just a reasonable addition of funds.

Trading up in boating terms usually involves doubling the money spent. Sailing is far, far more expensive as a pastime for me than flying and the returns ( not in money ) are slimmer.

No I can't usually 'sit on a beach' but SWMBO is much happier doing so and that is part of the equation too. Spending most of the year flying and chartering for 2 weeks would still be cheaper than owning a yacht and I don't have to do all the maintenance. I can get that at home DIY'ing! :)
 
nimbusgb said:
Not an investment but over 25 years of aircraft ownership I've traded up 8 times, each time with just a reasonable addition of funds.

Trading up in boating terms usually involves doubling the money spent. Sailing is far, far more expensive as a pastime for me than flying and the returns ( not in money ) are slimmer.

No I can't usually 'sit on a beach' but SWMBO is much happier doing so and that is part of the equation too. Spending most of the year flying and chartering for 2 weeks would still be cheaper than owning a yacht and I don't have to do all the maintenance. I can get that at home DIY'ing! :)
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I'm surprised that aircraft ownership is cheaper - I've always assumed that maintenance and insurance would be significantly more expensive - and less optional.

Wouldn't work for me - I'm terrified of flying!
 
I am curious about various posts where people have said that they keep their boats in the water for all but a couple of days a year. Do you have wooden boats?

I ask because I have just been chatting to a broker who was warning me off a 1980s GRP Moody because it has been in the water for a few years and he seemed to think that this would almost certainly guarantee osmosis. It sounded a bit alarmist to me but it has made me uneasy. Should I be?
 
Ravi said:
I am curious about various posts where people have said that they keep their boats in the water for all but a couple of days a year. Do you have wooden boats?

I ask because I have just been chatting to a broker who was warning me off a 1980s GRP Moody because it has been in the water for a few years and he seemed to think that this would almost certainly guarantee osmosis. It sounded a bit alarmist to me but it has made me uneasy. Should I be?
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Yes, mine is wooden, cascover sheathed from new so no problems staying in the water. Wouldn't say the same about GRP though, I imagine the broker is quite probably right.
 
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