Cheapest and most cost-efficient UK boat-ownership

[CaptainBob]

Most efficient way to own a boat is to live on it.

 

[Greenheart]

If it floats, flies, or fornicates, it's cheaper to rent. Or so they say.

I'd never heard that...very depressing thought...

Most efficient way to own a boat is to live on it.

...now, that's not depressing, that's inspiring. :encouragement:

 

[maby]

Obviously such a rule of thumb is very very simple and you have lower costs - great, but what if you blow an engine one year ? You have also by your own reckoning taken a £50k hit so assuming the average boat is owned for say five years that is £10k per annum you are possibly ignoring.

Presently my boating all up costs me around £8k for a boat all up worth somewhere around £60k, and at the bottom of its depreciation curve, but that includes all of my fuel and visiting fees at marinas. So of the £8k i would judge £6k of this pays for the boat itself.

I know that just to say 10% p.a. is overly simple, but it has always worked for me and I have now owned 10 boats. For someone looking for a rough guide then it is IMHO a perfectly reasonable starting point when considering affordability.

That is, of course, true - but the £50k hit we took was perfectly voluntary for the pleasure of owning a brand new boat and could easily have been avoided by buying one of a similar specification a couple of years old. My point is that running costs are far more dependent on size and age than on price - obviously the price is influenced by both of those factors but for any marina resident, mooring fees are going to be one of the biggest annual expenditures and those are completely dependent on size and independent of purchase price. Friends of ours have a very old boat of almost the same size of ours - their mooring fees, lift-out costs and antifouling costs are identical.

Maintenance costs will generally increase with age. The value of the boat depreciates precipitately in the thirty seconds or so that it takes the original owner to sign the hand-over documents, but seems to flatten out pretty much after that.