Cost of sailing?

[Neil_M]

Evidently a huge variation depending on where you are. My 30 footer on a swinging mooring on the Deben with all lifting, scrub & storage included totals around £1500 pa. Do all my own maintainance bar one professional engine service before annual foreign trip, so rest is cost of materials only & few upgrades here & there - in all around £2k pa. Being in a local marina would add around £700 to the annual bill. Glad I'm not on the S Coast...

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://home.btconnect.com/moorings/> Morzen's moorings on the web</A>

 

[sailorman]

WHY SHOULD I GIVE U THIS INFO !!!!.
U DONT TELL US ANYTHING OF YOYRSELF via Bio.
HOW RUDE CAN ONE GET!!!!.

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[LadyInBed]

700 Mooring
100 Fuel
270 Insurance
20 Radio licence
25 Engine service (diy)
800 New Genoa this year ouch! But if I average it - say 50 p.a.
50 p.a. fund for other sails
50 p.a. fund for odds and sods
00 Antifoul - I don’t use it

So about 1300 a year


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[tim3057]

Hey Sailorman, am I glad I didn't bump into you when I was a new user. Give the man a break!

<hr width=100% size=1>Wayfarer Woodie done, now I need a new fix..

 

[alahol2]

It's still possible on the south coast. 28 ft boat. Swinging mooring (dries 1 hour on springs) about £150 pa, winter storage (club compound) about £150 pa, insurance £200, fuel £30 pa, winter maintenance and new/replacement toys etc £500 - £1000. About £1000 - £1500 pa, that's not too bad for 7 months of weekend sailing + the bank holidays and the odd week or so.
Now for the sad bit, this year it's nearer £3000 for a new diy engine.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.troppo.co.uk> Follow the Tightwad Sailor</A>

 

[sailorman]

manners maketh man

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[Aeolus_IV]

True - it always helps to know a little something about those posting questions..

..to answer the original question - I squirrel away £300 per month to cover basic mooring/marina berthing, lifts and hard standing, basic engine maintenance (on a boat just under 10m in length - say £360/m/year).

What it doesn't cover is new sails (now running total is getting on for £3.5k on those alone), major repairs should the worst happen or equipment upgrades (also doing well on that front, say another £2K)

In general I afford it (just) by cutting corners else where - there's no hope of a newer car now or ever. Holidays, well, that's what the boat's for, isn't it? Going out? Joined the yacht club, so eat there (its pretty good food at a fair price), same with the beer. Good thing all my friends are the boating type!

The good news is that fuel costs this year are in the region of about £40 or £50 - though I've not done a great deal of cruising this year: To the Isle of Wight once and Fecamp and back once. It's just not been my year. Roll on next year.

Regards,
Jeff.

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://users.swing.be/FDB/centurion/index2.html>Centurion 32 Web site</A>

 

[geoffatstanpit]

For a 21 footer 7 miles from the Solent

Mooring £240
Insurance £200
Lift in/out/scrub £150
Sails service/replace £100
Motor service/anodes £110
Ropes toys & goodies £150
Petrol £10
VHF license £20
That for about 800 miles, mostly racing round the cans in the bay with a couple of "away" matches (riow etc) and rallies.

All in about £1k for the year. Not bad for this part of the world!

Geoff



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[pvb]

Ouch...

And what most people also ignore is the loss of interest on the cash they've got invested in the boat!

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[brianhumber]

Re: Ouch...

True but you cannot take your cash with you when you depart this life and B Lair and Brown plan to take your cash away anyway when get old.

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[William_H]

Am I too late to have a go? You don't buy a boat by calculating costs you buy a boat because you can't not have a boat. There is every valid argument for crewing etc but in the end you just have to be captain and do your own thing. Costs for a sail boat are almost all fixed costs as has been pointed out.
A trailer sailer can have much reduced fixed costs especially if you don't use it so much. However that also leaves you open to the temptation to put off sailing where if you have to go check on the boat every weekend then you are more likely to use it. My choice is a trailer sailer on a mooring, take it home for the winter where you can enjoy working on it at leasure. (dreaming about sailing)
Certainly the smaller the boat the cheaper, the cheaper mooring you can accept the cheaper the boating. Yes you must make sure you can afford to keep the boat however most of us give up other money gobbling pastimes so we can feed our sailing habit. Just do it, start smallish and see where it leads you.(although I think a boat with a cabin and shelter would be more conducive to enjoying sailing) The most expensive boat is the one which is not used but where the owner will not face reality that it is not for him. good luck will

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[MarkJohnson]

Boat in Swansea Marina costs about £1800 to tie up.

Fuel averages at less than £100 per annum

Maintenance is lottery but on an old boat you must expect to spend a grand per year.

All put into perspective by the bar and restaurant bill in the sailing club bing about £1200 per year.

Pays yer money and takes yer choice!

Enjoy, we are not here for long

<hr width=100% size=1>www.markjohnsonafloat.org.uk

 

[aitchw]

Totally agree about smaller boats and lower costs.

There are all sorts of plattitudes trotted out about usage and costs but it is certainly true that if you want to sail and want a boat badly enough you will find a way to do it. If, like me, you have no spare money, everything is done on a shoestring. No matter how I try, I can't get away with less than about £800 a year and when I have to replace something major it leaps up. You make the best of what you've got and make everything last for ever. You sail a boat that is well past it's sell by date with kit that often has no other recommendation than 'it works'. You pay attention almost exclusively to those bits which are safety critical and everything else takes second place.

But you do it and every time you take to the water you know all the hard work, scrimping and saving has been worth it and that no matter what your boat you will be treated by most sailors the same as anyone else because you have the one big thing in common. We all love sailing.

Howard


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[wishbones]

Re: There\'s a bit more to it.

Surely your acquaintance's view shows how different we all are (thank goodness!). I can't understand why some people buy expensive cars - my old banger goes just as fast in traffic jams; others spend vast sums on houses, whereas I treat home as a place from which I plan my enjoyable activities. The pleasure of owning a boat, however modest or expensive, will only be enjoyed by a small percentage of the population, so let's just get on with it, and leave others to "waste" their money on fast cars, cigarettes, gambling, or whatever.

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[ex-Gladys]

COmpared with some other activities, notably those involving equines, the cost of sailing is peanuts.... but do it because you want to do it at the level at which you can afford

<hr width=100% size=1>Larry Botheras

Anderson 26 "Amber"

 

[Evadne]

Well said. The only reason for working out the cost is to decide how much you can afford to spend before buying a boat and going sailing, not whether you should have a boat and go sailing or not.

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[Ohdrat]

Re: compared to equines..

mm disagree.. up here the costs are approx same.. really land value and whether you can keep horsey in field next to house makes huge difference as then no livery charges.. if outdoorsey horsey it's probably cheaper than boaty stuff.. but this depends on size of boat and of course whether you can store boatythings and boaty next ones house over winter... etc I think there are relatively economic ways of either persuit or of course you can go all out on either and spend a fortune..

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[Sailor_pup]

I used to own a small yamaha jet ski. The running cost for that wasn’t far away from what you have all quoted for owning a boat.

Going down to my local lake was £20 per day, and then you always used £15 to £20 f petrol a day. Saturday and Sunday worked out to about £100 with oil food and so on.
We used to go roughly once a week in the summer that's about £1200.
Then you've got the service, 40 a pop (once a year) paying £50 to have it winterized

Any other small repairs (big repairs are allot of money) bits and bobs and if you want to include petrol up and down to where you're going, then you're looking at about £1400 pounds a year.

Joining a boat club and using the slip way is a bit cheaper but you can still see that sailing won't be allot more.

I think anything you do in life (except lazing around watching TV when you get home from work) is going to cost you.

As much as you all total up what sailing is costing you. I guess you could all total up how much it is saving you.

After all, what would your money be spent on if you didn't go out sailing as much as you do?

Going down the pup three times a week?

eating out at restaurants?

Getting sky TV and renting video to relieve the boredom?

Expensive holidays abroad or in the UK? (I don't know about you but my total holiday bill came to around £3000 last year)

I was going to make a joke about renting women of the night but sailorman may tell me off for being rude.


I think all in all, learning how to sail and owning your own boat is money well bloody spent!







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[Peppermint]

Re: Spend it as you see it

We've just audited my mate "The Chief"

With sixty Senior Service a day. An average of 6 pints of London Pride a day and five bottles of wine a week. Not to mention his 1968 Lotus to fettle his running costs are abour £50 per day. That's in cruise. If he really goes at it he can double that.

Makes my boat look cheap.

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[nicho]

We once did the following exercise with our £150K motor cruiser, and promptly sold it!! If you are really honest with yourself, owning a boat is pretty expensive. Taking our current situation:

Boat value, approx £70K. This invested in an ING account, currently @5%, would realise £3500 pa. The marina costs £5200, engine service £130, anodes/antifoul £400, diesel, say £50, marina electricity costs £100ish pa (we leave heaters on board over winter, and spend a lot of time on board). So, the "true" cost is around £9350 per annum - add some for other bits and bobs, and we are still approaching £10K a year! This we are (just about) comfortable with - the motor cruiser was nearly double!!

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