Cruising finances

Good article, however as a rule of thumb 10% of the boat's value per annum, and in my experience this holds true from a £100 rowing boat to a £10M Super yacht. Excludes weekend or trip out of pocket expenses, but does include fuel, and all other direct expenses, whether sail or power.
 
superheat6k said:
Good article, however as a rule of thumb 10% of the boat's value per annum, and in my experience this holds true from a £100 rowing boat to a £10M Super yacht. Excludes weekend or trip out of pocket expenses, but does include fuel, and all other direct expenses, whether sail or power.
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Do you pay a yard to do work on your boat? I do all our maintenance and even allowing for upgrades to gear each year I don't get anywhere near 10% of boat value.
 
john_morris_uk said:
Do you pay a yard to do work on your boat? I do all our maintenance and even allowing for upgrades to gear each year I don't get anywhere near 10% of boat value.
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I tend to agree.. doing almost all the maintenance myself , other than minor sail repairs, I keep costs well below those numbers. I couldn't consider letting "the yard " do that basic work. I'd be missing several limbs!! :eek:

Graeme
 
No but I find this works as a reasonable rule of thumb, and have done on every boating have owned - 1 laser, 3 yachts from 22 - 28' and 2 powerboats, 28 & 40', the yachts were lower value, and this still reflected the maintenance, insurance, moorings, depreciation, and small qty of fuel.

The PBs are fuel thirsty, but assuming around 100 - 130 hours PA then the ratio still works ( for me).

Yes you can boat for less, but for budgeting the annual cost of my obsession I prefer to err on the side of caution. Last year I had to cough an unexpected £2k for engine parts, and an equivalent problem on a yacht could account for similar should a new mast or rigging become required, for example.
 
superheat6k said:
No but I find this works as a reasonable rule of thumb, and have done on every boating have owned - 1 laser, 3 yachts from 22 - 28' and 2 powerboats, 28 & 40', the yachts were lower value, and this still reflected the maintenance, insurance, moorings, depreciation, and small qty of fuel.

The PBs are fuel thirsty, but assuming around 100 - 130 hours PA then the ratio still works ( for me).

Yes you can boat for less, but for budgeting the annual cost of my obsession I prefer to err on the side of caution. Last year I had to cough an unexpected £2k for engine parts, and an equivalent problem on a yacht could account for similar should a new mast or rigging become required, for example.
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But even when I had the unexpected costs of a complete engine rebuild I didn't get anywhere near 10% of the value of the boat. Conservatively our boat is worth over £50k and insurance and mooring comes to about £1k per annum.

In an unexpectedly expensive year, the engine rebuild cost me just over £700 for the parts plus a couple of hundred to have the head skimmed and the valves sorted by the machine shop which is another £1k plus or minus.

The antifouling usually costs me between £100 and £200. Winter storage is a few hundreds. A whole tank of fuel is just over £100 and we don't use a whole tank of fuel in a year. I can't get anywhere near 10%....

I agree that one year I will meet your figure because I will buy some new sails!
 
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On a typical year on a private swinging mooring I would expect under £1000 (£250 insurance, £100 mooring service, £200 out & in for AF, £100 AF, rest general upkeep, few nights in a marina) - so 4% ish.
Stick it in a marina full-time and add £3K to that. Around 15%

Neither include new sails or significant repairs.

Boats worth £25-28K
 
Aha the major flaw in my theory for you lucky soles who pay only around £1,000 to moor a £50k boat. That just doesn't happen on the South coast, and my £65k power boat breaks out as follows ...

Mooring £4,250 and that's the cheap seats on the Hamble
Insurance £250
Fuel (this will make you yachties wince) £1,200 for 100 hours
Maintenance with me doing the work £600 - 800

Last year my fuel was much less as the weather was so poor, but the new heat exchangers easily ate the savings.

On my last PB I had an RNSA mooring at £1,200 and a smaller single engine. I still topped out at around £2,500 which was precisely 10% of what I paid and sold her for.
 
I agree 10% seems to be about right for me.
I've totalled since the purchase of my present boat and it comes in nearly spot on.
 
If I could get my annual costs down to 10% of the value of my boat I'd be well pleased - I pay about 40% of the value in fees each year. I could moor more cheaply but I like the convenience of walk on / walk off any time of day, any time of year.
 
This year we've had new standing rigging, and then been massively overcharged by a Hartlepool marine engineering company for a simple overheating job (20 hours to change a hose). And then another engine issue for which I'm awaiting the bill, but it won't be small. I think we're probably up to 20% . [edit - yep the bill was big enough to get to 20%]

Last year, and the previous, we spent about 5%, with most of that being marina visitor fees.

If next year gives little unexpected expense, there are a few upgrades waiting that could easily take 10% of the boat's value on their own.

A swinging mooring would be the answer to saving some money (& personally, I prefer it), but with 2 small kids, and a baby on the way, it just won't be practical for a while.
 
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I reckon 10%is about right, judging from our first season; we don't have a home mooring and rarely go into marinas. Leaving the boat on Plymouth for a fortnight while we are home looking after in laws is costing £200, far more than we'd be paying if we were on board. I find boats cost more when you're not using them. 6 months winter on the hard while we refill the cruising coffers will cost us about a thousand including lifts. Add to that maintainance, fuel (two fills of 100 ltr this season) and the like and we're around the 10% mark. Mind you, we did buy the boat for a good price!

Anyway, thanks for the original post. Interesting article.
 
Mooring fees, a lift out and in and Insurance is about 12% of boat value (£60k boat) we are budgeting £11k p.a. For this year and next but do have a lot of upgrading that needs doing. Usual amount will be about £9k.

Neither figure includes fuel, visitors mooring fees etc.
 
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ROFL, get a Vivacity and whack it in a marina, take good care of it and 10% of the boat value will seem like a joke. I spend about 400%BV per year :D 10% of the value of my boat wouldn't even get me a space in the carpark for the year!
 
lustyd said:
ROFL, get a Vivacity and whack it in a marina, take good care of it and 10% of the boat value will seem like a joke. I spend about 400%BV per year :D 10% of the value of my boat wouldn't even get me a space in the carpark for the year!
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Which goes to show that the rule of thumb 10% is a nonsense. For you it's much more, for me it's less than 5%, but I choose to use a trot mooring during the summer and pontoon berths for the winter and have so far done all my own maintenance. So it's horses for courses. And probably very much depends on whether you choose to berth in a marina, and then, obviously, how expensive that marina is.
 
longjohnsilver said:
Which goes to show that the rule of thumb 10% is a nonsense.
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I wouldn't go that far, but of course it's simplistic and inaccurate in many cases: that's the nature of a rule of thumb. It's a rough guide that several posters have found realistic. But anyone with a brand-new Rassy would be spitting feathers at the thought of 10% (but probably able to afford it...)

For me over the years, 5% has been closer, but I can do most boat jobs myself and when I had a permanent berth it cost only £120 per year (and some costs used to be tax deductible, which helped ;)). As for the last year, with a new (used )boat: I daren't even try to work it out. I'd bite your hand off for 10%.

Surely what any rule of thumb fails to show is what one might call self-indulgent expenditure: the radar might not actually need upgrading, but you do it, anyway, and while we're at it let's get a suite of new instruments. Some boaters wouldn't dream of going that route, even if they could afford it; for other's it's half the fun. We're different.
 
longjohnsilver said:
Which goes to show that the rule of thumb 10% is a nonsense. For you it's much more, for me it's less than 5%, but I choose to use a trot mooring during the summer and pontoon berths for the winter and have so far done all my own maintenance. So it's horses for courses. And probably very much depends on whether you choose to berth in a marina, and then, obviously, how expensive that marina is.
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Indeed, next year it'll be more like 500% boat value as I'm moving to a marina with full tide access :) One day I may buy a boat with a value higher than the fees, but right now even on a mooring I'd be looking at 50% of the boat value when I include maintenance items.
 
longjohnsilver said:
Which goes to show that the rule of thumb 10% is a nonsense. For you it's much more, for me it's less than 5%,
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Are you counting fuel costs? The boat in your avatar looks very nice, but it doesn't have sails...

10% has been about right for us, when we had a much cheaper boat, she slept on a swinging mooring, and had an outboard. Like I say, if we get a cheap year, there are upgrades that could get us up to 10%
 
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