Does a GRP boat have a life expectancy of more than 50 Years?

[HappySailor]

Is a sailing boat a wasting asset? ie does a GRP constructed sailing boat of length (say) 30' upwards have a life expectancy of more than 50 Years?

Does anyone know if this has been accepted by HMRC (aka The Revenue)?

Has anybody had to pay CGT (Capital Gains Tax) on the sale of their GRP boat or even claimed a loss?

Any comments are gratefully received

Thanking you kindly in advance.

HappySailor

 

[l'escargot]

Don't know about the tax situation but Seadogs were built with the projected life of 100 years - 40 so far and most still going strong.

 

[Topcat47]

Snark is 42 this year. No sign of weakening.

 

[Searush]

Like anything else, it depends on the design, build & use. Mine is 35 & still going strong, & worth more than when I bought it. But it does require upkeep. There are many early GRP boats around at 40-50 years old, but as they get older, value declines, owners spend less in upkeep (often can't afford to spend more) and a vicious circle may develop.

My house is 150 odd years old, but the powers that be have been demolishing stuff built in the 60's, 70's & 80's that have not fared as well.

You just have to decide how long you want the piece of string to be really.

 

[MoodySabre]

A wasting asset is one where the anticipated life span is less than 50 years. On the evidence of early GRP boats (and many wooden ones of course) you would have to say that they are not wasting assets.

On that basis it would be necessary to declare any gain when the disposal proceeds are more than £6,000. It would also be possible to claim a loss. Whilst I suspect that the declaration of a gain might not get challenged the claiming of a loss might get looked at. However if you have other chargeable gains then it would be worth a try. Very few of us make a profit and most would not even think about the sale being anything the taxman need get concerned about and even if he did then you'd claim it was a chattel that was a wasting asset and therefore exempt!

In 40 years nobody ever mentioned boat transactions to me.

 

[Searush]

BTW, it is not polite to post the same question on multiple fora. Please choose ONE & stick with it. What you have done is split the responses across multiple locations which makes it harder to follow.

 

[oldsaltoz]

Fibreglass has a half life of more than 10,000 years, though doubtful it would still be in a solid mass.

There a wreck of a 40+ year old Fibreglass boat on an island not far from here, it was burning when beached and the has been covered by the tide every day and in tropical sun all year round.

I make the odd trip and do an inspection, in 20 years I have noticed very little deterioration, surprising considering it must have been overheated and broken with exposed mat, but she still looks pretty good.

Avagoodweekend.

 

[boatmike]

Fibreglass has a half life of more than 10,000 years???????

Where the hell did you get that from?
GRP is in most cases a composite of glass and polyester resin. While the glass is basically silicon, the resin is organic and unless if fossilised I can't see it lasting that long. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[jwilson]

A 30 foot Seadog built in say 1968 and currently 40 years old could well quite clearly have at least another 40 years good service - possibly much more. The boat was moulded first to a grossly overstrength layup compared to modern boats, and fitted out later, so every fitting or component can be changed without too much problem. The hull can have lots of chips, nicks, stress cracks on the gelcoat, etc, and even raging osmosis - and still be far stronger than anything built today

A 30 foot Bavaria etc (and Bavaria are perfectly well built by modern standards) built in 2008 is to a much lighter layup spec, and lots of systems were fitted BEFORE the deck was stuck on, making long-term maintenance much more difficult, though not usually impossible. In 40 years time it coudl well be that someone would hit the point where it was easier and cheaper to scrap the whole boat rather than fix something, or more likely to fix a combination of defects - for example lots of stress cracks on mouldings plus engine died plus a badly corroded mast plus a dealaminating rudder. Individually no fault is terminal for the boat, but the cost of putting it all back into good condition would be unrealistic against the boats value.

 

[[10753]]

The first Kingfisher 20 is 50 years old this year and is still going strong. The newest Kingfisher is 30 years old. Its all down to regular maintenance, useage and most of all love !