Genuine possible newbie purchase advice

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HappyEssex

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Hey everyone

After years of dreaming, due to a life event I will soon be in a position to purchase a motor boat.

Cutting to the point- and I'm after pragmatic advice- is this a good or bad idea:

Generally we have a modest income, and can sensible assign £150pm to the costs of a boat.

This is ideally inclusive of fuel.

I have found a mooring suitable for £50pm.

The boat will be a diesel, about 4 to 5l.

Boat use will be probably a day twice a month September to April. Going away for overnight hops or week anchorages during the school holidays- possibly three weeks in the summer break.

I'm very adept at DIY and mechanical work my wife would say.

The boat would cost a maximum of 15k (perfect running and cosmetic order) or 10k (needs tidying, sound mechanical)


Thanks all.
Dan
 
HappyEssex said:
Hey everyone

After years of dreaming, due to a life event I will soon be in a position to purchase a motor boat.

Cutting to the point- and I'm after pragmatic advice- is this a good or bad idea:

Generally we have a modest income, and can sensible assign £150pm to the costs of a boat.

This is ideally inclusive of fuel.

I have found a mooring suitable for £50pm.

The boat will be a diesel, about 4 to 5l.

Boat use will be probably a day twice a month September to April. Going away for overnight hops or week anchorages during the school holidays- possibly three weeks in the summer break.

I'm very adept at DIY and mechanical work my wife would say.

The boat would cost a maximum of 15k (perfect running and cosmetic order) or 10k (needs tidying, sound mechanical)


Thanks all.
Dan
Click to expand...
Uhmmn without wanting to be negative to a potential new boat owner, I think your £150 pm is very conservative. That would probably maybe cover fuel, depending on how far you travel. If I were you, I'd be looking at at least double that amount if you don't include the mooring costs. You do need to factor in safety equipment, visitor mooring fees, food, maintenance on both engine and electronics etc, then there is the beer and rum........ the list will go on and on and on...
But, it will be worth every penny!!!
 
Something like this one with a single diesel engine on a shaft would be significantly less to run than something with twin higher performance engines on outdrives like this one. You wouldn't be going anywhere fast (and would need to be very mindful of conditions and tides) but if that's not the object of the exercise...

If you can turn your hand to engine servicing, a bit of fibreglass and woodwork and 12v electrics you'll save a lot of money and your £150/month, barring anything catastrophic like the main engine needing to be replaced, could be achievable. You should probably have a survey on any prospective purchase or at least take along somebody who really knows what they are looking at before you commit to buying...

Due to staycationing and like a lot of things (camper vans, caravans, motorbikes, etc.), the boat market has been very buoyant (haha couldn't resist!) for some time so there is a dearth of decent boats for sale and the good ones tend get snapped up quickly. So don't rush in and pay over the odds for a not very good boat but do go & see as many as you can to start getting an idea of what you might be able to get for your budget...

Good luck and welcome to the forum...(y)
 
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Thank you both for the replies.

I've done much research- and the survey, mooring fees, start up equipment is a separate financial thing that is all achievable.

It really is the standing still and running cost that I must consider. It'd definitely be single engine and diesel.

DIY- not much I haven't done apart from brickwork, fitting a roof or similar.

Mechanical- I do most of my car servicing myself. Thus far, five years and only just got an advisory (for corrosion).

This element of boating slightly appeals to me as my 'hobby'. A sense of achievement too.

Should I share my prospective boat or keep my cards close for room to manoeuvre?
 
I’m sure most of us started with less. To get costs way down, an outboard powered boat on a trailer that lives on your drive will cost very little to own, especially if you can service it yourself (but I would still go to a main dealer). Most of your budget can be spent on weekends on the water!
As you further sink into the clutches of this hobby your budget will increase, its normal. But for a newbie (especially a married one) it’s important to keep finances under control with your first boat.
Welcome to the forum ?
 
My only suggestion would be to set aside a reserve for the inevitable but unexpected expenses. Assuming you have your mooring and insurance costs work out and the bits for engine service just think of things like anti fouling,mooring lines,fenders,life jackets,safety gear,vhf radio and radio course plus licence fees .
 
People so far are being very polite and rightly so sadly in short more abrupt terms your budget is Not enough particularly at the moment. For the money you are talking about a trailered day boat is the way to go yes with an outboard. If you get an older 2 stroke there are very few service costs and as you say you are good at diy you could do them yourself.
 
Moorings for 50 gbp per month is pretty damned impressive.
Cheap is 2gbp per foot per week, very cheap is half that.
 
And direct pragmatism is essential with money matters.


The math for a trailerable boat is significantly less- no hauling out, ablative paint and mooring fees.

Thank you for the reply.
 
Personally I'd start out with a day boat, something like a Mariah SX20, you can have fun with it, trailer home and DIY maintenance. Get used to the water spend your money learning.

If you really want to spend up to 3 weeks on board with children you're going to need a 7m+ boat as a bare minimum, with diesel power you're looking at £30k plus purchase price. If you're mooring it £1000 a year minimum, if you're anywhere near the south coast.

If you're towing it you need a 4x4 with 3500kg capability, again lots more costs.

We bought our 2003 Leader 805 last year (7.5m diesel) and this years costs have been around £10k mooring, fuel, maintenance and a few upgrades. We thought that was fairly good but we did choose an expensive marina.

So I'd re-evaluate what you want to do with it and go for a day boat that you can drop in when you want to use it.
 
Hamble pontoon mooring with no electricity at the upper end is £2,700 annually for 28 ft. 23ft will be around £2k. Hamble point would be double so £1,000 will get you a few months only ...
 
I started with a speedboat (15ft Simms Super-V) with a 70hp Mercury outboard on a trailer.
Costs were £35 per day launch fee (from Hamble Point) and about 25litres a day in fuel at a reasonable speed. Plus the costs of the fuel for towing.
Maintenance extra, obviously, but relatively little to do and cheap.

I then went to a 23ft diesel cruiser (Fairey Huntress) with single Perkins T6.354.
Costs (on the Solent) are mostly mooring and yard fees...currently I pay approx £850 for a mooring in Langstone Harbour for the summer months (April-Oct) and a haul-out yard fee of approx £1k for the winter (Nov-Mar).
Fuel isn't too bad...I spend about £300-500 a year depending on how far and how fast we go...
Maintenance, though is way more. Last year I spent around £7k but that included a £2k hull repair to sort a rot issue before it became worse and a £1.3k gearbox replacement. The rest was things like antifoul, engine and gearbox servicing and small bits and pieces that do add up in cost (just having the injection pump serviced, reconditioned and re-calibrated was £500).

This year the servicing costs will be significantly less but will include a turbo service and injector reconditioning/cleaning.
 
Hot Property said:
Hamble pontoon mooring with no electricity at the upper end is £2,700 annually for 28 ft. 23ft will be around £2k. Hamble point would be double so £1,000 will get you a few months only ...
Click to expand...
There are swinging moorings on the Solent that cost £800 per year, I've had one near Southampton for the last year, they are not great but they are there.
 
Flip272 said:
There are swinging moorings on the Solent that cost £800 per year, I've had one near Southampton for the last year, they are not great but they are there.
Click to expand...

My Swing mooring in Suffolk is £225 a year and that includes all the Seagull shit you can manage
 
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