Is the secondhand boat market ever likely to rise again?

jac said:
I think it's more a design thing than age thing. So traditional v modern design
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Perhaps it is the word "Manky" that defines the changeover - although lots of Auld boats are not manky. However many go manky very quickly if neglected because of the design and materials used.
 
ghostlymoron said:
When does a AWB become a MAB?
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A very perceptive question. Of course many now are. They are built of just the same stuff in the same ways, magic they are not.

On the original theme. Boat ownership has been rumbled. Someone under 40 ,say, can now play golf, ski, travel, charter, fly, trek, dive and a myriad of other stuff all of which can be paid for out of income and taken up and put down with little long term commitment.

Boat ownership is a chance child. You are stuck with fixed costs summer or winter if you use the boat or not. Storage and mooring costs are a ridiculous quantum of purchase price. You bend your free time and holidays to it, at the mercy of a rotten climate. If you neglect it you feel guilty and it goes down hill quickly. As like as not, the missus will hate it and the kids be uninterested.

Rumbled. I don't hold out much hope, except that older boats have nowhere much to fall and a really keen sailor can get a good boat for the price of a secondhand family ripper.
 
jac said:
I think it's more a design thing than age thing. So traditional v modern design
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I respectfully disagree. An old Boatshed alert that I never bothered cancelling occasionally sends me details of cheap boats that aren't selling. They are almost invariably manky, and fairly old in chronological terms, but time's inexorable progression means that many are nevertheless of "modern" rather than "traditional" design - so fin and spade, IORish rig proportions, often aft heads, etc. Despite these features, they sit firmly in my mental "MAB" bucket.

Pete
 
steve yates said:
Mmmm, Personally I would still class spending 15-20k on a hobby, as the province of the seriously well off!
Especially as thats just the start of it.
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Indeed, especially when you consider that at least another 3-4k is required just to moor the boat each year. That's the cost of a family holiday to California each year in mooring costs alone. Then you need to add in maintenance costs, the cost of transport to and from the boat, food/drink onboard, fuel, etc. Very easily becomes a hobby for the well off.

Obviously you can do it cheaper, swinging mooring, trailer sailers, joint ownership etc.

You can see why many people don't buy their first boat until the mortgage is paid off and the kids have left home.
 
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There used to be a saying at work (Banking) about renting, not buying, things you intend to drive, fly or f**k.

I think sail should be added to this list.

This is the wisdom of someone who owns his own car,and boat and has been married for nearly 50 yrs!
 
davidej said:
There used to be a saying at work (Banking) about renting, not buying, things you intend to drive, fly or f**k.

I think sail should be added to this list.

This is the wisdom of someone who owns his own car,and boat and has been married for nearly 50 yrs!
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The version I heard was "If it Floats, Flys or F***s - rent it."
 
I purchased Triola at the start of the recession, fully on unsecured borrowing, with no real means of paying it back once the recession bit hard... it made for a tricky few years, but now she is paid off in full, it was the best decision I ever made - my mothers comment was to 'aspire' and the money would come :rolleyes:. Age, children, mortgage etc. has made me somewhat more cautious these days, the sad fact is I am now far too 'sensible' to make that same move again.

If you look after a boat, it can be a sound investment if you value it in holidays, adventure and experience as well as pounds, shillings and pence. At the Medway Cruising club you can keep a boat there for as little as £600 a year on a swinging mooring all up - about the same as a gym membership. £600 for countless weekend mini breaks for the whole family and as many summer holidays as you can shake a winch handle at. Bargain.
 
thecommander said:
Indeed, especially when you consider that at least another 3-4k is required just to moor the boat each year. That's the cost of a family holiday to California each year in mooring costs alone. Then you need to add in maintenance costs, the cost of transport to and from the boat, food/drink onboard, fuel, etc. Very easily becomes a hobby for the well off.
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I don't consider that we are seriously well off. My response to people who think that because we have a yacht we're rich is to point out that if my wife and I both smoked 20 a day, we'd spend significantly more on fags than we do on running and maintaining the boat. You don't look at a smoker, and say you must be rich, cos you smoke......
 
Interesting comments here. last summer i decided to buy a boat...an older twin engined 35ft MOBO. I spent 3 months looking and saw so much rubbish being asked stupid money for.

The brokers told me that they could not get enough stock as boats were shifting in days..if priced right.

In the end i went with a very tidy targa 33 that was 25 years old and well looked after...for a good price indeed.

A boat will sell if it has three things....

If it's been looked after all of its life.
It is at the right price.
It's of a good design.

So while there are many deals out there you will find they are on stuff that people don't really want...certainly in the MOBO world that is.
 
I think the secondhand boat market is perfect economic theory. There is a good balance between supply, demand, and prices.

Boats that are wanted - generally decent, fairly recent AWBs, are selling reasonably well.

Older boats that are not so fashionable, but well maintained, are getting lower prices than their present owners may like, but are being sold to the type of person that wants that type of boat (me, as it happens).

Out of fashion boats, poorly maintained, are not selling until there is a major price drop and an enthusiast comes along.

'A' level economics.
 
steve yates said:
Mmmm, Personally I would still class spending 15-20k on a hobby, as the province of the seriously well off!
Especially as thats just the start of it.
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On the contrary, spending that amount on a motorhome is by no means unusual and, with respect to motorhome owners, by and large, they don't look well off. What they do have is an 'asset' that depreciates rather more quickly than a boat. They also spend (in this country at least) something approaching marina prices for a night on a campsite. To make matters worse, there's very little in the way of the equivalent of anchoring and don't mention fuel consumption.

Yes, I did have a motorhome for a while and I can't say I feel financially worse off with a boat.
 
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