Is the secondhand boat market ever likely to rise again?

[Otter]

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.

In those terms it's a bargain all right. We have a minimum of 80 nights a year on board and despite the costs of ownership it's the glue that keeps the family together. We could have a couple of package holidays a year but instead we explore our corner of the globe under our own power, anchor off new beaches, swim, sail and row into nooks and crannies. And all winter we plan and discuss where next whilst we spend a weekend on board doing nothing but listening to the gulls. In dull meetings my mind is mulling over whether I can justify fitting RADAR or whether to go as far as Denmark to the East or Falmouth to the west. Sure we could have two weeks charter for our annual running costs but boat ownership gives us pleasure for the other 50 weeks a year, plus occasional grief when the bills come! So as long as there are families like us there will be boats that are owned. I'm not convinced that ownership is dying, more likely augmented by purchasing additional experiences, the Brits have always preferred owning to renting.

 

[pvb]

In those terms it's a bargain all right. We have a minimum of 80 nights a year on board and despite the costs of ownership it's the glue that keeps the family together. We could have a couple of package holidays a year but instead we explore our corner of the globe under our own power, anchor off new beaches, swim, sail and row into nooks and crannies. And all winter we plan and discuss where next whilst we spend a weekend on board doing nothing but listening to the gulls. In dull meetings my mind is mulling over whether I can justify fitting RADAR or whether to go as far as Denmark to the East or Falmouth to the west. Sure we could have two weeks charter for our annual running costs but boat ownership gives us pleasure for the other 50 weeks a year, plus occasional grief when the bills come! So as long as there are families like us there will be boats that are owned. I'm not convinced that ownership is dying, more likely augmented by purchasing additional experiences, the Brits have always preferred owning to renting.

Fully agree; there's a huge amount of pleasure in simply owning your own boat, planning forthcoming trips, thinking about little improvements, popping along on dull winter days to check it's OK. It's not all about actually using it.

 

[Kelpie]

Fully agree; there's a huge amount of pleasure in simply owning your own boat, planning forthcoming trips, thinking about little improvements, popping along on dull winter days to check it's OK. It's not all about actually using it.

Great post by Colvic Watson.
Pvb- you remind me of that old tale, the accountant says to the boat owner, this is not cost effective spending all this money in a boat that you can only use two days a week. The owner replies that he uses the boat seven days a week- two days sailing her, and five days thinking about her.

Personally, owning vs chartering is a no brainer. Ownership costs up here, for an old boat like ours, are really very small- and we are already in the middle of one of the best cruising grounds there is, so it makes little sense to drive and fly thousands of miles to go somewhere else, to spend our annual boat budget on a week or two chartering.

 

[drakes drum]

Evening all,

I know the second hand yacht market is at rock bottom, with some ridiculous bargains to be had. That said, do you think it will ever recover? Is that well maintained bargain yacht you've just bought ever likely to rise in value, or is just a downward spiral for ever more, as fewer people buy secondhand yachts or go sailing?

I know we don't buy boats for capital gain, but it would be nice if they held their value at least.

Just a thought as I consider a new purchase.....

Talking to brokers I reckon the market has gradually changed. It used to be that decent quality british boats held their nominal value but now there are ever fewer buyers who even know what a Westerly is / was, and greater numbers of newcomers who buy boats like they would cars. Which is to say they buy either a new or nearly new mass produced bog standard imported boat and wouldnt contemplate a 20 year old british boat with just one aft cabin. The result is numbers of unsaleable older boats and rapid depreciation of the likes of Bavaria and Hanse as they age.

So no, I dont expect to return to the era when boats held their value anytime soon.

 

[steve yates]

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......
99

Not quite the same I don't think. It's not the keeping of it as much as an upfront purchase of 15-20k, on a hobby.
Two of you smoking will be in the region of 5k pa, similar to marina fees and fuel to and from the boat and general maintenance probably.

 

[ghostlymoron]

I've bought and sold 3 boats and have made a small profit on all of them after using them for varying periods.

 

[drakes drum]

I've bought and sold 3 boats and have made a small profit on all of them after using them for varying periods.

So have I on three boats so far. But the game has changed and I dont think I will do so on my current boat. At my club at the moment there are maybe a dozen old british boats for sale / unused, and none of them moving. A pal has just taken 4 years to sell a Moody 31 bilge in decent nick.

 

[prv]

I've bought and sold 3 boats and have made a small profit on all of them after using them for varying periods.

How long ago?

Pete

 

[ghostlymoron]

The last one in November (2015) first in 2005.

How long ago?

Pete

 

[GrahamM376]

So have I on three boats so far. But the game has changed and I dont think I will do so on my current boat. At my club at the moment there are maybe a dozen old british boats for sale / unused, and none of them moving. A pal has just taken 4 years to sell a Moody 31 bilge in decent nick.

Those usually sell quite well and if it stuck for 4 years, that would maybe indicate the price was too high and/or an out of the way location. Some people have crazy ideas about what their boat is worth and would do better to knock off what a broker would charge and sell privately.