Just joined and need some advice about future boat purchase

T

theGman

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24 Aug 2007
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Troon, Scotland
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Hi, to everyone. I'm looking to purchase a motor boat for next season. Is there any ' rule of thumb' for estimating fuel consumption. I'm looking at buying a 4 berth planning boat what would be the minimum horsepower i should consider. Max budget round 25K.
 
Depends on the size and weight of the boat for minimum power. I suspect you are going to look at Sealine S24's, Bayliner 245, Maxum 2400 ect. For you budget petrol is probably the only real option unless you go for something quite old.

The usual motor for this size is going to be around 190Hp, probably a 4.3 V6. Some might have the 5.0 V8 which will be a bit sportier. Rule of thumb is the boat will use 1 litre for every 5Hp the engine is putting out. So at full chat, with the throttle wide open a 190Hp engine will be using around 38 litres and hour. Thing is power isn't linear, so 3/4 throttle will not be 3/4 power, probably closer to 1/2 power and therefor 1/2 consuption. Around 20-25 litres per hour, or about 5-6 gallons per hour.
 
Most of the 24-25" foot cruisers we looked at in this price range (Searay, Regal, Bayliner, Maxum, etc) had the Mercruiser 5l V8 engine. Up to 2000 they were 220hp with carb, after 2000 there was typically a switch to the 240hp injected engine. Sealines will probably be slightly older than the American boats for the same money and will have the slightly smaller Volvo Penta engine.

In the end we bought a Maxum 2500 with the injected V8 and in the 45 hours we have done on the boat we are averaging £21/hour in fuel costs. As we are based in Poole we probably spend a third of our time =< 10 knots but once outside the harbour we'll cruise at around 22-24 knots when the conditions allow. If you get to charge around at WOT all the time then you'll defintely spend more but overall I suspect this is about typical. I suspect the carb'd engines will drink a little more.

Fuel isn't the only cost though and our original all-in budget of £10k/year (100 hours) to run the boat is looking about right 10 months in....
 
as said, you are probably looking around 24-25ft, and that is going to be very cramped for 4, and two of them would have to be children. I'd have a good think about how often you are really going to try to sleep on board, because in trying to squeeze in the extra berths you are going to heavily compromise the rest of the boat layout at this size. Still, if its what you want, no problems!
 
Hi, guys thanks for the advice. Phokit, 10k budget what have you included in that figure? When I say 4 berth, it'll be 2 adults and two teenage boys, however I feel it'll be the wife and I most of the time once the novelty wears off them.
 
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Hi, guys thanks for the advice. Phokit, 10k budget what have you included in that figure? When I say 4 berth, it'll be 2 adults and two teenage boys, however I feel it'll be the wife and I most of the time once the novelty wears off them.

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Mooring £2,800
Fuel £2,000 (£20/hour x 100 hours)
Insurance £400
Service £600
Annual lift out/in £250
Harbour Dues £60
Bits'n'pieces £500

That's £6,500 for an uneventful year. However, with it being our first year, we had to kit ourselves out (lifejackets, waterproofs, etc) and get the boat up to standard (new flares, dinghy, chartplotter, charts, etc) which has relieved us of another £1,500 (and that was buying almost everything in some sale or another....).

Allow £700 for the liftout and survey when you buy the boat in the first place. Having bought the boat we were unable to relocate her ourselves so there was another £250 to rent a skipper to do the job for us.

If it's your first boat you might want to allow £500-1,000 for some training for you and your crew.

Finally, these are expensive toys and that means it tends to be expensive when things fail. In our case the fuel injectors failed.....adios £1,200 /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

To be fair £10k was our year 1 estimate and hopefully the following years will be cheaper, although there's always something on the horizon (we are going to need a new canopy soon....).

Then there's the cost of the next boat that you are always going to be hankering after /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I still think it's worth it though, whatever SWMBO says /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Paul
 
Thanks for the breakdown, it sure all adds up. As you say an expensive 'hobby' but heh ho if you don't spend it on one thing there is always something else or one ready to relieve of of your hard earned cash. It just means SWMBO will have to cut back on buying shoes in every colour and style thinkable.
 
SWMBO actually gave up her new kitchen to buy the boat !!

...and unlike other toys such as expensive cars (been there too /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif), boats may be costly to run but at least they depreciate at a much less painfull rate.

Enjoy !!

Paul
 
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Incidently, I know of a very nice Sealine S24 from 2000 which is for sale at the moment. If you increased your budget to around 28k you would get a very nice sports cruiser

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Thats very interesting Jez, as i too know of a very nice Year 2000 S24 for sale, similary priced there or there abouts!!! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Cheers

Al. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
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