Static costs for the last five years!

[burgundyben]

I've had the current boat for aproaching five years, my insurance has been about 450 quid every year and this years renewal for the mooring is the same as last three.

The cost of maintenance is dependant on what I do, but last year I switched to Epiphanes paint and it came out cheaper, dented tins of Trilux are still 45 quid.

Filters, oil, belts are all about the same and the DSC radio has been getting cheaper.

Fuel has doubled, my busiest year was 2005 and bill was about £300 so maybe this coming year it will be £500, so the impact is not huge.

I started putting 250 a month into a budget account to pay the boat bills five years ago and its still the same amount.

Food/drink and moorings when we go somewhere have increased a bnit but so has my income. All in all the cost of running the boats has remained pretty much static.

 

[bigwow]

I don't add it up, I'd only upset myself.

 

[Danny Jo]

The Freestyle formula for estimating maintenance costs

Cost <in pounds sterling> = (loa<ft>/8)^3 x 100)
i.e. 100 times the cube of one eighth of the overall length in feet.

 

[Danny Jo]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't add it up, I'd only upset myself.

[/ QUOTE ]

I wouldn't, but I'm obliged to by the requirements of the SWMBO boat-match-spending tax (each pound spent on the boat must be matched by a pound into a savings account for SWMBO).

Distressing as this arrangement is, it does mean the the boat is in single ownership, which greatly simplifies "the decision making process".

(Doesn't that rolling, laughing smiley drive you nuts? It's nearly as irritating as the slimey voice on the radio going "smoooooth classics at seven".)
/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[bigwow]

If SWMBO even dreamed the amount was half what is actually spent I would be in serious trouble, so it’s best to avoid the subject altogether, or lie through my teeth.

 

[FullCircle]

Lynn is fully and blissfully uninterested in the cost. Its my problem. It is calculated in with ALL the house costs for running and is thus part of the budget for our life, and not split out.
Therefore we pay an equal amount each month into a joint account and forget about it.
This also includes the upcoming costs for replacement sails, equipment etc.
However, she knows that occasionally a large parcel turns up from EBay that I have paid for, and she wonders just how much more boating kit the house can take. Simple anwer has been to set up an EBay account for her, and she buys all manner of clothes and stuff, therefore equilibrium is restored.

Isn't she marvellous?

 

[Rivers & creeks]

[ QUOTE ]
she wonders just how much more boating kit the house can take

[/ QUOTE ] it can take just one more, always just one more /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[StugeronSteve]

Whenever I have thought of adding up the costs swmbo has stopped me. She feels that it would only lead to madness and I tend to agree.

 

[Norman_E]

That would work out at well over £19,000 a year for my 46foot 5inch LOA boat, which I reckon is well over the top. Last years Marina contract (in Turkey) plus insurance came to about £3000, maintenance not added up and antifouling still to be done, but including a new backstay and various additions I reckon not much more than £1,000. More in a year or so when I replace the rest of the rig, but even so I estimate average bills less than one third of your formula figure.

 

[pandos]

might make sense if the figure was squared not cubed.

 

[Seven Spades]

No I think the correct formula is one third of the length cubed.

 

[FrancisRutter]

My Father always said that he never let himself know how much his sailing cost, if he knew, then he wouldn't be able to afford it. I do know. and get frightened.

 

[Sans Bateau]

If you want to compare costs against budget, this year with last etc, buy a business or become an accountant (you'll tell me both already apply to you!).

I own a boat to get away from all that, if you can afford it and can continue to afford it, who cares, get and enjoy it, forget the cost!

 

[capt_courageous]

Quite right. If you really have to worry about the cost change something. If you don't - get on with it and don't worry.

 

[FullCircle]

I disagree. I am in this for the long term, and need to be very sure that my spend on the boat and its upkeep over 10 years is sustainable, or I would have to sell it, which would not do at all.
I must say that in the 2006 end of season financial report, the 2007 spend prediction is looking rosy /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Its even managed to overcome the small matter of redundancy, for now at least.....

 

[Danny Jo]

We are talking maintenance, not just running costs. You can get by for less if you allow the boat to depreciate. But on a 45 ft boat, say 15 years old, costing say 200K fully kitted when new, I would be surprised if you could maintain it in A1 condition without replacing something like 5% per annum.

I think costs do rise in proportion to somewhere nearer the cube than the square of the length. My 38 footer seems to cost more than twice as much as people describe for 28 footers. Doesn't the volume, displacement and engine size rise in that fashion?

 

[Billjratt]

When I bought the last boat, an Ericson39, everything got bigger and more expensive. Now I've got a smaller 30ft motorsailer, they haven't got cheaper again. My philosophy is to keep going until I am forced to sell due to hunger and homelessness. SWMBO is less of an ostrich but still enjoys it, so we'll just keep going and not counting. During our 'new-age travellers, Marine division' era, we met many people who could not enjoy their surroundings for fretting about the cost....they were contageously glum. Nae pockets in a shroud, we say.

 

[Danny Jo]

[ QUOTE ]
Nae pockets in a shroud, we say.

[/ QUOTE ]
My sentiments exactly. My aim is to keep sailing for as long as I am able, which with any luck could be 15 years or so. My share of the pension isn't quite enough to keep Freestyle in the manner to which she is accustomed, so (a) she is going to have to become accustomed to somewhat less and (b) my contingency fund is going to have to make up some of the difference. The hope is that the contingency fund will last as long as my ability to sail.