QUite. No good if Penzance has had to shut, for example.
There is certainly a shortage of good secondhand boats at present as you will see.
- Thread starter Concerto
- Start date
doris
Well-known member
But there's a load of newbie owners who are just discovering the true 'joys' boat ownership plus the real costs and they can bail out without losing money, at the moment. Running costs of a boat versus a couple of foreign holidays and no moaning kids, hmmmmmm. How long will that last for??????
But I'm probably wrong.
ridgy
Well-known member
I know someone who sold his 40 foot boat last year for the asking price of 70k to a guy who had only sailed lasers in his distant youth and suddenly thought a yacht was what he needed.
My friend took the buyer and his family out a few times to show them the ropes over the summer and then left them to it.
3 months later the buyer asked him if he wanted to buy it back for 50 having never used it by himself as his family disliked it.
This he did and he plans to sell it again at the end of this season for 70.
My friend took the buyer and his family out a few times to show them the ropes over the summer and then left them to it.
3 months later the buyer asked him if he wanted to buy it back for 50 having never used it by himself as his family disliked it.
This he did and he plans to sell it again at the end of this season for 70.
mrming
Well-known member
When I was growing up, we always had a boat. The quality of our car / house / food etc, however, fluctuated with the economy.
xyachtdave
Well-known member
While it is possible to get a mooring for an 11m boat for under a grand locally that’s only if you don’t want scrubbing or lifting facilities, winter storage, professionally maintained moorings, a weekend trot boat, sensible launching, 24 hour access, secure dinghy storage, somewhere to leave an outboard etc etc
Then it’s more like £2500 pa with all the club fees etc, the savings between a 10-11 m boat at Chatham MDL and say MYC are quite slim, hence the exodus of boats over the years.
And then you’ll need to buy yourself a cradle if you can’t hire one…a TC09 6 legged cradle is a whopping £2500 new and if you want to store that at the club that’s another £100 a year….!
You’ll probably want a better tender, launching wheels, a larger engine to get to your mooring that’s 1/2 a mile away, more batteries, solar power to charge them and so it goes on.
When foreign holidays restart they’ll definitely be some recently purchased lock down boats for sale!
SailingDog
Well-known member
There's the answer, wait for a couple of years to purchase a boat, take a season that's another year to get her sorted or as you want her and hey presto, you've saved some money if it hasn't been spent on something else, you have gotten 3 years older which may include serious illness, divorce, loss of job etc.
Just a thought
True. Interestingly, so long as we stay alive for a bit, I worked out our state pensions would pretty much cover the cost of running a boat per year! A chum of mine says that his pension covers his pheasant shooting!
Music to my ears guv.
Daydream believer
Well-known member
Well as my father used to say. I could retire on £ 50K per month tomorrow-- But i would have to be dead by friday
Concerto
Well-known member
In the past I used to be a member of Medway YC, so I know the facilities available there. I have also been a member more recently at Hoo Ness YC and their costs are certainly less than MYC. The winter storage and moving are certainly a lot less. They have 2 scrubbing berths with a jet wash which are included in the membership cost, not an extra. Again not a new cradle is necessary. As to a tender, I used to use my inflatable with electric inflator when I had a MYC mooring at the extremity of their moorings. It was packed in the car and taken home along with the outboard. My current inflatable has removeable wheels, so costs can be kept minimal. Not all the costs you mentioned would be necessary.
xyachtdave
Well-known member
Hey, I was just trying to point out to the inexperienced that getting a cheap deep water swinging mooring can come at a cost that's not necessarily financial....thanks for confirming that!
CLearly a "bilge is half-empty" sort of chap.
Stemar
Well-known member
He isn't wrong, though.
A few years ago, in spite of being diabetic, I considered myself to be in good health. Then, one evening, I felt a bit off colour. Bugrit - a reaction to the flu jab. Ah well, it'll pass. It didn't. A few days later, I was in hospital with sepsis and infective endocarditis. A week or so later, they told my wife, "We aren't sure he'll survive the op he needs, but if we don't do it, he definitely won't survive." Well, I did survive, but it took three years before I was ready to sail regularly again. Then along came Covid...
Carpe diem
SailingDog
Well-known member
Well, I know I don't like wet boats if that helps. Outside accepted.
doug748
Well-known member
Yes, Pre 2020 was time when boats were at the bottom of the market, 20 year old boats could be had for under 30k. One chap bought a Rival with a modern engine for 5k.
Still we had posters who tried to talk down prices, suggesting that useful boats had no value and even that they would expect to be paid to take them. We were told that perfectly viable sailing boats were "overpriced" and "just not worth it". It's likely they were just dreamers, if not they have been well bitten on the bum. People who really want to sail their own boats generally get on with it; a waste of precious time waiting for yachts to be given away with a packet of Coco Pops.
.
THe most fundamental law of the universe isn't E= MC2. It's "shit happens".
Blueboatman
Well-known member
The version I like : How old will you be in five years time if you DON’T do X Y Z..?
hurley
Active member
This is an interesting thread, just wondering what the latest thoughts or observations are now that the sailing season is upon us and also the recent cost of living rises have started to manifest in people's pockets?
jac
Well-known member
As some one who has been looking for a decent boat and in a mainstream size/ price, I see no change at all. Very few boats coming onto the market, the good ones are selling quickly. I contacted one broker the day a particular boat was advertised to find that she was already under offer.
My gut feel is that this is unsustainable.
Foreign holidays are now back on the agenda, Flotilla company's will be bombarding their mailing lists with images of paradise sailing at the time that people here are battling cold winds, drizzle, crowded harbours and high costs, all whilst inflation is eating away at disposable income. At the same time, so many events will have been postponed once or twice so i suspect that many people may have busier than usual years, minimising the number of totally free weekends.
Despite this, I don't think there will be a sudden mass of boats entering the market any time soon, and suspect that there is still some pent up demand anyway so anything entering over the 1st half of summer will probably go quickly to those of us that have been looking for a while and actually quite miss the delights of a cold boatyard in the hail of early february and the feeling of our credit cards being given a workout in the local chandlery.
Come September / October though and the situation may change. By then I think people will be looking back on the season and totting it all up . 2 weekends 4 daysails and a rainy week stuck in Portland whilst paying £8k -£10k for the privilege may encourage some onto the market but gut feel suggests that it will probably be the end of 23 season before things change properly.
BB1
Active member
YEP...TOO RIGHT