True cost of boating story for MBY

[NBs]

Hi

I am a boating for over 30 years in different boats and have accurate accounting of costs and use etc. I could say about 5% of the value of a boat if it does all the maintenance itself and 15% buy all the services for maintenance etc. Every year is a bit different because there will be surprises for news equipment or engines parts.

Boat Value Decrease Does Not Include%, and it can not be speculated before it actually sells a boat. The price you grab web pages and actual sales prices can be a big difference.

NBs

 

[longjohnsilver]

It is simple the more money you have the more you spend on your boat. Also while there are rich people around who will pay, the more prices for boaty things will be

As JtB says, income is irrelevant. I retired a few years ago, my income is now probably only a small fraction of what it was pre retirement but my boating expenses are much the same.

 

[BruceK]

How do you even begin to account for expenses? Annually? TCO over boat life span? If it's annually some years cost me + £500 per weekend during the season used or not and some years £100 per season weekend. Very much depends on what broke, what was maintenance, what took my fancy and / or what was held in abeyance. Cost isn't factored in so much as it is simply a way of life. We choose to boat.

 

[Bouba]

It’s not your wealth or income that count but rather what percentage of it you are willing/able to devote to this hobby

 

[Assassin]

Can of worms topic, you can work out many of the costs such as fixed or static costs, where it goes wrong is where a boater on a budget does most of the work on the boat themselves, or they use their boat more as a hotel where they visit every weekend during the summer and only sit on the flybridge and rarely venture out into the vast expanse of water.

Are you going to include the unforeseen costs such as the cost of the fuel in a vehicle to get to the boat?

 

[petem]

Jeez, talk about 'over thinking it'!

The article will give the real world running costs for a selection of boats and their owners. Some will maintain the boat themselves, some will pay professionals and this will be clearly stated in the article. Readers can judge for themselves how much work they would do and therefore what the likely cost would be.

It's got sod all to do with what people earn.

I'm sure readers are also quite capable of calculating the cost of fuel to get to the boat.

 

[Bigplumbs]

It’s not your wealth or income that count but rather what percentage of it you are willing/able to devote to this hobby

The two are directly linked. Someone who earns £25K a year can only spend perhaps £1K on boating Someone who earns £1000,000 a year can probably spend £25k

 

[Bigplumbs]

Jeez, talk about 'over thinking it'!

The article will give the real world running costs for a selection of boats and their owners. Some will maintain the boat themselves, some will pay professionals and this will be clearly stated in the article. Readers can judge for themselves how much work they would do and therefore what the likely cost would be.

It's got sod all to do with what people earn.

I'm sure readers are also quite capable of calculating the cost of fuel to get to the boat.

So sod all to do with what you earn.

I earn a certain amount so I keep my boat on a swing mooring costing £95 a year. So moorings cost me £95

If I had a greater Income I would keep it in a marina which would cost £2,500 a year. So mooring cost £2,500.

There you go cost of that item for me directly linked to my income. Can it be made any more plain

 

[petem]

So sod all to do with what you earn.

I earn a certain amount so I keep my boat on a swing mooring costing £95 a year. So moorings cost me £95

If I had a greater Income I would keep it in a marina which would cost £2,500 a year. So mooring cost £2,500.

There you go cost of that item for me directly linked to my income. Can it be made any more plain

Dennis, nobody is disputing what you are saying but that's not relevant to the article.

The article is simply giving an illustration of what different people are spending on running their boats. Take your boating for example, there might be people out there that have no idea that you can moor a boat for £95 a year.

I hope that the article might give people a flavour of what it costs to run boats of different sizes and different approaches to DIY.

 

[Baddox]

Details for my previous boat at 21 feet it’s on the shorter end of your interest but may still help.

Ocqueteau 645
Depreciation over 7 years 10% simply bought versus sold price without factoring radar, plotter, electronics and other upgrades
Sold in Spring 2017 for £21k now we also have a yacht.
Kit bought at outset and moved onto the yacht so not counted in expenditure, includes auxiliary HH VHF, outboard, PLB, EPIRB, life jackets, plus other bits.
Kept on north east coast in a marina for about £1700 pa.
Used about 30 days per year for fay fishing trips and sightseeing averaging 80hours engine usage pa
Fuel bill very rough estimate £750 pa
Insurance £180
DIY engine service £100 to £150 depending on filters bought or needed
Lift out every 18 months £200 plus AF, anodes, polish, wiper blades, etc £150
Winterised- never, I used it all year round.
Other costs – about £150pa for ongoing replacement of safety kit such as flares, life jackets, GPS aerial, PLB battery, etc.
Nothing to offset costs, I pay all the bills, friends and crew provide chocolate biscuits and fishing bait. Sometimes I come home with a fish or two for the freezer.

 

[MrB]

Jeez, talk about 'over thinking it'!

The article will give the real world running costs for a selection of boats and their owners. Some will maintain the boat themselves, some will pay professionals and this will be clearly stated in the article. Readers can judge for themselves how much work they would do and therefore what the likely cost would be.

It's got sod all to do with what people earn.

I'm sure readers are also quite capable of calculating the cost of fuel to get to the boat.

Well said :encouragement:

 

[Jonebarl]

Well said :encouragement:

Great entertainment thread as I sit on a flight from Norway to London (with WiFi onboard)
I agree this would make great reading. I’m currently selling my 24ft day cruiser for 25k having paid 50k 6 years ago (second hand). Engine is a VP D4 210 hp and a DPH drive. annual costs are detailed but at home for every year. Ok it’s Norway so obviously more expensive, but if I remember rightly it’s around 6k a year (pounds). The bulk of it service and unplanned maintenance. Sounds crazy ? In 3 years 3 sets of hydraulic cylinders for outdrive. 1 new duoprop. Full engine and drive service every other year. 15k this year on engine lift out for new inter cooler, new sump, new generator etc and service. No wonder I’m swopping to an Askeladden P66 weekend (Parker p660 equivalent) with a Suzuki outboard!
I have the full breakdown if anybody’s interested. D4 is a brilliant engine with unbelievable fuel efficiency, but extremely high maintenance costs - unless you can DIY. I wish I could but can’t. I do all the polishing, antifoul etc. myself. Insurance around 600 quid and marina about 400.

 

[Dick Atcherley]

Anyone out there happy to share the annual cost of running their boat for a story in MBY magazine?

Partly inspired by a previous thread on this forum, I thought it would be interesting for readers to see how some people do manage to run their boats on a relatively tight budget.

A couple of brave forumites have already agreed to bare their souls, as have I, but we could do with at least one more UK based cruising boat, preferably in the 30-40ft size range.

Here's a brief of what we need. If you are interested send me a quick PM as I will need your words and pics by Monday.

Thanks

Hugo

Words
500 words of running copy describing you, your boat, how you use and run it. This will need to cover the story of buying it (why, where, when and how much you paid for it). Where you keep it and why (marina or swing mooring as well as location )? How often you use it (estimated annual engine hours would be helpful) and what for? What you chose to do yourself and what you chose to pay other people to do for you (eg antifouling, polishing, servicing etc)? Any means you have for offsetting those costs (boat sharing, chartering, tax deductions etc). What you get out of owning a boat and why you think it’s worth the cost of owning and running it.

List of costs
• Make and model of boat
• Approx value
• Where you keep it (eg Cobbs Quay Marina, Poole, UK)
• Approx no of days use p/a
• Estimated depreciation p/a
• Berthing p/a
• Fuel p/a
• Insurance p/a
• Regular engine/drive servicing p/a
• Regular maintenance costs p/a (antifouling, lifts, cleaning, winterising etc)
• Unscheduled repairs p/a (averaged out over several years)
• Any other costs (please state what)
• Any offsets such as boat sharing or charter income (eg boat shared so all costs divided by two)
• Total cost to you p/a (ie sum of all costs minus income or shared costs)

Photos
A small selection of good quality high resolution photos of your boat and at least one nicely lit head shot of yourself.

Sorry - I've only just seen this. I run a twin engined diesel 28ft wooden boat, on a swinging mooring in Chichester harbour and do most of my own maintenance - would you like something on this, or has the deadline passed??

 

[Bouba]

We have just spent a wonderful day on the water, calm seas, sun shining, no wind. We then anchored off Leoube for lunch.
Cost = a fortune. Value = priceless

 

[vodzurk]

Anyone out there happy to share the annual cost of running their boat for a story in MBY magazine?
...
Here's a brief of what we need. If you are interested send me a quick PM as I will need your words and pics by Monday.
....

Think I've missed you on this, but give me a shout if you're still looking...

We bought a 21" Sealine 195 this time last year for £6k, so could be a good spot on the cheaper side of the list.

A few thousand later and she's just got us through our first season without a scratch . I'm sad that we've only been out maybe a dozen times, and only half of those are "significant" journeys (to us), as we've built up our confidence. We've a YouTube channel (see sig at bottom of this post) if you want to see the antics we've been up to on it .

 

[Bouba]

Think I've missed you on this, but give me a shout if you're still looking...

We bought a 21" Sealine 195 this time last year for £6k, so could be a good spot on the cheaper side of the list.

A few thousand later and she's just got us through our first season without a scratch . I'm sad that we've only been out maybe a dozen times, and only half of those are "significant" journeys (to us), as we've built up our confidence. We've a YouTube channel (see sig at bottom of this post) if you want to see the antics we've been up to on it .

Vodzurk, I watched some of your YouTube vids, very good! But one of them wouldn’t let me in as it was unsuitable for a person my age (I’m nearly past adulthood), so what was so shocking about it?

 

[vodzurk]

Vodzurk, I watched some of your YouTube vids, very good! But one of them wouldn’t let me in as it was unsuitable for a person my age (I’m nearly past adulthood), so what was so shocking about it?

Lol... sorry about that. But thanks for the praise .

Originally the videos were just a record so we could look back on them and see how far we've come, they weren't aimed at being open to the public.

To add into that, I'm originally from Yorkshire and I like to use colourful language... so, well... a duck lands in front of us as we're cruising, and you can guess what the caption was that I said to the duck... clue: it rhymes with "duck". I couldn't be bothered re-editing, so made it adult-only.

Subsequent videos, I've kept vulgarities out .

 

[oldgit]

Great entertainment thread as I sit on a flight from Norway to London (with WiFi onboard)
I agree this would make great reading. I’m currently selling my 24ft day cruiser for 25k having paid 50k 6 years ago (second hand). Engine is a VP D4 210 hp and a DPH drive. annual costs are detailed but at home for every year. Ok it’s Norway so obviously more expensive, but if I remember rightly it’s around 6k a year (pounds). The bulk of it service and unplanned maintenance. Sounds crazy ? In 3 years 3 sets of hydraulic cylinders for outdrive. 1 new duoprop. Full engine and drive service every other year. 15k this year on engine lift out for new inter cooler, new sump, new generator etc and service. No wonder I’m swopping to an Askeladden P66 weekend (Parker p660 equivalent) with a Suzuki outboard!
I have the full breakdown if anybody’s interested. D4 is a brilliant engine with unbelievable fuel efficiency, but extremely high maintenance costs - unless you can DIY. I wish I could but can’t. I do all the polishing, antifoul etc. myself. Insurance around 600 quid and marina about 400.

Now this one really does deserve an article in MBY, Hugo .....

 

[Hugo Andreae]

Thanks for all the new offers but I'm afraid the deadline has passed and I already have more than I can fit in the pages available. If it proves popular I may revisit it at a later date. Failing that why not post your own costs here using the same suggested format to keep things comparable. It could prove invaluable for newbies wanting to get a realistic idea of what different boats might cost to run.

 

[BruceK]

That will put them right off They always harp on about fuel costs which as it turns out is one of the smaller costs associated with the pastime.