ash2020
Active member
But where would I put all my stuff? I have a huge shed of woodworking machines and tools (all of which are used).
Which boat should I keep?
- Thread starter ash2020
- Start date
ash2020
Active member
Or their pity, at the acres of unvarnished wood.
ash2020
Active member
I agree. There's nothing like stepping out of your front door to do work on your boat.
DownWest
Active member
Exactly, I am finishing off a little cruiser cat yawl. Boatshop is 10ft from my living room. The idea of building a boat, or even maintaining a woody, if one has to drive any distance, multiplies the time by several times.
Stemar
Active member
From what I've seen, it would appear that the vast majority of trailer sailers leave their boat on a mooring during the season and only trail their boat home for winter, or to try a different area. Rigging and launching at the start and recovering and derigging is just too much faff for most people, not to mention the aggro of towing.
MisterBaxter
Active member
I remember reading a line in one of Eric Hiscock's books where he's describing how wooden boats are constructed, and he says something like 'a wooden boat can be considered as a basket'. I remember quite clearly thinking, I don't think I want to ever own a wooden boat.
William_H
Active member
For the first 3 years of ownership of my trailer sailer I towed it about 20km through Melbourne to launch and sail. I was younger then and did not think anything of it. I would sail it most weekends plus a couple of long trips. I had no other choice.
Circumstances and a move across the country (boat shifted on a truck) and a new home in sight of a free at the time mooring and club to race with close by and I started keeping it on the mooring for another 41 years. Much more convenient although anti fouling and in water scrubbing are a pain. ol'will
Greenheart
Active member
Sure, but that freedom not to pay to keep the boat afloat indefinitely for long seasons when you're privately sure you won't want to use it, is a very big deal...plus the freedom from cost to haul out for maintenance and antifouling...
...at my marina, hauling out and relaunching my 24ft Achilles came with a jetwash and a fat three-figure fee, and the months parked on the hard cost as much (or possibly slightly more) than the same period in the water.
Which of us would buy a car knowing we'd definitely have to pay pounds and pounds for parking it, every day of every year till we sell it? Boats find a weak spot in their owners' minds.
The trailable boat may be a royal pain to trail - it may be far less simple or adventurously versatile than the brochure pics attempt to suggest - but critically, it does not commit its owner to many years of continuous, endless, inescapable mooring fees.
Keep her on a nice convenient pontoon mooring all summer, sure...why shouldn't you? And as soon as the season ends or you doubt you'll use your trailer-sailer again for a while, whatever the reason, haul her home and stop the haemorrhage from your wallet.
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Stemar
Active member
I tend to forget about marina costs, until I have to go in one, because Jazzcat lives on a drying club mooring, which costs me a good deal less that I just paid to have the car serviced, though I do have to pay as much or more every couple of years for maintenance. There's a slipway that costs nothing and a scrubbing grid that's peanuts to use. A commercial mooring nearby could still be under £1K. It's still possible to sail on a budget, which is as well, because it's the only way I can keep a boat.
Greenheart
Active member
I find it staggering how many folk keep boats on moorings or at marinas which aren't remotely 'budget'. I daresay many are retired, and apportion a fair whack of pension into boat-ownership before they ever see it, considering it a fait accompli - the money was effectively earned long ago so the cost isn't coming out of savings or salary.
And perhaps if one is retired, one can visit the boat often enough and for long enough to make her perpetual cost of keep seem acceptable. Still being employed, and usually working hardest when the weather's best for sailing, I reached the opposite conclusion.
And perhaps if one is retired, one can visit the boat often enough and for long enough to make her perpetual cost of keep seem acceptable. Still being employed, and usually working hardest when the weather's best for sailing, I reached the opposite conclusion.
