why are small open fishing boats so expensive?

ProDave

ProDave

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Serious question.

a friend of mine has just bought an Orkney Longliner. That's a 16ft open boat with a small cuddy. comes on a trailer and with an 8HP O/B motor.

He paid £2500. After I had got over "you paid how much?" I had a look around and that or more is the going rate.

To put it in perspective, I have an 18ft small sailing cruiser. So a larger, heavier boat, that has a cabin that you can store all your gear in secure and dry, and 4 of you can sleep in it. It has a heads compartment, navigation table etc. It also came on a trailer and a 4HP O/B I paid less than £2000 for it.

Okay my boat is slower. No question about that (I don't know how fast a Longliner with 8HP will go but I know it will be faster than my boat)

Anyway it just struck me either small sailing cruisers are remarkably good value for money, or open fishing day boats are remarkably poor value for money.

We are planning to launch it and give it a try on Saturday, weather permitting. At the moment he knows nothing about boats so he has a steep learning curve ahead.
 
Difference between a 4hp and an 8hp motor will account for about £800 when new. Are the two boats you mentioned both of a similar age?
 
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No not new.

My sailing boat is 1983, so 32 years old. My motor is a 4HP mariner 2 stroke nearly new when I bought the boat.

I have no idea how old the Longliner is or the age of the motor. It's an 8HP suzuki I don't know if it's 2 or 4 stroke.

Yes of course age will play a big part, but it just surprised me that when looking for open fishing boats there really wasn't anything cheaper. It seems the floor price for an open fishing boat is higher than the floor price for an old sailing cruiser.

What speed would you expect the Longliner to be good for with an 8 HP motor with 2 people on board (one of them, not me, is a little on the large side)
 
Convenience. A small motor-powered vessel can be launched or cast off from berth fairly quickly and 'put away' equally quickly. Perhaps in part my lack of understanding (probably that of others too though), but sailing boats seem to need much more preparation and thus time. Apart from the fact that my Missus would have no interest, the biggest issue deterring me from learning to sail is time. (Cash poor and time poor - hence we've not used ours much at all this year!) By the time I'd faffed about with all the ropes and flappy bits and ventured 200' from the berth, it would be time to head in... I suspect many perceive the same problem and thus the price variance? :D Notwithstanding the extra time needed to learn what all the various extra bits of string do and the cost of replacing all those extra bits when rigging needs renewal :(
 
I think popularity of fishing is probably the answer. It's surprising how many people when they find out I have a boat, the next thing they say is "you like fishing then" to which i reply no.

And this little boat is probably a practical size to trailer sail, i.e launch when you want to go out and bring it home when finished. I certainly wouldn't do that with my boat.

But if this boat will only go at hull speed, it's not going to get there a lot quicker than my own boat, and I can have a cup of tea on the way or use the heads if I want to. I know which i prefer, even if you ignore the flappy things on the pole and just motor it.
 
Supply and demand. When they were new, fishing boats were cheaper than equivalent size sailing cruisers for obvious reasons. Now little demand for small cruisers but continuing demand for fishing boats, with few new ones being built so prices of existing boats hold up.
 
rbcoomer said:
Convenience. A small motor-powered vessel can be launched or cast off from berth fairly quickly and 'put away' equally quickly. Perhaps in part my lack of understanding (probably that of others too though), but sailing boats seem to need much more preparation and thus time.
Click to expand...

I don't think the departure or putting away need take any longer than a motor boat. I can pretty much chuck my bag on board, turn on the battery switch, take the cover off the wheel, start the engine and cast off the lines. There's another cover at the front end of the sail that needs to be removed, and a cover over the rest of it that stays in place but needs to be unzipped, but those can be done while motoring down the river if needs be. Everything else like stowing food or beer or topping up the water tank are the same for power or sail.

What does take time is getting places - it's quite normal to go out for a day's sail first thing in the morning and only stop again at the end of the day. I get the impression that motorboats don't do this so much, dashing from one place to another in relatively short sprints and spending a lot of time anchored or moored in between?

Pete
 
A bit more information.

He actually paid £2000 for it. £2500 was the asking price.

I found another one without engine and a poor trailer, that sold for £610 That shows a lot of the value is in the engine an a decent trailer (this one has recently had new bearings, suspension units and tyres)

The engine is a 2 stroke 8HP suzuki just serviced.

It will be interesting if we get out at the weekend to give her a trial.

I think my original point however is why the attraction of an open boat like this. for my money this one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fishing-Boat-Bonwitco-449-/221855033201?hash=item33a7972771 or this one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fishing-b...242aeda&pid=100005&rk=1&rkt=6&sd=221855033201 offer so much more accommodation, somewhere to keep dry, somewhere to store gear etc, and all for no more, or even less money.
 
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As I said before, fishing is hugely popular and despite any denials the fraternity is rather set in it's ways with slight bent in whatever the latest successful fad is. However one thing that is highly prised is stability and room as a fishing platform. Very few boats actually lend themselves successfully to this task in that size and so you will see the same makes over and over again as being the boat of choice. Warriors, Seahogs, Shetlands, Orkney's always seem to retain their value and are easy to sell on. Throw in a Dejorn or a Sea Swift for example and you cant give them away.
 
As was said, supply and demand. A small sailing boat is only any use for sailing really, not good for fishing from and there is a lack of cockpit space, too much taken up by the cabin and by all the stuff for sailing. A lot of people want to fish compared with sail, more demand for fishing boats. Compromise would be an open sailing boat but they seem a lot more expensive than cabin ones.
 
I think you have hit the nail on the head there.

Adding a cabin to ANY boat devalues it. So the question becomes why do people pay more for less? To me a completely open boat of any type does not appeal.

It's a good job we are not all the same and there are different types of boat to suit our differing needs.
 
The whole point of a fishing boat is to fish. You can't do that in a cabin. If you have a cabin you lose between a third and a half of available fishing space so 16 to 18 foot fishing boats are either open or have an open backed cuddy that gives some shelter without taking much away from fishing space. There is a huge variation in price of fishing boats based on condition. Prices for small, old sailing cruisers tend to be low because...not so many people want them, and the cost of replacing the many bits on an old sailing boat can be quite high compared to the nothing that you have to do with a plain old fishing boat that floats!
 
There is an old clinker built open 16' fishing boat on a very sturdy home made trailer made of steel and what looks like Landrover tyres that probably needs a Scania artic tractor unit to pull it, next to us in the boatyard at Woodbridge. Real Tough looking tool, with I believe a single cylinder diesel chug chugger inboard motor in a box in the middle. Price? £1950.
Some very attractive sailing options with sleeping berths etc. in the yard at same money.
 
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