real cost of owning this boat

I was blessed to have a Dad that was a great Mentor. I really learned a lot from him - he owned a machine tool business, was a pilot, owned a plane, and was an inland yachtsman. I turned out to be a mechanical engineer, pilot and boater just like him - I was Truly Blessed.

He always told me, "take the purchase price of your boat, and budget 10% per year for all expenses". His estimate has been real close with my 340, 410 and 58! Just sayin'...

My son is majoring in mechanical engineering.
 
Good for him! Where is he going?

I met Gary (foursons) for dinner at Arthur's Steakhouse in Hoboken one Saturday night in 2012 during my purchase of the 410 - he had brought one of his sons up to Hoboken to look at Stevens Institute of Technology for Mechanical
Engineering. It was nice to meet his son Tim and Mike F. (Turtletone), another CSR member, joined us. A great memory from the purchase of my 410 from Dom's (the late OSD9) estate.
 
Good for him! Where is he going?

I met Gary (foursons) for dinner at Arthur's Steakhouse in Hoboken one Saturday night in 2012 during my purchase of the 410 - he had brought one of his sons up to Hoboken to look at Stevens Institute of Technology for Mechanical
Engineering. It was nice to meet his son Tim and Mike F. (Turtletone), another CSR member, joined us. A great memory from the purchase of my 410 from Dom's (the late OSD9) estate.

He’s a sophomore at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
 
Smart kid. He gets it from his mother.
He loves it there and fits in really well.
He’s hoping to work for a car company! Well, at least that’s his dream. Been that way forever.
His school gets a lot of internship opportunities coming their way from car companies and he’s hoping to score one next year.
 
Skip's post reminded me of another expense. Flushing the A/C unit every year or two. Our mechanic does it in about 2 hours, start to finish. Keeps the marine growth from building up thus the A/C runs efficiently.

Many folks who wet-slip run their A/C on the dehumidify mode, but we don't. We rely on a dedicated 110v dehumidifier draining into the shower. That saves wear and tear on the A/C unit. With a dehumidifier it stays dry below, but kinda hot at times. Hot isn't bad.
Flushing the A/C system- I put a couple of Bromine tablets in the A/C strainer each month. works good.
 
I was blessed to have a Dad that was a great Mentor. I really learned a lot from him - he owned a machine tool business, was a pilot, owned a plane, and was an inland yachtsman. I turned out to be a mechanical engineer, pilot and boater just like him - I was Truly Blessed.

He always told me, "take the purchase price of your boat, and budget 10% per year for all expenses". His estimate has been real close with my 340, 410 and 58! Just sayin'...
I never thought of it that way but now that I did thirty seconds of math, That's really close to our annual outlay all in.
CD
 
I never thought of it that way but now that I did thirty seconds of math, That's really close to our annual outlay all in.
CD
If I added labor costs to all my projects that I do myself, I would easily be there on my 58...
 
someone asked earlier about my "do it yourself" skills and I would say very high...especially for stuff I think is more interesting to do. Which of the normal "maintenance" things including changing all zinc (or whatever corosion attracting metal), etc require the boat to be lifted and worked on out of the water. I realize bottom paint would require that but not sure what else if anything would. I will be in a marina without a mechanic shop or the ability to lift out of the water which is one of the reasons I'm asking. I'm not even sure if u do it your selfers wax the boat while its in the water or if that's even possible? Also, I know I can take my boat to a mechanic but is it way more expensive to have one come to you for routine stuff? Thank you
 
Man, you are playing with FIRE! This is the exact question NOT to ask! ;)

I believe one of our members (tmott?) has as his signature that he has a PhD in OCD. Well, I'm that way when it comes to managing money. I can tell you down to the last dime how much money we have spent persuing this hobby. But I don't think you want to know that answer!

Since you asked, I will share my figures from date of purchase (August 2016) through today. I have omitted slip fees (home port and transcient), fuel, and insurance. I have created my own categories of cleaning, couses & classes, maintenance (includes parts, tools as well as Service Dept charges), safety, and supplies. For clarity, cleaning includes waxing, compounding, and bottom paint. First year maintenance expenses include a new salon Air Conditioner.

Also, I do about 80+% of my own maintenance (including winterizing, aftercooler & heat exchanger maintenance). I keep multiple sets of full spares on board along with tools, test kits, DVMs, etc. You get the idea.

And if the Admiral asks, it is 1/10th of these figures!

Jaybeaux
First time I have seen this thread..... I am easily less than half your overall costs...you are averaging $10k/yr... My last 4 years I would not be over $1,000/yr for maintenance, no cleaning costs...not sure what you are spending so much money on safety?... we do around $2k-$3k on upgrades a year. With the upgrades I would be maybe if pushing it $5k/yr
 
First time I have seen this thread..... I am easily less than half your overall costs...you are averaging $10k/yr... My last 4 years I would not be over $1,000/yr for maintenance, no cleaning costs...not sure what you are spending so much money on safety?... we do around $2k-$3k on upgrades a year. With the upgrades I would be maybe if pushing it $5k/yr
I think many of the posters to this thread are quoting total costs of owning the boat on an annual basis, which is the actual subject of the thread, excluding fuel and other variable cruising costs. I'm in the water year round @ $550/mo, add $1500 for insurance, $150 quarterly for diver services and our local property tax of $2500 and there goes $10,000+ before the engines even crank. I know I'm in Californication but even so we don't pay double for anything out here except Real Estate and some of our Taxes.
CD
 
I think many of the posters to this thread are quoting total costs of owning the boat on an annual basis, which is the actual subject of the thread, excluding fuel and other variable cruising costs. I'm in the water year round @ $550/mo, add $1500 for insurance, $150 quarterly for diver services and our local property tax of $2500 and there goes $10,000+ before the engines even crank. I know I'm in Californication but even so we don't pay double for anything out here except Real Estate and some of our Taxes.
CD
That's what I posted $5,000/year (6 months then frozen for 6 months)...I was just surprised at Jaybeaux's cost being double ..when we have the same boat
 
someone asked earlier about my "do it yourself" skills and I would say very high...especially for stuff I think is more interesting to do. Which of the normal "maintenance" things including changing all zinc (or whatever corosion attracting metal), etc require the boat to be lifted and worked on out of the water. I realize bottom paint would require that but not sure what else if anything would. I will be in a marina without a mechanic shop or the ability to lift out of the water which is one of the reasons I'm asking. I'm not even sure if u do it your selfers wax the boat while its in the water or if that's even possible? Also, I know I can take my boat to a mechanic but is it way more expensive to have one come to you for routine stuff? Thank you


Most regular boat maintenance can be done in the water. Many things are easier out of the water, of course.

Bottom paint: Must be out of the water.
Zincs: Can be done in water, by a diver. Much easier when hauled.
Prop work / repair: Can be removed / installed by a diver.
Shaft work / struts, etc: Needs to be hauled.
Waxing: Some folks to this in the water. It can be done. I think it's easier to do this on land though. You don't need to be attempting it via an unstable platform (dinghy).

As for mobile mechanics, there are lots of these kinds of services. I'd say it's the norm rather than the exception. My yard does not have a mechanic on site all the time; they partner with a local marine repair business to work on customer boats. That business works on lots of other boats and travels around Long Island. My yard takes care of billing me for those services (with some uplift). They are Yanmar and Mercruiser certified, but not Cummins. I can call in the local Cummins mobile repair tech if I need to.

Many (most) yards will required that any outside service agent get permission to work in the yard and provide a certificate of insurance. In some cases they will demand to be paid a percentage of any work performed by an outside agent. This is more typical of a full service marina with repair facilities, which doesn't sound like your situation.

Check with your marina about their policies on repairs and do-it-your self. Again, a practice with some full-service marinas, is that they do not allow customers to perform ANY mechanical work on their boats, let alone bringing in an outside agent. You can compare that to the boat yard I'm in, which is pretty unusual: the customer can do ANY work on their boat they want, except applying bottom paint (due to NYS regulations). If you need something and can't do it yourself and they can, (engine repair, shrink wrap, etc), they want you to do through them so they can stay in business. But sometimes on a big repair job they will just have you work directly with their repair partner. The yard owner did this with my in-law's $10k engine repair - they said just work directly with the mechanic and pay them rather than the yard getting in the middle.

Because they are so flexible, I dread the thought of someone else running the yard.
 
That's what I posted $5,000/year (6 months then frozen for 6 months)...I was just surprised at Jaybeaux's cost being double ..when we have the same boat

For sake of taking this thread sideways in a hurry, I'll say that my figures encompass all costs from soup to nuts. For example: you mention safety. Well I count as safety such things as: BoatUS Membership including Gold Towing Package; Mantus Hook & Swivel; CO Monitors; Handheld fire extinguishers; Halon Bottle annual service; Flares; Distress Strobe; New VHF; antenna, AIS system; bits to install all of that; life jacket for the dog; inflatable life raft; COD Renewal; dock lines.

Now if we want to discuss the classification of expenses, that's an entire can of worms unto itself!

My point of being thorough is to be honest with myself. I know what I spend because I know what it costs. I'm new to this hobby. Just 4 years. There are a lot of things that I didn't have that went into these figures. But again, it is thorough.

Jaybeaux
 
I don’t watch this as close as some, but I would say counting slip fees, fuel and Maint, I spent at least 13k last year, that isn’t any upgrades. I pay for a lot of my work, just because I want to use the boat when I am there more than save money and work on it

2019
6000 slip expense
4000 fuel
1000 insurance
change oil/filters in spring when I bought it, 2 motors and genny including all 3 impellers

change transmission fluid/filters

change oil again (and hose) when remote oil filter hose leaked in July

genny not starting consistently in August

change holding tank filter

repair fresh water tank level sensor

winterize November....
 
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Well “Tugger” it doesn’t look like ‘you have run away with your hair on fire after seeing what it costs to play in the 40 foot+ boat game, can’t wait to hear how you come out with your choice!
Merry Christmas
CD
 
The costs for a specific owner/specific boat comes down to what they buy.

If I buy a boat with systems/power that is not healthy ... my cost of ownership will be higher than the norm.
 
This is all very helpful. I sincerely appreciate your input. I hope to repay the favor. Thank you all
 
Including slip costs, I'm typically around 12k for a my boat around 40' OAL. We have a solid 9-10 months of good boating in Texas with the balance where you're ble to go out on the water but the weather is hit or miss.
 
Some day I plan to request that the moderators of this forum create a "safe place" for gas engine boat owners. It's not safe to speak in public about the potential upsides of owning gas engines in any boat over 37' long here. You've been warned :):)
 

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