I think having a cruising boat for 6 months is just plain likely to be expensive. It's longer than a typical
charter rental, and if you buy you are not getting a lot of time out of your 1 time costs. It doesn't make owning the boat more expensive, it makes the average daily cost more expensive. Cruising sailboats and the costs that go with them are just not
cheap.
I don't think there is any magic solution. You need to weigh the options and decide if one is right for you.
My
Beneteau is in charter and I know how much people pay to rent it. It's what makes it affordable for me to own. Certainly you can charter a boat with insurance for 6 months, but at that price, you are probably better off
buying and re-selling, which is what I'm doing with my other boat:
On the other hand I just purchased a
Hunter 30, I may only use for 2 3-month cruises and then re-sell. It wouldn't surprise me if the buy minus sell price,
maintenance,
storage, insurance, etc, costs me 18K or close to 2/3 the value of the boat over a 3-year period. Still, it's cheaper than
renting would have been and gives me more freedom. In the end, I decided the opportunity to have 2, 3-month cruises is worth 9K per
cruise or $3,000 per month.