Weekend Warriors - What Did You Spend this Year?

[sailorboy1]

Tomorrow I have to go move the boat for haulout and winter storage. But I did get a hard half year of sailing out of it this year in the northeast and liked it enough to continue the learning curve and planning. Being my first boat and just to mess up my mind I held track of how much my hobby cost me this year. Not counting boat payments themselves I've spend $7495 on the boat, and after I pay the rest of the winter storage bill it's going to be around $8400. Looking at it the biggest costs were boat storage (mooring and winter storage) which were about $3400 combined. My next was the getting off the sand bar the first time I went out ($1600) that hope not to repeat (have insurance for this now). I do have some projects that need doing, only a couple that are "must do" and which are mainly cheap labor jobs for me. In the end I spent almost the same last year taking lessons and joining a sailing club.



Just wondering how everyone else made out?

[S&S]

Cheezus! If I kept a spreadsheet how could I have "plausable deniability" for the wife?

[sailorboy1]

It's always best to know the truth for yourself. Do you really think your wife doesn't know? Besides blame the extra expenses on her "must haves" (just kidding ladies). In the end its' just whether it was wort it to you. I have a friend with a power boat that put away the boat 2 months ago because he reached his fuel budgetwhiule at same time making fun of me because my boat goes soooooo slooooow!

[Highlander40]

Don, you have a good thing going there.
Just budget for some repairs later on.
I had to laugh reading your post.

Here is a rough guess for my season. dockage 5K, storage and service 20K
upgrades and replacements another 20K, fuel 5K ++++

This probly doesn't cover it all.
Don't be fooled by your expenses this year. Throw in some new sails, rigging, blister repair, engine repair, electronics replacement and well you get the idea how this frugal sport can change overnight.

But we had a great season and it was all worth every penny.

[S&S]

Kidding aside, it's about $3800 for the slip in the summer and $1900 for in-water winter storage. I generally keep total soup-to-nuts cost under $10k or so for the year excluding major upgrades and trip-related expenses.

[jm21]

Moorage so far: about $2,000.
~$200 for material to replace the setee cushions.
~$50 fuel.
~$50 battery replacement.
Around $2,300.

I actually ran aground too, but was able to get off fine. Could use new bottom paint, especially on the end of the keel.

[Noname1]

A wise fellow told me to never add up the boat bucks as it will only make you miserable.

[HHNTR111]

I don't know and I don't keep track. I pay cash, and if I don't have the cash, or don't want to spend it, I don't. If I have it, I do.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by S&S

Cheezus! If I kept a spreadsheet how could I have "plausable deniability" for the wife?

Yes, I reckon anyone who doesn't keep a spreadsheet forgets many of the expenses.

We don't keep one. I would love to, but we are administrativly challanged!

Hey Don, just keep that spreadsheet going as it will give you a great idea of fixed yearly expenses while cruising... just add extra rows for food, beer and bribes.

[sailorboy1]

on a different note.....who fixed my typo in the title!!!! I knew it was there ;-)

Mark - I tried to add up the beer column once, was so depressing I had to drink a bottle of rum to get over it

[David_Old_Jersey]

I only remember the good bills

Moorings? £68 pa



Summer only though........and the £1k for a complete set of mooring chains & warps doesn't get counted

[David M]

...and my wife thinks a ski boat parked in the driveway is expensive. I need to show her your post.

[SabreKai]

$3300 for the years club membership, dockage and storage on two boats.
$2200 for a complete instrument package, which lives in my closet
$2000 for misc materials to build a mast rack, and work on the boat itself
$2000 on new tools including a 9HP compressor for the sandblasting.

Hmm, its been a cheap year. The year before I replaced both sets of furling gear on my 38ft sloop, came to about $8,000 alone plus the $3300 for the club.


Sabre

[S/V_Surya]

My cost was $2300 for summer slip, winter storage about 1 K, repair to starter, new starter batteries and new starter cable about $400.00. All I needed was battery cable so most was self inflicted.

I have had a boat for many years and my favorite saying is I am not having as much fun as I am paying for. Also, I never use boat and investment in the same sentence.

[Steve W]

About $5k/yr for slip fees, maint, fuel, insurance, bottom cleaning, pro-rated haul-out & bottom paint, misc parts and sailing stuff I can't live without + annual 10 day BVI bareboat charter for an annual total of about $10k/yr. Flights to BVI are covered by FF miles. I include the BVI charter because it replaces supporting a larger boat, so we get our bigger boat fix in the caribbean and hand the keys (and maintenance) back to the charter company. Works for us.