How much boat can I afford?

[ironmandel]

Don’t buy , some guys I sailed with last year had the perfect saying . “If it fly’s f***s or floats , rent it “
Sounds good to me .

[Larry Florida]

Originally Posted by ironmandel

Don’t buy , some guys I sailed with last year had the perfect saying . “If it fly’s f***s or floats , rent it “
Sounds good to me .

Renting for 10 years in any of those categories could get expensive.

[Zzmeyer]

I finally decided it is impossible to answer. As others have brilliantly said there are a lot of variables. You can get a very nice 32 foot boat for $100k all in. I think the only "must" expenses are those the surveyor finds during the survey. This morning on Yachtworld there were 375 fiberglass, diesel sailboats priced between $50k and $100k in the 30-35 foot range in the US. The reason I say the question of how much for upgrades is hard to answer is less the "must haves" (for me the engine, rigging and batteries are key to me being happy) than the "want to haves". I just looked up a nice thread where the new boat owner had just bought a two decade old 40 footer for about $140k and had a $30k upgrade budget. Seemed reasonable. To him, what was important was a Leisurefurl Boom $15k, an electric winch for it $5k and a new main sail $5k. $25k of his retrofit budget went to a roller furling main. He is not wrong, but his priorities are totally different than mine. I think your budget and boat size is a great compromise. Whatever you elect to do I think you will find marine related costs are not the same as rest of the world cost.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by NedX

Thank you. Excellent follow up question. I am asking about experienced owners' sense of a purchase cost to maintenance cost ratio. So if 100k is the budget to buy and maintain for 5-10 years, then what is your sense of the ideal purchase price?
That's probably the way I should've put it, to make it easier to see where I was coming from, maybe get a "poor" rating instead of "terrible."
I also realize that a powerboat could ram you the first day out, or you could drop dead on the second one.
The idea is experienced owners' sense of an economic model.

5 to 10years is a pretty big range.

Let's assume 5yrs, I would probably figure on something in the $50k for purchase in good running order and leave a little margin for error if something big goes.

As others have said what you consider "maintenance and up keep" varies from person to person. We know people who will spend $1500 on a buff and wax 4 times per year...well that already gets you to $6k/yr without even touching any actual functionality. In your price range, I would expect a lot of DIY only farming out technical work that is beyond your capabilities.

Unfortunately, still too many variables to tie down exactly.