Catamaran Expenses

[oneline]

I am considering purchasing a 7-10 year old catamaran such as the Leopard 40 or the Lagoon 410. My budget is 250K.
If you own a similar Cat or have experience on how expensive it will be to own/run such a boat, I would really appreciate if you could share your thoughts on this and possibly point me in a better direction.
My plan is to keep my residence, travel the Caribbean, Europe and the Pacific for 7-8 months every year, then leave the boat, fly home for a couple of months, return and resume my journey.

Thanks a lot,

J

[Eleven]

My old Prout was very cheap to run, moorings at 140 sterling per month with free electric and water but that is the bottom end of pontoon mooring. For the Med you need to shop around on the web, Italy seems to be expensive but culturally very good, the Greek islands are fine for anchoring off but are further from airports. Southern Portugal is a good gateway, Faro Airport served from all over Europe and 50euro taxi to Ablbuferia for quality moorings in a good marina.
West Coast of France and Spain are nice touring but harbours are well spaced, and it is full atlantic weather where storms last for a week or more.
The African coast is a bit more dubious, but I've no experience there.
And then there's the Black Sea etc, also dear in spite of the economic troubles.

[Cotemar]

Not enough info.

$250,000 is enough to buy the boat.
Will it be in the Caribbean on a mooring or a dock?
Will you have Solar or run a generator?
Do you cook on the boat or eat out a lot?
Will you dive to clean the bottom or haul out?
How many times will you fly back an forth?
Will you pay someone to keep an eye on your boat?
Will it be in the Caribbean during hurricane season?
Will you have or need crew?
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A vague question gets vague answers

[oneline]

1.Will it be in the Caribbean on a mooring or a dock?
2.Will you have Solar or run a generator?
3.Do you cook on the boat or eat out a lot?
4.Will you dive to clean the bottom or haul out?
5.How many time will you fly back an forth?
6.Will you pay someone to keep an eye on your boat?
7.Will it be in the Caribbean during hurricane season?
8.Will you have or need crew?


1. 50/50
2.Solar
3.70% cook, 30% eat out
4.Dive
5.One round trip x yr
6.Yes
7.Yes, I will be with the boat during that time.
8.No

Thanks for taking the time.

J

[oneline]

Also, I will not need a crew. I plan on sailing it with another person only.

Just the two of us.

J

[djmarchand]

Your question really has no answer. But in general boats seem to take about 5% of market value annually to keep them in current condition. This excludes docking and insurance which can add another 5%.

Sure you can spend very little. But the boat deteriorates and either you sell it for less than you paid or you spend a lot of money getting it back into shape.

Cats are no different. Maybe slightly higher engine maintenance due to having two. OTOH better access to most systems probably makes cat maintenance about the same as a monohull.

David

[simonmd]

Bear in mind that if you visit the Med', it's common for marinas to charge an extra 50% for any multihull. With a 40ft+ cat, that means you end up paying what the 60 footers are, not cheap.

[s/vbuckeye]

I am a Lagoon 380 owner so I am a bit partial. You may want to check out the "owners" group sites once you have narrowed down your choices. Lagoon's is: lagooncatowners : Lagoon Catamaran Owners Group

[Sand crab]

The Bums did an itemized account. It's in the archives, somewhere.
bumfuzzle | living, sailing, procreating

[Ortolan]

Not exactly your situation, but here's a link to our Year 1 budget Yr One Spending (click “cruising budgets” for more info) « Ortolan in Flight: the cat with the bird name on our nearly new 41' Maine Cat catamaran.

The Bumfuzzle budget helped us several years ago, although they were circumnavigating. Unfortunately, the more you're around the U.S., Bahamas & Caribbean, the more expensive it is!

Lori

[Sand crab]

Here's the Bums very detailed expenses.
bumfuzzle | Cost of Sailing Around the World

BTW I really liked the circumnavigation part of the blog. Read it if you havn't already.

[oneline]

Thank you all for responding to my request. I read the Bum and Ortolan yearly expenses and I was able to put together a better idea of the general cost of running a Cat.
Cotemar, djmarchand, sorry for the vague question. I am not well versed on this subject matter. However, if you asked me how much it costs me to run/own my SUV, as the owner, I would kindly tell you what I pay for insurance, regi, yearly inspection, oil changes every 3000 K miles, tires and give you my personal experiences since my ownership.

J

[Teeto]

I reckon you could work on a ballpark figure of 10% of value for first year and hope to reduce that to 5% thereafter if you are lucky!

[Sand crab]

Just thought I'd throw a caveat here. The Bums bought a crappy boat with a major delam going on one hull which was not seen by the surveyer. Maybe it was there at purchase, maybe not. Read the blog. The hull repair bill was $33,000 on top of the expenses.
bumfuzzle | nz repair costs
When cats get about 10 to 15 years old they are about done depreciating. That's good. But you got a boat of 10 to 15 year old systems. That's bad. Try to find the sweet spot in between.