Can We Afford a Catamaran ?

[ColonelK]

Hi everyone! I am new to this forum but thought it would be the perfect place to find answers to the questions I can't find anywhere else. We just got back from the Strictly Sail show in Miami this past weekend where we got to tour plenty of beautiful catamarans and even got to sail one in a beginners course for the first time. I've been getting books at the library and searching online, and it just seems impossible to get the answers we're looking for.

Here is our dream that we are trying to see how realistic it is for us: We want to buy a catamaran, likely a used one to be more affordable, sell our cars and move out of the house we are renting and make the boat our new home. Since it will be our only place of residence, we see it as being like buying a house. And better than a house, we can live on it AND make money by doing day and week long charters around FL and the Caribbean.

If you can't answer all the questions, just answer whichever ones you can. Thanks!

Question 1: I've read somewhere that you can't charter Catamarans based in the US unless they were made in the US. Is that true? Most seem to be made elsewhere so that seems like a ridiculous rule.

Question 2: We are in our mid 20s so obviously we don't have the cash to buy a boat outright. The only way it seems like a realistic alternative to buying a house is if you can make similar payments on it as a house. ie smaller payments over 20 or 30 years instead of big payments over 5 or 10 years. Is that possible?

Question 3: I've read you need to pull the boat out of the water yearly and have it resurfaced or something. Is that true? And including that, what kind of maintenance costs can we expect to budget for?

Question 4: About how much does insurance on a catamaran cost?

I have a ton of other questions but this mostly covers the costs questions and is long enough. Thanks everyone!