Cost Of Owning A 30ish Foot Boat

[Sandero]

hard to tell...

summer mooring - 600
winter storage - 900 - 1500
fuel - 150
oil change - 50

then the rest depends on the condition of the boat... what do you need?
dink? OB?
engine service
refrigeration
nav equipment
radio
chart plotter and charts
safety equipment PFDs, flares etc.
running rigging
sail and repair
cushions
dodger or bimini
ground tackle

it goes on and on...

It all depends.. probably won't be less than $3,000/ yr.

[MLC]

My wife and I bought at 1987 Catalina 30, mk II in 2000 for $29,500. It was in good condition but it was lightly equipped. It had not been raced before. The diesel engine had 300 hours on it. We sold it in 2007 for $27,000. The engine had around 650 hours on it when we sold it.

We spent around $12,000 to $24,000 a year. This includes for membership at Edgewater Yacht Club, repair services, maintenance, outside winter storage, dockage, race fees, regatta expenses, food and drink for the crew, insurance, fuel, and upgrades to the boat. Big items were replacing a bulkhead that split during a race ($4,500), new mast step ($3,000), restoring the surface fiberglass in the cockpit ($4,000), sound system ($3,000), sails ($3,500), safety gear ($2,500), new prop shaft/cutlass bearing ($1,000), electronics ($1,000). The boat was in better shape when we sold it than when we bought it.

We sailed the boat in fair weather and foul, including in winds over 30 knots and waves over 6 feet. We raced twice a week from May to October.

We are shopping for our next sailboat. I want a cruiser/racer that is a little bigger. Costs go up with size....

[MarkSF]

I've had a 31 ft Bristol for 4 years. My budget for maintenance is $500 a month. Most months I spend nothing like that, but the money goes in the kitty for the occasional bigger bill or upgrade.

I have it hauled out every 2 years for bottom paint, but something else always needs doing at the same time, so haulouts have always ended up costing $5 to $6k. That still leaves me on track for $500/month.

If I can do something myself, I do. So your costs would be higher if you get professionals to do everything.

Add $300/month for the slip, and $100/month for everything else (insurance, pumpout, diving, registration, property taxes)

Costs seem to be dropping with time. The first year or two could be considered a minor refit, with consequent costs. My level of confidence in my ability to do things myself has been increasing, so that's bringing costs down.

I have to keep in mind that, eventually, I'll need a new engine. How long can a 30 year old diesel keep going for?

[Bikini Blues]

Sept 2014 we discovered a 1967 Chris Craft Cavalier 33' twin screw. She was in a private slip on a remote bayou north of Gulfport, Mississippi. We purchased her with cash the same day she was listed for sale. A rare find indeed. Only three from that year remain....(to the best of our knowledge). Everything was in working order. The hull had just been through a restoration. Asking price was 17,500 we paid 11,000 in 100 dollar bills. When your buying a boat have cash in your pocket. Several weeks after purchase we attended our first boat show in Bay St Louis. We turned down numerous offers with the highest at 25,000. At that time we made the decision to keep her in the family. Since then we have spent 9,100 in upgrades. Our slip fee at the Gulfport marina is 257. Our insurance was 550. Fuel is 120 gallons twin tanks = 360. There have been a lot of small purchases we have not kept track of ... and there will be more. She is not cheap to maintain but far cheaper than our frequent visits into the Eastern Caribbean.

[Captain Curran]

just a thought,

you can clean your hull yourself - its easy to do with scuba gear and scraper -

that's how i do it now, however, before I could afford the scuba gear - i would put on snorkel gear and scrape my entire 30 foot sailboat hull -
it is hard work, but trying to live cheap on a boat requires lots of hard work, so you might as well start with scraping your own hull...

or not..depends on your budget i suppose -

the advantage to scraping your own boat, is that you are constantly inspecting the bottomside, so you can see problems before they manifest...