I bought a 2009
Leopard 372 powercat at its 5 year departure point from The Moorings. Boat was $450k new. I bought for $230K. It took $25K (all
work done by pros, not DIY) to bring it back to very high quality.
I'm chartering it out now at Southwest
Florida Yachts in
Cape Coral. It only made sense for me because of the large Section 179 tax deduction of a boat business LLC, whereby the whole
purchase price and capital upgrades were written off against my other sources of
income. Those tax savings became the "kitty" by which to mostly fund the negative cash flow each year. I have found that I only need to fund about 2 weeks of my old charter costs but now am using the boat for 4-5 weeks.
In my case this was a winning situation, albeit only 7 months into it. I don't see anyway that a one boat business would ever generate even break even cash flow. After 5 years I should be able to sell and walk away without being upside down. I have very detailed spreadsheets on all the income/ expense/ tax calculations if someone is seriously interested.
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