Cost of Living Aboard - Maintenance

[TritonSailor]

If I can give an example of reasonably poor judgement, I bought my Triton this last Feb for $3500. It was in great shape for a 47 year old boat. No delamination of the core, the hull was intact, except for some crazing and pits which is fixable. I went out and spent money. Some couldn't be helped, I had to buy tools for the job, my ex had taken them while I was still in Iraq. I bought bunches of West System supplies and tools, paint, nav lights, and of course I had to buy a toy, sorry zehag, I am the owner of a Raymarine E80 superpack, which includes vhf radio, chart plotter, gps antenna, and depth sounder. Had to have it. I bought house battery, circuit panel, and ACR. Of course none of it's hooked up yet, gotta save more money and buy the wire to run the electrical. Oh did I mention, I need to get barrier coat, and bottom paint. Oh yeh, get my Atomic 4 going. I'm out of breath...So, initial investment was $3500. Investment so far with absolutely no judgment $7500, for a grand total of $11,000. That's since February. I've learned my lesson.

Jeff

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by Tyler Durden

I've been running the math on this one too. Based on what I've been reading, it's looking like I'd be better off shelling out more money initially for a newer boat (I was originally thinking early to mid 80's Hunter 34). I guess I'm going to wind up spending the money one way or another. I think I'd rather it be for a newer boat than to replace ~25 year old equipment at hundreds of dollars a whack. Just thinking out loud...

This is a good way to look at it but there is a counter argument.

If you can get the older boat significantly cheaper and you have the war chest available to upgrade quickly there is an argument that says get the older hull, paint it top and bottom, replace the standing rigging, the sails and the electronics/instruments.

If you can do that for a similar of slightly higher price I would go with the older hull and the new stuff. Even on a 7-10 y/o boat this stuff will have a finite life left.

[Stillraining]

I've learned my lesson.

Jeff: OK maybe you have made some mistakes but you are being way to hard on your self...There is no such thing as a FREE boat..they all cost money and sometimes gobs of it to put right.

There is a guy on this fourm here and a friend of mine whom stole his 38' boat for 20 bucks ( no that is not a misprint ) he is in the middle of a compleat rebuild as we speak but he has sailed the piss out of the boat for the last year up until he decide to do it..He is very industrious and dosent pay anybody to do what he can do himself so he will still come out on top when he's finished...but if he chose to... could get upside down in a heartbeat if he gave up and hired others to do the work he is totaly capable of doing himself.

Now...You are also comparing apples to oranges when you start to add in things like your "Toy" as you put it ..That has nothing to do with maintenance of your boat but is an upgrade...somthing you would have had to pay more for initially then your 3500.00 purchase price for the boat if it was already on it...not retail like you did probably but still the owner is not going to give it away..he would be beter off yanking it off the boat if he had to.

I have a little different theory then maybe most on boats...and that is... most people see what a boat can be once they own it shortly after the purchase and head in that direction... not what the boat is and leave it alone...If you just left the boat alone and sailed it as purchased you will probably get every dime you paid for it back out of it when your through with it... and you more then likely will have had a blast the whole time with it as well...even if it left you stranded a few times...but we are a soulful lot us humans... and we want our beloved ship to come back to life so to speak..it is only then that you start to thorugh good money after bad usually unless you are a very lucky purchaser like my friend I talked about above.

So back out any "toys" you have bought for her and it dosent look so bad then usually.

FWIW....Boats arnt called a "Hole in the water" for nothing.....but its some of the best money you ever spent since.... well ...................I wont go there..

PS: By the way...I hope your starting to get motivated again ...you have a great boat..

[TritonSailor]

Stillraining, I wasn't trying to be necessarily hard on myself as much as I was trying to convey that you could spend very little money on a boat, but still get carried away after you put so much effort on getting the bargain. What makes it worse in my situation is that I had to return a lot of things to pay off my VA bills. Now that I have it and I chose not to return it, I'm happy a own an advanced navigation system. Everyone will also be happy that I screwed over Western Marine, because do to a marketing error, I got a $3600 Raymarine E-series superpack for $1380.00! Brand new, still in the box. I couldn't give that back, because it would end up costing me thousands more to get it back. So to sum it up, most of my frustration comes from the fact that I spent that money, had to return a lot of it to pay medical bills the govt. should have paid for, and now I'll have to buy some of that **** again...

[Pblais]

I think I'd rather it be for a newer boat than to replace ~25 year old equipment at hundreds of dollars a whack. Just thinking out loud...

Yet another way. Many of the late 80's boats for sale were bought in the late 90's and upgraded and perhaps well cared for. Folks cruised on them for 5 years and came back and now sail too little.

Within that group you may find that the boat you are considering has had a lot of good things done already. I think you idea is correct if it were an original boat with little done to it. I've seen 1978 boats with new Alwgrip everywhere and new sails for sale. There enough of the updated boats out there to search for. The sad part is updates to older boats don;'t always carry value at sale time. This means all the upgrades are now discounted. There still leaves things screwed up, things to be done, and things done well yet the items are just warn out. Canvas, sails, and upholstery don't last that long even when well cared for.

If you start looking at what things cost you can find deals within the older yet upgraded boat group.

[aboutgone]

seaparrot:
me and the wife are about to start our journey aboard a sailboat....after doing the research..as Paul describes,we have decided on a CSY 44. it is a 1979 boat...pretty old,but it has all the big ticket items replaced already...most of the major stuff has be taken care of...so we don't fore see any major spending for at least 5 years...we are buying a foreclosure
in flordia with a deep water canal and dock...so no slip fees....when we leave the dock we can either rent the place out or sell it at way more than we paid for it to supply us with cruising bucks.......we are DIY's and always have been. so the up keep will just be materials......as Zhag said ,its a way of life...if you want to do it ,you will find a way to do it cheaper than the 10-25% way.............IMHO..........Ed & Yvonne

P.S. the people on this forum are a priceless source of info that you cant get any where else........