[Charlie]

My boat is 41' long. It cost me $10k to replace the Standing rigging. It was rather pricey but I have rod rigging. The price to replace with wire was $7k. There was probably about $1k to $1.5k of extra work to make the wire rigging work in the rod rigging holders. A freind had a Niagra 35 his cost was $3.5k.

The price difference is huge as you go up in size. Here is what I did:

I got estimates on what it would cost to replace key items on the boats that I was looking at. I found that under 39' was the best bet for me b/c that is what I could afford to maintain.

On a 36' boat I could have replaced all the rigging myself for about $1k.

In General:

Smaller boats are much cheaper to take care of. Smaller boats have less systems so are easier to maintain. (Compare the cost of an electric winch with the cost of a two speed self tailer compared to the cost of a single speed non self tailer) Less maintenance means more time to enjoy sailing.

Into this calculus you need to throw in: The Admiral is always right and the corallary -- A bigger boat is cheaper than a divorce. If you can solve the equation let us know.