How Much Did You Pay, or Are Willing to Pay, for Your Cruising Vessel ?

[wildebeest3]

Some great stories out there.

I wish I could say that I had mechanical or wood carpentry talent, but I don't. There was a need to cruise but with a "Ready for issue" boat.

After five years of weekend boat experience I put in for the largest boat loan my credit union would allow. It was $75K.

Armed with the check in hand I went to Florida, where sailing dreams begin and unfortunately, also come to die. The third boat I looked at was eleven years old and had just returned from the Caribbean where a dream had passed away via the wife saying, "This boat goes, or I do!" She had sea-sickness and big ocean fears.

It was on market for $87.5K, I offered 15K less through the broker and the wife accepted offer, unbeknownst to sailing enthusiast hubby! Ten days later I was proud owner and had three days to ship boat to the UK.

Looked through a Sailboat Trader magazine got the number to a shipping agent who arranged whole deal for $13K. The boat was trucked from Jacksonville to Blount Island where boat was placed on a Wallenius Line auto carrier fft to Southampton, UK.

Total costs to ship including prep; $16.5K

All this while I was on Active duty as an "E" in the Navy stationed overseas.

Good thing I had savings bonds and a credit card. Boat was paid off 2.5 years later and I soon retired from the service and sailed back to the U.S.

If I can pull all this off, anybody can.

[Roaring Girl]

Well - we paid in sterling seven years ago, £49,000, which now is $72K, plus spent about £20K or $30K on new wiring, hydrovane, fridge, mattress and cushions, heads and shower. Boat was sailable when we bought her but not liveable, and not ready for two-handed long-term cruising. We didn't own a house for the first six years aboard. She's a 40' centre cockpit ketch.

The boat before that was a 23' which cost maybe $12K, including a new engine, at today's exchange rate, but more than a fortnight and you were going mad. Standing headroom is essential - but we did go all the way down the English channel and all over around the Thames Estuary on her for long holidays over several years. I agree with the post that said, particularly fora first boat, not investing more than you can afford to lose if disaster strikes is very comforting - especially as disaster is whacking you around the head.

[forsailbyowner]

6K initial investment, 20K fitting out+ maintenance for 5 yrs while we've been cruising full time

[sailorboy1]

Well I have to say that the results are not what I expected. If you read the site long enough the impression is that overall we here tend to be the comfort type crowd. From that I kind of expected higher priced boats that the results. While I would have expected a lot of "Less than $50k" boat owners on gthe site, I wouldn't have expected that was their planned boat to go long term cruising in. Maybe I didn't phase the question well becuase I didn't state it as a cost of a boat repaired/refitted/equipped to make the cruise and idn't defferiate between a week long cruise and one of say a year.

[boatman61]

Don... I must confess my surprise too.. from my reading I was beginning to wonder if the majority here were only into $150,000 minimum boats and mega monthly budgets that would buy my boat with change to spare...
Have noticed none of the "SuperYotties" with the Mega Budgets have responded.. like some of the one's arguing Mono v Cat etc....
Strange .... have they lost their brochures...? or are they worried about the IRS...

Still... I don't feel quite the square peg I did..

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

Well I have to say that the results are not what I expected.

Hey Don,

You've picked one thats difficult to quantify in these terms.
Here may be an interesting thing to scan...
The rally entries for the Sail Indonesia Rally. Its vitually free and gets around the Indonesian paperwork hassels so just about everyone goes in it.

Disregard the Australians as many will not have crusied far.

Look at the boats that are in the middle of the full cruise job.

There are many interesting thoughts that can be seen when you take a look at the size of the boats. Few would fall into the worth less than $50k catagory. Even those that were bought for less than $50k would have enough junk whacked on them to bring them up into the next tier..

http://www.sailindonesia.net/news/entries.php


Mark

[White Feather]

As I recall, we were asked how much we PAID for our boats, not what they were worth. For example I got mine for under $30K but it is listed and worth much more and after I refit and put in new engines in a few years it will be back up to full value which is considerablly more than I could afford if I had to buy it already set up the way I am doing it. The non-response of the mega-yachters may be that they are doing other things than answering questions on a forum. Sorry, but if I was cruising the Med I would not be here. Nothing personal but I would be playing outside. That's not to say that a few might be reading this but don't feel like getting into the value or cash worth of a boat.

I guess it's all in what your priorities are. Playing is more important than being here if I could be "out there". Don't you think? That's just my opionion but my wife likes to point out that I am usually wrong anyhow so maybe I am here too.

[Anzo]

Paid 45K, put another 45k or so into it
And at the $1 per hour I pay myself to work on it, I've got about $2 million bucks tied up in Berzerker

[barnakiel]

My own 26' @ USD 20k. Ocean-ready. Today I could go lower, but back then no sufficient experience to tell between the essentials and the nice to haves.

Most boats I adore are in the 50-100k range, and nearly all are below 200k. If upgrading, probably going for something @50-80k.

b.

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by White Feather

. Playing is more important than being here if I could be "out there". Don't you think? That's just my opionion but my wife likes to point out that I am usually wrong anyhow so maybe I am here too.

LOL

Nah, life is pretty much the same as it always has been in many ways. I still like the internet and we still usually eat food we are used to.

its funny, but before we went cruising Nicolle said: After a year we will be completely different people.

Well, I gotta tell you: You will be the same person!
We may have learned more about sailing and seen more of the world but we still get cranky as we did before, are heartless as we were before, as good as we were before but little better. I still like some 'quiet time' with the computer for relaxation. I still like beer too.

But your wife is right: The original post did say "Paid".

I am still as wrong as before we went cruising.




Mark

[murphyslaw]

hiya,

well my dreams are cheap compared to most of ya'l. when I do plan on purchasing my sailboat in a year or 2. I plan to spend 5 to 10k on boat preferably 5k , 3k in repairs , 1 to 2k in spares and filling the stores. and have a 3k maintenance fund avail for emergencies so if all goes well i'll be sailing with under 15 to 20k. and will hopefully have an additional 20k in the kitty to live off of for a year or 2..thats my dream..

[ka4wja]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

So how much did you pay for you cruising boat.
In US dollars.

Don,
I think your intial question may be a bit moot, since everyone's boat is different, everyone's desires and applications are different, etc...
And, most importantly everyone will but start out with a boat fit-out differently, as well as their end-points being different.....

Some may start with a $50k purchase, do a refit (partial or complete), and/or add gear and equipment, and end up with an "investment" of $100, but actually have a boat worth sunstantially more than that!!!!

Others may find themselves the victim of falling economies, etc.....

Etc. etc. etc.....

So, whether or not this will be of any use to you, I don't know.....
But here are my figures.....


Six year ago, I paid about $275k, including a new dinghy, and misc. new gear, etc.....
But, then also added quite a bit of "stuff", solar panels, upgraded electronics, etc.....
So, my total is in the low 300k's......


I hope this helps....
John

[sailorboy1]

none of the answers "are of use to me", it was just a poll to see people's thinking

I paid $72k for my current boat and figure it needs about $10k of fit out to meet my wants (none of the fit out items are truly needed).

[Sam Plan B]

I bought my Columbia 41 three years ago for $25,000. It had been on the hard stand for about 10 years and the Perkins 4108 diesel had 100 hours on it. I got it from a guy who had female trouble. Since then I have added a lot to the boat and have lived aboard for the past year. Yes, that would be over the Winter. And no, I would not advise anyone doing that.

There are other boats like mine in marinas everywhere. There was a Morgan 41 next to my boat with an asking price of $35,000. I would not advise going with a boat less than 40 feet nor getting into a boat at all unless you have the money to make her seaworty.

[dcstrng]

Originally Posted by David_Old_Jersey

But then I thought to myself - if I had spent 250k maybe I would be out there rather than tied to the dock? as would have forced me off my backside to get max use from that money / boat...

Yeah, that is the tradeoff, isn’t it… I wonder about that myself… I find this dilemma is often (or so I tell myself) the result of split allegiances… It is getting to the point where I think the Admiral would be comfortable with me making any major crossings solo, but then that means I must still keep the whole land-based mortgage, yard-upkeep, cars, maintenance, etc., etc., machinery intact and functioning… or I can unload all of that, assuming domestic unanimity (not always a good assumption), and go for a larger boat closer to turn-key, but I attempted that model with a "comfortable" 40-plus footer (professionally renovated) twenty years ago and barely got outa sight of land… right now, I’m in the mode of go cheap, go economical, go DIY as much as possible, go small, go simple, go when I can… Oh, did I mention go cheap…