In Survey Vessel Refit Costs

[nath2099]

Hi folks, I am looking to buy a boat to live-aboard and do occasional charter work. I was wondering if one were to buy something like this:


https://yachthub.com/list/boats-for-...n-ketch/297367


If one were wanting to refurb the inside of something like this, changing the floor-plan quite a bit (It currently has berths for 27), and repaint it, would $300K be a reasonable sum to set asside?


Cheers!

[Jim Cate]

Without knowing a hell of a lot more about the boat this question is unanswerable. Further, did you mean to be DIY or hiring the work done... a HUGE difference in costs therein.

But at a guess, you are considering spending well over a half million AUD on her (and we all know that big projects cost far more and take far longer than we anticipate). In your place I would be far more interested in buying a boat that didn't need really big bucks spent on her... one more suited to the end you seek and already pretty much there, not sitting at the beginning of a vast project.

And do not underestimate the cost in time and dollars of all the bureaucratic hurdles that keeping a boat in survey entail... and the fact that a skipper's license would be needed to take customers out for a charter.

All in all, can't see this as an attractive proposition.

Jim

[Fore and Aft]

nath2099 I can't see there is anything about that yacht that would inspire me to spend another $300,000 modifying her. The interior fit out looks like a bunch of carpenters with a router did it. If you stick to that same standard of fit out, then it could be for way less than $300k. Your biggest issue is what you are going to find behind all those panels. There's a fair chance that on a 40-year-old steel yacht that you will find some hidden rust and issues. No mention of the rigging age and that will have to be under 10 years old to be insurable. The old Gardner diesel engine with 15000 hours on it. I know they go forever but parts are not cheap. No bow thruster so you are going to have to be a competent skipper to being driving a 60-foot clunker around the marina with a slow revving diesel. When we take out a friends 50-foot steel ketch with a Gardner diesel out our son is in the inflatable dinghy pushing the yacht around. It helps keep the stress levels down.
You are better of buying a cat in survey and doing some high-end charters instead of cramming 27 tight arses into a steel box for a cruise.
Cheers

[CarlF]

Steel can be a great boat building material - but only if it receives constant care to treat rust as it appears.

This boat has obviously sat unloved since Covid. And it was old before that. It’s likely that large amounts of steel would have to be replaced.

Run away.

[TrentePieds]

What you are looking at here is a "troop transporter". You'd CERTAINLY have to "chang[e] the floor plan quite a bit"!!!

So do some numbers: One man can, in a "normal" working year, put in 1,700 hours. In these parts, men with the skills to do the work properly would cost you CAN$40/hour plus about 15% in sundry benefits, so for easy numbers call it $46/hr. or CAN$78,200 per year. I reckon there would be 5 man/years in the conversion project, so roughly 400K. And that's before you by the costly materials, let alone remediate all that you will find wrong with the hull after you strip out the "troop accommodations".

Do you have woodworking skills? Do you already have the requisite tools? If so, go to your workshop and build a single bunk. Make careful note of the time spent building it. Then, having finished it, evaluate it critically. Is the finish of acceptable quality and appearance for a charter vessel?

Assuming you have the skills, are you prepared to personally give up all earned income for five years while you do the conversion? If you don't have the skills, are you prepared to sell all your other worldly goods to finance the project? Cos no sensible lender would finance it.

Please do do the numbers! As MySaintedMother used to admonish me: "If it ain't quantified, it don't count!".

Beyond that, do you have the requisite qualifications to skipper a charter boat?

Bonne chance!

TrentePieds