Exponential Curve for Boat Maintenance Cost?

[Papasail]

Anybody know of any (graphs) that help show boat maintenance costs (relative to length)… all plotted out: 30’, 35’, 40’, 45’, 50’, 55’, 60’?

*wondering if something like an exponential curve has begun to fall in place as so much data has made itself clear over the years?

⛵️[emoji1360]

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Papasail

Anybody know of any (graphs) that help show boat maintenance costs (relative to length)… all plotted out: 30’, 35’, 40’, 45’, 50’, 55’, 60’?

*wondering if something like an exponential curve has begun to fall in place as so much data has made itself clear over the years?

⛵️[emoji1360]

More likely to be a square rather than an exponential one. Something like:
Expense = BaseCost + VariableCost * BoatLength ^2


(The "2" may be more like "1.8" or "2.2"

[Tetepare]

Interesting. I’ll bet it is exponential. I’d like to see this!

[CaptTom]

Length is only one factor. It's really complexity which increases maintenance costs. More systems and components means more maintenance. Things like dockage costs are generally based on length (or length and beam) but beyond that it's more a matter of how much "stuff" there is to maintain. And of course, your own ability to DIY.

[Mike OReilly]

I agee with Tom, it's a bit more complex than all that. Some costs may rise to an exponent; things like sail replacement for example. But other costs will rise linearly, like docking space or components pumps, wiring, etc. Even insurance and boat loan costs will likely be more linear than exponential.

A big driver of costs are the number, and type, of systems on board. A fully tricked-out boat will likely be costlier to maintain than a similar-sized 'simple' boat.

But it's more complicated than all that as well. I think boat sizes can be thought of in tranches when it comes to general costs. The difference between a 34-footer and a 37-footer (to take a personal example) is not that much -- certainly not an exponential increase. But go from a 34-footer to an upper 40s, and yes, I think your costs will increase to an exponent.

[sailingharry]

There actually is nowhere near the data that you think there is. The problem is there are too many variables. Something is simple as sail cost. Some people will buy a new sail every three or four years. Those people are also probably buying high-end sails. My parent's 40 year old motor sailor was just sold with original sails (and they did actively use the boat). Sails can be a significant driver in overall maintenance cost, and different people have dramatically different desires.

Electronics is another one. Our 24 year old boat has original instruments and decade old chartplotters. Some people would have replaced them all years ago. I might go another decade.

I live on the Chesapeake, where haul out is optional. I pull my boat every 3 years for 1 to 2 weeks on the hard for a bottom job and general underwater maintenance. An annual diver takes care of the rest. Others will haul and store the boat every winter.

The bottom line is the variables are so large that the standard deviation outweighs any formula.

[Pegu Club]

Originally Posted by CaptTom

Length is only one factor. It's really complexity which increases maintenance costs. More systems and components means more maintenance. Things like dockage costs are generally based on length (or length and beam) but beyond that it's more a matter of how much "stuff" there is to maintain. And of course, your own ability to DIY.

This right here ^^^

If you “gotta have” all sorts of “stuff” on board, your are going to have higher short and long term expenses, the only way to mitigate this is proper and timely preventative maintenance, and even then it won’t be cheap even if you’re doing the work yourself. We have a saying, one must keep the fun to suck ratio in proper balance, and that means less work and more play, and that happens with less stuff to maintain or have break on you, causing and output of cash for replacement stuff…, well anyway, that our theory,

Fair winds,

[Tetepare]

I find this simple question absolutely fascinating. Is cost simply a sharp, but linear, curve, or asymptotic?

I think it safe to say that larger boats are more complex. If we restrict this to race boats, it's clear the complexity does increase markedly, probably asymptotically, with size.

But if we remove race boats and bare boats and other outliers, what then? A cruising boat of 50' has three times the "stuff" and larger stuff than a 30'. But some stuff, like anchors, have a minimum buy-in, then do not increase drastically with size, which would offset the "stuff" like electronics that likely is asymptotic.

It also depends on how far out the curve goes. Looking at the left side, say up to only 45', an asymptotic curve could look linear. Run it out to 150' boats and yeah, it's probably asymptotic.

On a related topic, it's my observation that few owners do the maintenance they should. If boat maintenance costs were plotted over the lifetime of the boat, we'd see spikes every time the boat changed hands. Anecdotally, I can say I'm quite certain that we've spent way more in the past year on the new-to-us boat than the previous owners did in five years...maybe ten.

[Papasail]

I agree with (all of you) in what you are saying: complexity vs. simplicity, length, age, even make & model…. also just sail plan. It’s a lot to ask; hypothetically; in a fuzzy dream world; if everyone cooperated…. If for example, Cruising Forum required users to submit a standardized maintenance sheet (i know, i know… that sheet would likely become a distortion too!)… but I think ~ some kind of ~ loosely associative curve, would slowly evolve itself over time.

Ever seen variable graph data where a line can be used to expose it’s linear core?

“Project Maintenance”

skewed, perhaps, but I think that on the whole, a curve would arise.
Greater point being, we aren’t harvesting data that (might) collectively end so much speculation, and offer a number people could lean on…. I think on this idea as helpful for those who may get into sailing and straight-up drown in maintenance costs, because they had no idea.

*juuuuust….. dreamin*

[valhalla360]

My bet is it's either cube of length (or more accurately...lengthxwidthxheight). A boat is 3 dimensional, so it's unlikely to be linear with a single dimension.

You aren't buying a piece of string where twice as long would cost twice as much. Take ropes...as boats get longer, the halyards don't simply get twice as long, they get thicker which increases the cost per foot. When you get really big, you also get into issues with needing specialty products which drives up prices.

But you have to compare among similar boats which gets tricky as size increases the sample sizes are smaller. Comparing a 15ft aluminum row boat with a 500ft super yatch is so different in expectations, that any correlation is likely to be overshadowed by how each is maintained (ie: A row boat is likely maintained by the owner. A super yatch, likely has a crew of professionals.)

[Mike OReilly]

I think just like the perpetual "what does it cost to go cruising?" question, the only way to answer this is to look at similar boats, with similar crews, in similar locations, cruising with a similar style.

This is why I think one can think of maintenance costs in terms of groupings, or tranches, of boat types. Similar boats, cruised in similar ways, in similar locations, will encounter similar maintenance costs. These costs will likely rise linearly within a tranche, but take a leap once you step to the next size/complexity.

[kayakerChuck]

My sailing club is probably typical. We like to think of ourselves as a "working man's club".

Members have all sorts of craft- a couple Bermuda 40's in Bristol condition, to a bunch of Catalina 30's- some immaculate, some of which have not seen wax in 10+ years. My guess is the high end of the Catalina 30 yearly maintenance is about $15,000, the low end- maybe a couple hundred bucks.

Maintaining my O'Day 30 has cost me about $3,000/yr since I bought her 2 years ago. We have hired out almost nothing. Very little of this was unexpected, and is pretty much in line with what the PO was spending. Plus another $3k for storage, and a bit for fuel, travel, etc and my little 30'er eats about $8,000 each year.

(I'm hoping the cost drop next year. We now have new sails, new standing rigging, lots of new running rigging, a new mast step, and more. It's a boat- I know the costs won't drop.)

[PippaB]

Originally Posted by StuM

More likely to be a square rather than an exponential one. Something like:
Expense = BaseCost + VariableCost * BoatLength ^2


(The "2" may be more like "1.8" or "2.2"

Come on Stu, with your units mania?

1.8, 2, and 2.2 are all exponents in your proposed equation and the whole thing describes an exponential curve A relatively shallow one maybe, but exponential nonetheless.

[dannc]

I post this information again. Going to get a reputation I am....

The Morgan's Cloud website has a discussion and spreadsheet on boat maintenance costs. It is the best maintenance cost guesser I have found.

https://www.morganscloud.com/2014/07...ging-sailboat/

It is behind a paywall but the cost is minimal and the information on the website is well worth the cost. Heck, getting the spreadsheet is worth a year's subscription.

The spreadsheet has a bunch of variables such as displacement, boat complexity, who does the maintenance, boat complexity, miles sailed, how well is the boat kept up, etc. One can change the values as one needs and see what happens to the costs.

Later,
Dan

[vpbarkley]

I've often heard this said by established cruisers:

"expect to budget 10% of boat value per year to cover maintenance"

This assumes you're starting with a boat in good repair. The yearly budget is sufficient to keep it operational.

It doesn't include upgrades. Upgrades increment boat value and therefore increase the maintenance budget.