Catamaran maintenance

[Defyant]

Hi,

I'm interested in the maintenance required on a ~44" catamaran

If you were to plan a circumnavigation and offshore cruising for ~10 years , what do you need to do to keep the boat running and in excellent condition + can you do all that yourself?

Thanks

[DavidLGCrawford]

I wouldn't go to sea in a 44" boat... I'd say you need a minimum length of ten feet, and preferably 4 times that.

[Stumble]

A good rule of thumb is that it will cost about 10% of the value of a boat to keep it in the same condition year after year. This assumes reasonable condition at the start and that the boat is kept in the same condition thru her life.

Of course you won't have to spend it every year, but you need to work under the assumption. Sails for instance may be an every three year purchase, but they are expensive when you need them. Motors may last 20 years but...

For a 50' boat I would guess you need 20-30 hours a week of maintenance to keep her in shape, more if you want bristol condition, less if lived in condition is acceptable.

[Defyant]

What about the hulls. Does the boat need to be out of the water for them to be cleaned and how often?

Is there any maintenance required for the fiberglass, can it last for 10-15 years without developing any significant weakness?

[boatman61]

In area's with decent tides one can find sheltered sand banks/beaches to dry out on for regular scrubs, anode changes, anti-fouling/prop service... that can be a chunk of change..

[monte]

Yeah 44 inches, what's that 3'8"?? Fine for a family of mice
I'd say the maintainance costs depend on the age of the boat, but I doubt you could spend 10% per year. What would be more accurate would to separate maintainance from repairs and upgrades. Maintainance is simply engine services, bottom paint, cleaning supplies and probably close to 1% of the boat cost for a newish yacht. Repairs and upgrades shouldn't be much on a new boat, but will gradually increase with age. I'd say around 1% for the first few years at least and increasing slightly for 5 years till new sails and rigging might be needed. If you wanted to factor those costs into yearly costs from new, they might add about 2% per year.

[Stumble]

Originally Posted by Defyant

What about the hulls. Does the boat need to be out of the water for them to be cleaned and how often?

Is there any maintenance required for the fiberglass, can it last for 10-15 years without developing any significant weakness?

Other than a bottom job every two years or so there shouldn't be any planned maintenance on the bottom. Of course if you hit something that's a different story.

So long as the core (if cored) is protected from water intrusion and the boat was designed properly there is no realistic lifespan for a fiberglass hull. At 50+ years old you may have an issue with cycle fatigue but generally when boats get this old it's the rest of the systems that fail! and the hull isn't worth the cost of repairing the systems.

[barnakiel]

You can do everything yourself when you know what you are doing.

44' fine size.

b.

[Stumble]

I have no idea where you would get 1%. The 10% number is a pretty standard industry number for the total maintenance budget for a boat. When you add up all the depreciation numbers for the stuff that makes up a boat 10% just works out about right. I guess if you define away as non-maintenance all those things that are generally considered you could get to it, but it wouldn't be very meaningful at that point.

Just a couple big budget items...

1) bottom job every 2 years
2) sails every 3
3) engines every 20
4) standing rigging every 15
5) running rigging every 5
6) electronics every 10

Those by themselves are more than your 1% number, and we still haven't accounted for failed pumps, oil changes, refrigeration, replacement hoses, fuel tanks, water tanks, electrical systems, batteries, the list goes on and on.

[monte]

My figures are from actual costs of owning new yachts over the last few years. As I said it depends a lot on the age of the boat. For example our maintainance costs year one are one engine service/oil and filter change at around $600 on a $300000 yacht
Around $400 for bottom paint, painted ourself in a few hours while hauled out for annual storage
A few hundred dollars for odds and sods along the way filters, chemicals, cleaning stuff, easily under 1% total. Year 2 and 3 are similar. I have no idea how you could possible spend any more on maintainance. You could also include repairs I this if you like as year 2 I replaced a lazy bag zip for $80 and had the fridge repaired after I pulled the gas tube apart while rushing for ice after Jen was stung by a wasp in Croatia..cost was about $400 for a new unit

[atoll]

Originally Posted by monte

My figures are from actual costs of owning new yachts over the last few years. As I said it depends a lot on the age of the boat. For example our maintainance costs year one are one engine service/oil and filter change at around $600 on a $300000 yacht
Around $400 for bottom paint, painted ourself in a few hours while hauled out for annual storage
A few hundred dollars for odds and sods along the way filters, chemicals, cleaning stuff, easily under 1% total. Year 2 and 3 are similar. I have no idea how you could possible spend any more on maintainance. You could also include repairs I this if you like as year 2 I replaced a lazy bag zip for $80 and had the fridge repaired after I pulled the gas tube apart while rushing for ice after Jen was stung by a wasp in Croatia..cost was about $400 for a new unit

if the yacht was kept in palma d'mallorca,including mooring fees and not doing your own work,i can easily see 10% on a 300,000 euro yacht

[Stumble]

Monte,

Yes what you are calling repairs are generally considered part of the maintenance budget. You also have to account for the depreciated value of the systems on the boat. No you won't spend much in year one, everything should be in perfect condition, but those same water pumps have an annualized cost of about 1/3 their purchase price. Because water pumps are expected to last about 3 years.

This is all based on very basic accounting principles like depreciation and expected service life, life cycle costs ect.

Think of it this way, if the expected life of marine electrical wiring is 15 years and it costs $30,000 to rewire a 44' cat, then what's the annual cost to the owner? It doesn't matter that you aren't going to do 1/15th of the job every year, but you need to budget 1/15th of the job every year so at the end of 15 years when it's time you have the resources to do so. You can ignore this, but when those massive bills come due you ether have to have the cash on hand or sell the boat for a deep discount because the next owner will have to take care of them.

[tomfl]

Originally Posted by Stumble

SNIP

Just a couple big budget items...


2) sails every 3

SNIP

Not so sure about this.

[monte]

Sure atoll, if you want to include mooring, insurance, food, entertainment, communications and birthday present in 'maintainance' then 30k is pretty easy to achieve
As I said in original post, I categorise maintainance as the cost to upkeep the boat in its current condition. Improvements would come under a different cost heading, as would repairs, fuel, insurance depreciation, marina fees etc.
the OP did ask about maintainance costs on a 44" cat so I'm sharing my experience with the disclaimer that those costs may be more on an older boat, so take it with a grain of salt.
Throwing '10% is the standard rate' out there is ridiculous though. That's like saying a 10 yr old boat, valued at less than a new boat, is going to be less expensive to maintain than a new boat, which is pretty funny. I can't wait for my cat to be worth less so I don't have as much maintainance costs! In fact logic will tell anyone it's the other way around....

[cwjohm]

As usual these discussions tend to go at cross purposes.

The OP did specifically ask for MAINTENANCE costs and for TEN years. You could conceivably buy a new boat and not replace sails rigging etc in ten years if you looked after it, and therefore maintenance costs would be restricted to service issues and a few minor items assuming the boat was not run to hard, and all of these works could be done by yourself. Then you have to allow for antifouling and prop maintenance every 18 months or so.

This is as distinct to Cost Of Ownership which is what the 10% refers to.

My view is that if the OP is focussed on only maintenance costs then his focus is misplaced, because maintenance costs are only a small part of Cost of Ownership of the boat.

Other things that come to mind immediately are

Insurance
Fuel
Registration
Berthing
Depreciation