Annual Maintenance Costs?

[Outtoseethesea]

I am retiring in a few years and have been thinking about buying a boat or a class A motor home to live in. I am wondering what annual maintenance costs might run on a 40' power boat. Either the boat or motor home will be used.

Have any of you ever went from a boat to Class A motor home or the other way around? How do maintenance cost compare between the two if you have?

I live on the west Coast of Florida and plan on staying in the general area. I am not planning on doing a lot of cruising. Probably stay in one location for any where between 1 to 3 months. It is just me, my daughter will visit occassionaly and stay for a week or so.

Thanks in advance for your responses.

[flagorio]

I am a sailboat. But I have a friend with a 35 foot trawler who cruises up and down the East Coast either off-shore or on the ICW depending on weather. He thinks it's cheaper to go south and pay for fuel rather than stay north and pay for heating oil every winter. I also have an RV for those times when I need to get off the boat. My feeling is born out by my experience that the east coast is not a place to have an RV because you always have to pay rent and rent choose up your expenses. In my boat I can anchor out and not spend hardly any money at all particularly in places like Annapolis for other areas like that. On the other hand I have to haul my boat and do the bottom once every year or two which cost a couple of thousand dollars. In the western United States there are many places where you can stay in your RV for free. And I would look at a Kadey Krogan manatee. Just my 2 cents.

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[leftbrainstuff]

Originally Posted by Outtoseethesea

I am retiring in a few years and have been thinking about buying a boat or a class A motor home to live in. I am wondering what annual maintenance costs might run on a 40' power boat. Either the boat or motor home will be used.

Have any of you ever went from a boat to Class A motor home or the other way around? How do maintenance cost compare between the two if you have?

I live on the west Coast of Florida and plan on staying in the general area. I am not planning on doing a lot of cruising. Probably stay in one location for any where between 1 to 3 months. It is just me, my daughter will visit occassionaly and stay for a week or so.

Thanks in advance for your responses.

Dependent on condition of vessel, condition you want to maintain, unforeseen events and how much use for each system.

Somewhere north of a few thousand with no upper limit.

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[jeremiason]

You need to get more specific on the type of boat your interested in before you can even ballpark an annual expense.


For instance a Trawler with twin engines will cost more annually than one with a single engine.


Also don't forget berthing fees, which will run from $12-$20 per foot in Florida, plus electricity.


And finally the killer for some people... Insurance. When I was cruising, my insurance cost was about $2500 annually. When I parked the boat in Florida during hurricane season, the insurance rates went to $5000 annually.


Good Luck!

[a64pilot]

Trawler can be very inexpensive to own, compared to a big engined Sportfisherman, but may well cost more to buy.
As has been said what eats you alive with a motorhome is rent, OK fuel too if you actually move it much.
Yes, I've had a motorhome, a fifth wheel and now a sailboat, Fifth wheel was almost maintenance free, and the truck that pulled it very reliable and was much better to live in, Motorhome was better to travel in if it's a Diesel pusher, horrible to drive a gas engine single axle one though and more maintenance, boat I'm refitting so I have horrible bills now, but expect that to ease off when I'm done.
If you stay in marina's only then a boat may well cost more than it's land based cousins



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[svHyLyte]

Originally Posted by Outtoseethesea

I am retiring in a few years and have been thinking about buying a boat or a class A motor home to live in. I am wondering what annual maintenance costs might run on a 40' power boat. Either the boat or motor home will be used.

Have any of you ever went from a boat to Class A motor home or the other way around? How do maintenance cost compare between the two if you have?

I live on the west Coast of Florida and plan on staying in the general area. I am not planning on doing a lot of cruising. Probably stay in one location for any where between 1 to 3 months. It is just me, my daughter will visit occassionaly and stay for a week or so.

Thanks in advance for your responses.

Assuming one buys a boat in reasonably good shape, figure, roughly, 10% to 12% of the cost of the boat per annum for every 3-4 years and then one year at 15% to 18% or so of the cost of the boat. The foregoing assumes you have some skills and do much of the maintenance, up-keep and needed repairs yourself. If you don't have the skills, or self discipline, you'll need a very large purse.

FWIW...