Time spent on maintenance per week?

[sab24]

I'm looking for everyone's experiences on how many hours per week people spend on maintenance, including cleaning and upgrades. As it depends on the type of boat and the owner's attitude towards doing the work themselves and the level of quality they want to achieve, this will vary a lot. Therefore I'm asking for everyone's individual experiences in the form of a poll. If you for example have done a refit over a period of 9 months working 40 hours per week, and live aboard for 10 years, that would add roughly 3 hours per week (1600/10/52). The poll options are


1 to 2 hours per week
2 to 5 hours per week
5 to 10 hours per week
10 to 15 hours per week
15 to 20 hours per week
more than 20 hours per week.

[Chotu]

Too much!!! ����

[Iron E]

Originally Posted by sab24

I'm looking for everyone's experiences on how many hours per week people spend on maintenance, including cleaning and upgrades. As it depends on the type of boat and the owner's attitude towards doing the work themselves and the level of quality they want to achieve, this will vary a lot. Therefore I'm asking for everyone's individual experiences in the form of a poll. If you for example have done a refit over a period of 9 months working 40 hours per week, and live aboard for 10 years, that would add roughly 3 hours per week (1600/10/52). The poll options are


1 to 2 hours per week
2 to 5 hours per week
5 to 10 hours per week
10 to 15 hours per week
15 to 20 hours per week
more than 20 hours per week.

Yes. All of the above

[kayakerChuck]

I have a 1979 O'Day 30. She's in the water 7 months of the year. Mostly we are day sailors with the occasional weekend trip or longer adventure. We do all work ourselves.

I'd guess 2-5 hours/ week, all year long, just for maintenance. Upgrades or serious repairs will add SIGNIFICANTLY to that. Our first and second years of ownership were probably 10 to 15 hours/week.

[Ixium]

While learning my boat? A fair bit. I do all the work myself, but sometimes have dockmates show me the way.

15+hours per week for the first few months. But I was deep diving everything to learn where wires/pipes ran

Towards the end of the first season? Barely anything. More of the “I’m bored so I’m gonna do this project” things. Sanding teak that hasn’t been touched in 10 years kind of things.

Now that it’s out of the water for the season? I have 10+ hour days to winterize but the majority is 0.

[sailorboy1]

1 at most hour a week in general maintenance

Corrective maintenance a lot more depending onon what you have been doing.

I guess it depends on what you call maintenance

[Jammer]

It is rare that I perform meaningful repairs during the sailing season while I'm on the boat. If the weather's nice, I'd rather be sailing. If the weather is bad, I don't want to be out working on the boat in it.


My current boat is new to me and I probably have 50 hours in initial back maintenance and refitting a few minor things but there's no way I'm going to put in that kind of time going forward. I take my sails and other canvas to a sailmaker for repairs and hire out my splicing but do most of the other work myself.


I don't think there's a financial benefit to buying older boats and fixing them, so I don't do that.

[wholybee]

I would guess 5-10. I would split that between periods of time I do one solid day of work per week, periods when I spend 40 hours per week on the boat, and periods I do nothing.

Even when not engaged in a refit, you will need to haul out and apply antifoul, which is a lot of hours all at once.

[sailorboy1]

Man if it took me 5-10/hours a week I would look for something else to do

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by Jammer

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


I don't think there's a financial benefit to buying older boats and fixing them, so I don't do that.

I agree with your observations. Couple of questions:

1. Did you buy your boat new?

2. By financial benefit...older boats, do you mean "project boats?" If so, I agree.

I bought my boat 25 years ago when it was already 12 years old. I compared prices between it and a new one and it was 2:1!!! I couldn't justify that difference and realized that ten years on those new boat owners were gonna be replacing the same hoses and repairing/replacing other parts that I was. I was right and saved a lot of $$. It was a pristine boat when I bought it, definitely not even a fixer upper, just in wonderful shape.

[SailingHarmonie]

It's a question with no answer. Our boat is our only home. We want it to be in Bristol condition because that is the way we prefer to live. We run our own electric company, our own water company, our own sewage company, while the whole structure floats in corrosive salt water, and moves 10,000 miles a year.

Easily 20 hours a week--on average. Some weeks 80 hours, some 10. In 30 years of boat ownership I have probably paid for a total of 100 hours of outside labor.

[aberglas]

Cruising is defined as boat maintenance in beautiful places.

[HankOnthewater]

I should spend more time......
My aim is to follow an old friend who lived with his wife on a 34 ft boat. Every weekday he spend a few hours on preventative maintenance, from after breakfast at ~07.30 to morning tea time, without fail. Only if something was broke he spent more time. His boat was always bristol.

[thomm225]

I bought an old boat that had been on the hard for 5 years.

After initial cleaning, bottom job, sail and engine replacement, I probably spend about 1 hour per month on maintenance during the offseason and 1 hour per week or per sail during the season unless something breaks.

Example would be I just noticed one of the heads of the 4 bolts that hold my outboard bracket to the boat has sheered off. 3 more and the bracket and outboard would fall into the water. This happened with the last bracket also but in the center of the bolt. Bracket was installed just 5 years ago. It does get drenched with salt water though on rough days and rarely gets a rinse.

The hour is mostly for rinsing the march mud off the boat and anchor after sailing up the bay after for a few overnights. Also empty the water and contents from the cooler (pour it into the bilge) and empty out remaining items.

I do not wax or shine up chrome/brightwork items. The entire boat is painted.

In Spring, I do the yearly outboard maintenance.

When in the yard every 4-5 years, that is when I do most of the maintenance. (repaint the bottom, topside hulls, interior, etc.) I put it in the yard for 4 months at a time during those periods.

So it has time to really dry out, and I have time to do the maintenance, redo the bottom etc. at my own pace.

After paying haul out and power wash fees, the price per month is the same as my slip ($10.00/ft/month) My marina doesn't charge me during this time

I've had this old boat I paid $2,000 for now for 12 years plus.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by Stu Jackson

I agree with your observations. Couple of questions:

1. Did you buy your boat new?

2. By financial benefit...older boats, do you mean "project boats?" If so, I agree.

Sure. My current boat was 24 years old when I bought it. But it was in good condition and has not needed any significant rework. The only refit items of any substance have been a new anchor and rode and a bunch of plumbing repairs that, while individually minor, were significant in aggregate.


Yes, I suppose for "older boats" you could read "project boats."