The Costs Of Owning a boat

Other than the initial layout to actually buy the boat what other expenses come with owning a boat? I know there is fuel and understand how much that would cost... theres insurance aswell right, what kind of figures are you looking at for a second hand wakeboat to be insured? Is it similar to car insurance cost or....?
How much do you usually end up spending on parts and services etc each season?

Good question: For me the major cost in owning a boat is TIME personal time. I dont put a dollar value on it because I like working on the boat, Some people like cuting the lawn some people like putting a fresh coat of teak oil on the deck. I would say I personally spend like $50 to $100 dollars on BS cleaning supplys and nick nacks do-dad's ect. For a new boat, I would say becides The purchace of the the boat and all your wakeboard gear, and boat accessorys, gas your pretty much there.

I just bought a brand new boat, and just buying the boat itself, isnt it. Theres the cover, enough life jackets for the seating capacity of the boat, anchor, extiguisher, flares, spot light, oar, docking bumpers, bimini, boat wash, and any other accessories you may want to have fin. All this little stuff adds up. Other than that, like Grant says, its all about personal time. Theres nothing that makes me happier than showing up at the lake with a beautiful boat.

I think insurance is optional, depending on if you financed your boat or paid cash for it. Keep in mind depending on where you live, that is seasonal.

don't forget servicing and maintenance.

Insurance is NOT optional. If you plan to take anyone out on your boat that's not an immediate family member, you better insure it. You can insure yor boat through you home policy as well which will save you some dough, but insure it all year. The rates will reflect seasonal use

You may not want to cover replacement of the boat if you pay cash and can afford the loss but I would never go on the lake without liability insurance. Generally runs about $100/$10,000 of boat value, or $400 for a $40,000 boat with $300k liability. Your driving record and past claim record will influence cost some.

Yeah, I agree please don't go out with out at least liability insurance. I have an 03 M VLX which I have insured for a replacement cost of 38k and it is tacked onto my homeowners which carries a 1,000,000 liablility coverage. I pay $350.00 per year through CSAA.

On the original post, I probably spend, not including petrol (gas) or boat cost life jacket bumpers buoy anchor etc, about 600-1000 per year. That also does not include the prop that I bent up or other little oops along the way. This covers maintenance, cleaning supplies, tires for the trailer, maintaining the covers etc.

Good luck, costs money to have fun.

Ok, you wanna know? Here we go...

We bought our brand new boat (04 Sanger V215) in March 2004. We paid 41k which included, tower, cover, 2 board racks, bimini, upraded stereo, front ballast, $1k in store accessories. Since then, we have spent:

* $41,000 - Boat purchase
* $383 - Food and Beverages
* $1,350 - Gas (not including gas money given by guests)
* $1,481 - Insurance (2 years worth)
* $435 - Launch Fees
* $391 - Property Taxes
* $42 - DMV Registration
* $1,700 - Service (regular service plus 7 (yes 7) prop repairs/replacements)
* $9,708 - Toys & Assessories (including 3 wakeboards, tower speaker box, speakers, tube(s), more board racks af the other ones tore up the wakeboards, rear ballast installation, perfect pass, dry suits, and a bunch of other little stuff)

So that's:

$41,000 boat itself (financed)
$15,490 on everything else
$56,490 total

This is not inlcuding the heater we will have installed this winter. Granted, these are first year owner's expenses and will tend to lessen greatly as years go by and you have bought everything you need... that is until the "new one" comes out and you just HAVE to have it! There is always SOMETHING else you want to buy.

I am an anal bookkeeper so I keep track of this type of stuff... kinda sickening to think about, but it's our relaxation and fun, a way to play as a family and spend time with friends. It's worth every penny. (BTW, we are an average income family, not "rich" by any means)

Hope I didn't scare ya. Good luck with your decision and enjoy every minute of your new boat!}

Renee keep this to yourself my wife would flip if she new I was putting anything near this kind of money in the boat and you know I do.....

ok shhhhhh.... I won't tell. In fact, I'm sure Tate would have a fit if he knew I told.

By the way, all the extras... could have paid for my upcomming wedding

Boat insurance is optional? That is the craziest thing I have read on this forum in weeks. I paid all cash for my first SAN and my '03 SANTE is paid for. Lets see, storm, driving accident, big log, totals my boat and I am out $40,000, sorry I dont think so. Not to mention the liability involved when you have family and friends out on the boat with you. I will continue to pay my $253 a year to cover my $4500 trailer and 40,000 boat. BTW I had a hub fail two years ago and the ite took out the neXt tire and totalled the trailer. Brand new trailer 1 week later. So the way I look at it, my insurance has paid for itself for the neXT 10 years or so.

The price of being on the water with family? }PRICELESS!!!}

Bust
Out
Another
Thousand

Im not sure what insurance laws apply in your states, but in CA its MANDATORY to have auto insurance. It is not MANDATORY to have boat insurance by any means. Again, it is not mandatory to have boat insurance. Im not saying you should carry it, im saying its not MANDATORY

I don't if I'm just getting a great deal or if you guys are getting screwed, but with USAA, my boat insurance (mandatory since it's financed) is only $21 a month.

I pay mine once a year, $253 / 12 = $21.08/mo. Not to bad to cover $44,000. Mine used to be even cheaper but I had a $4,000 claim last year, They said it would go back down in a couple years when that falls off.

Mine is pretty cheap ($420 yr) with Progressive and you get free road-side assistance when you are towing the vehicle ..... so that came in handy when my truck ran out of gas towing the boat this weekend.

Don't forget about storage fees if you can't keep it at your house. $60/m

Holy crap, what kind of facility are you getting for 60 bucks a month?! That's a great price.

License fees for the trailers. I'd also say about 300-500 for repairs every year. Something has required repair every year I have owned my boat.

Not a very good one.

What are the excise taxes on a 50K boat? My
Z-71 was around 1k when I bought it for 26K so I am guessing that it is nearly 2K?

Here's an earlier thread on this topic. There's a spreadsheet link if you want to plug in the what-if's. Don't let this info fall into the wrong hands though, or you might be negotiating that new sound system with your wife in terms of her new wardrobe.


http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/65921/240114.html

a couple years ago, we kept track of expenses for one season. Did not count in the boat/truck payment and insurance. Kept track of Hotel rooms, rental house, gas, ice, food, eating out, new bathing suits, new towels, etc......Basicly, anything that was used for boating. ended up at almost $10,000 for the year. And our season in Western MD is only from early may to mid october, for my family that is. wouldn't change it all for the world.

(Message edited by p e ski on September 06, 2005)

when I worked at West Marine a few summers ago, we would always joke about the b.o.a.t. acromyn that freebooze mentioned haha. Sadly, its so true

Excel Spreadsheet for Boat upkeep cost Boat Upkeep Costs.xls (16.4 k)

I just created my own excel spreadsheet for my boat costs. It is broken down yearly, monthly and per session cost (considering I take the boat out four times a month).

It also includes how much money I can get if I sell my boat (1999 Toyota Epic 22 with 360 hrs) + all wakeboarding accessories. Interesting figures.

I spend $5,700 a year for my boat and $120 per session. If I sold the boat + everything I could get $24,000.

Below is a cut + paste of an e-mail I sent my friend tonight. If you are interested in looking at my spreadsheet, you can download it from:

http://www.blueplastic.com/BoatUpkeepCosts.xls

Do you guys find that it costs the same to own a boat? Are your figures roughly the same as mine? How much do you guys charges guests per set these days?

Carlos,

Since we were talking about selling the boat next summer so we can concentrate on and put the money towards a business or house, I spend some time tonight calculating how much it actually costs to own a boat. The figures below do not include the fact that wakeboarding and owning a boat kills takes up A LOT of time.

I broke the costs down to yearly, monthly and per session (considering I take the boat out 4 times per month). I also included how much money I could get if I sold the boat + boat accessoreis + wakeboarding toys.

All of my figures in the spreadsheet are are precise as possible. None of the numbers are inflated. There were determined by reviewing how much it has cost to own the boat for the past 2 years.

The boat costs me $5,700 per year. This translates to $474 per month or $120 per session (4 sessions in one month).

Another interesting calculation I did was how much more it costs me in gas to own a 1999 F150 V6 manual instead of a 1999 Honda Civic manual. If I drive about 15,000 miles per year and if 87 grade gas costs $2.80, then it costs me $1,100 more every year to own a truck instead of a Honda Civic. My truck gets an average of 18 mpg and a Honda Civic gets $30 mpg.

Another interesting calculation. Suppose I take an average of 3 people out on the boat per session (so 4 riders total) and we go out four times a month, 12 months a year. If each guest pitches in $10 for gas, that's $30 per session, $120 per month and $1,440 per year. If I raise the price of per session to $15, it translates to $2,160 per year.

After looking at these numbers, I think I'm going to start charging people $15 per set and $30 if they want two sets. They're still getting one hell of a deal because OWC charges $50 for each boat pull/30 minute set.

If I sold the boat + everything else I could get $24,300 at the current NADA average boat value. I would have to double check this, but I think I currently owe about $16,000 on the boat. So if we sold the boat for $24,000, I'd get $8,000 cash.

Honestly, depending on the house we buy or the business venture we go into, I'd like to continue keeping the boat, but only taking it out once or twice a month. This would reduce the yearly cost to about $4,000 a year, which is still a lot. The most intelligent thing to do would be to sell the boat and be without a boat for 2 - 3 years and buy a nice malibu or mastercraft or another Toyota after that time.

See the attached spreadsheet for the rest of the details. Call me after reviewing the spreadsheet to discuss it.

Here is a discussion I started on epicmarine.com about how much it costs to own a boat:
http://www.cyclone-cj.com/forum4/index.php?topic=642.0

Here's a thread about how much gas a boat chugs and how much other people are charging guests for pulls. Everyone seems to be increasing it to $15 per set b/c of the gas price hike:
http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/messages/3183/252485.html?1126493851

Sameer

Hey Psudy,

Ever ding a prop? How about Vinyl repairs? Plugs, oil, filters for fuel and oil? Transmission fluid? Hubs on the trailer? 1Impellars @ $20...replace any or all of this at the dealer...double the price. It's not about crappy boats, it's about maintenance issues that prevent 2 and 3 thousand dollar bills later. In any given year I probably spend near $200 in maintenance issues to prevent bigger things.

Last summer (2004) we charged $10 per person per day. We based this on the fact that each time we went out, we spent about that much on gas to fill up again. For example, if we took another couple out (4 people total) we would end up spening about $45 or so filling up at the end of the day. So that divides up to about $10 per person for the day. It tended to work out the same if we added more people (ie 6 people = $60 gas).

This year, we went for $15 per person per day since gas prices are so high. This last month has been about $20.

By the way, has anyone seen Gary (Sanger215guy)'s sticker on the back of his boat? It reads like a warning sticker "This boat runs on gas, not thank you's" He has it placed on the A$$ of the boat just above the grab bar, so if you're in the water, and you want up on the swim step, you have to see it... I LOVE IT!

We have a stragegicly placed "FUEL FUND" jar as a friendly reminder to pay up or start swimming.

I just had a week where I replaced the starter, battery and a trailer hub. Went out and broke a piece in the throttle. Boats are expensive.
Starter 250
Battery 70
Trailer hub 50
Throttle Not fixed yet
and that all in about a week.

All I know is that during my entire childhood, I always thirsted for more time on/behind a boat. My parents never owned one, and the times that I spent behind friends' & family's boats were just awesome. I'm like living a dream right now and although my kids aren't gonna appreciate it like I did as a kid and still do, they're gonna have a ton of good memories on the lake even if they never learn an s-bend. I can't really think of giving the boat up for anything. Even when the sucker sits on the side of the house, I feel good knowing it's there waiting for when the schedule and/or pocketbook says it's time.

My attitude about sharing gas money, etc., might be different if I rode 200 hours like a lot of you, but I look at 50 as an okay year...especially when it seems like everybody I've ridden with OWNS a boat.

Last year when the boat was new, we put 105 hours on it. This year, now that we have other friends with boats, we have put about 50 hours on it. It's nice to share boats once in a while, although I must admit, I like mine better than theirs. I'm sure that's what everyone thinks though.

I totally agree with Derek... the cost to own a boat is a lot, but think about how much it costs for other sports or going away on vacation every year. If it brings you closer to your famlily and friends, it's worth every penny.

4 gallons per hour x 50 hours = 200 gallons of gas at abot $3 per gallon = $600 in gas. Not exactly chumpchange, but remember to enjoy every minute of it!

If you think these boats are expensive, I roughly figured up the hourly cost of owning my DCB F-29 once (never figure that up again!!).

Yearly figures:
Payments $12,000.00
Insurance $5,000.00 (It runs over 120 MPH)
Maintenance $4,000.00 (if nothing major blows up)
Misc. fees, etc. $2,000.00

I sued the boat 20 hours last season (May through October) and had the following expenses:
Condo rent (at LOTO which is big enough to run on) 14 nights x 200/night = $2800.00
Boat Fuel twin 580 cubic inch 650hp motors- 93 octane= 400gallons x 3.00= $1,200
entertainment (a bit high) $2100 (150/day)
Towing fuel (596 miles one way avg 12 MPG diesel truck-3 trips)300 gallonsx 2.50= $750
Misc. exp. $2,000.00

Total of 31,850 for ONE season, divided by 20 hours of actual boating = $1592.50 per hour, or $26.54 per minute!

Sure was fun though!!
I wonder why I am selling my boat?

Your biggest depreciating asset is your life!

I, unlike what appears to be the norm, do not make 100,000 a year. I have an old American Skier which I paid 6 grand for, and I put 1k into the Monster Tower back before they broke the 1,000 mark. I pay for gas, and make sure that I change the fluids religously. I do all the maintnance myself, and generally over the past few years, I have gotten away with spending around 1,000 for everything except gas each year. I pay 200 for the entire winter for storage. (Airplane type hanger) I usually have to get a starter or a battery or something like that each year but nothing major. I figure if I just convince the wife that going on the boat is a date then I am going to come out ahead.

With wakeboarding, you have to realize that to get that extra 10% of air you will have to buy an expensive boat, tower, fatsac's ect., and you are going to have to drop some coin.

Cost of a boat $50k
Cost of equipment $3k
Cost of gas 40X$3=$120

Being able to ride/ski to your hearts content... PRICELESS (as others have said too)

you can't take it with you.

Mikeski,

AMen. Can't take it with you. I hate paying for a boat but I sure love using it.

A good number of costs that would apply to taking care of your car apply to taking care of a boat, with the exception that when they stamp the word "marine" on it, they also increase the price.