It's also oddly cathartic knowing that the boat can't punish some other poor bastard. My family has owned a series of boats over the past 30 years. Whenever you sell a boat, the sense of relief you feel is tempered by the guilt you feel for the buyer who is inheriting all those problems. Good luck, buddy. You're gonna need it.
A LOT of maintenance, on my to-do list I have like 10 things I need to fix. Probably like 20-40 hours of work.
And my boat is in pretty good shape.
At Minimum I put like 40 hours of work into that boat a year, and that's just the basic yearly maintenance. Beside that there are repairs if anything break and if you're unlucky that could be days of work.
It's worth it for me, there are a lot of hobbies that require much more work. Ever owned a horse? Or a few? That's like an hour or two of work every day.
Yeah, boating can be time and money consuming. You are right though, there are definitely hobbies that cost more of both. We have had horses for a long time now, and the running joke with horses is: "if you want to make a small fortune raising horses, start with a large fortune."
My (non-boater) friends always ask me why boat engines break down so much, and I have to explain to them that, among other things, the physics of propelling a boat through water are very different than propelling a car on a road. Once you get a car up to cruising speed it can mostly coast using fairly little engine power. With a boat, the water itself is basically a brake that is always slowing you down and you have to compensate by running the throttle at higher RPMs the faster you cruise, which is fucking murder on the engine. If I drove my car everywhere using only 5th gear while always pressing down slightly on the brake pedal, my car would constantly be in the shop too LOL.
LOTS of maintenance. Boat engines (and electrical systems) are notoriously unreliable and require frequent repairs and part replacements. And since boat mechanics are way less common than car mechanics, the wait times and cost of repairs can be pretty high. And even aside from repairs there are a lot of normal recurring costs with boat ownership, specifically storage. Unless you own a house with your own dock, you have to either rent a slip at a marina (very expensive) or you have to pull the boat in and out of the water using a trailer each day you use it (this is called "launching" and most marinas charge you a fee to do it). You also then need a place on land to store the boat/trailer when it's not in use. If your own property can't accomodate it, you have to rent a lot space somewhere (another recurring cost). If you live in an area where it snows, you also have to have the boat winterized every year (drain the fluids and wrap it in a protective cover) so that the freeze-thaw cycle doesn't damage it.
Also, the cost of fueling a boat is way more expensive than fueling a car, for two reasons:
First, price gouging. Even though most boat engines use standard automobile gasoline, the price of gas at a marina is usually double what you pay at a land gas station because there are fewer choices available (even large lakes / boating areas usually only have a handful of marinas). So they can gouge the shit out of you on fuel and get away with it because where else are you gonna go?
The second reason is that motorboat engines have horrendously-bad fuel economy. Think of the most gigantic, inefficient, gas-guzzling SUV you've ever seen on the road - it has better fuel economy than even a medium-small motorboat. The physics of propelling a boat are very different than propelling a car because a boat constantly has to overcome water resistance to maintain speed. You know how in a car you can be going like 30 mph, take your foot off the accelerator and just coast for a long time? That doesn't happen in a boat. If you're going 30 in a boat and you cut the throttle, it will come to a near-complete stop within seconds. Boats don't have "brakes" because the water itself is the brake. Overcoming that water resistance to maintain cruising speeds requires the engine to continuously run at high RPMs, which guzzles gasoline. Boat engines don't really measure fuel economy in "miles per gallon" but a typical motorboat gets the rough car equivalent of like 3-5 mpg at moderate speeds. Even just cruising around at 25 mph in a boat eats up the tank crazy-fast and you can easily burn through over $100 in fuel in a few hours. The constant high RPMs required to maintain cruising speeds is also incredibly taxing on the engine and is a big reason why they break down so much.
not counting the initial purchase price, OWNING a 2 cabin yacht costs as much as RENTING a 2 bedroom apartment in annual maintenance assuming nothing breaks
I know it's not the same thing but that's how I felt when I sold my motorcycle.
My father and his brothers were riders so I really wanted to be a rider but after a few years of owning it I just didn't enjoy it that much and I felt kind if guilty about it. Selling it was a nice relief.
I don't get that at all. I've picked apart most things on my boat and put them back together again, sometimes more than once because I didn't get it right the first time. But first spring day I go out sailing, man, it's all worth it. Best feeling in the world to raise the sails and tame the winds.
I like fixing things though and not everyone does so I guess you have to have the right mindset?
My experience is specific to motorboats. Don't sail so I can't speak to what sailboat ownership is like, but motorboat engines are unreliable as hell and shit is always breaking down on them even if you're maintaining them well. I'm handy enough to fix/replace little things on my boat, but I'm not a mechanic and engine repair is way beyond my expertise. We have a regular mechanic for our boat but he has a lot of customers so when something breaks during summer boating season it can be a long wait before he's able to look at it.
I have never wanted a boat and have no interest in sailing. Can you explain briefly - is there something other than the expense that makes boat ownership bad?
Owning a boat is incredibly expensive, time-consuming, and frustrating. Fuel, storage fees, maintenance, etc all cost a fortune. Boats are also incredibly unreliable - mechanical parts are constantly breaking down and in need of repair/replacement. And when that happens during summer boating season you're kinda screwed because there aren't a lot of boat mechanics in a given area and they're usually pretty busy then. Might be weeks before the guy can even look at it, and then he has to order the parts, and so the repairs, which could take a long time. Boating is fun as hell but it's not an easy hobby.
Owning a boat is incredibly expensive, time-consuming, and frustrating. Fuel, storage fees, maintenance, etc all cost a fortune. Boats are also incredibly unreliable - mechanical parts are constantly breaking down and in need of repair/replacement. And when that happens during summer boating season you're kinda screwed because there aren't a lot of boat mechanics in a given area and they're usually pretty busy then. Might be weeks before the guy can even look at it, and then he has to order the parts, and so the repairs, which could take a long time. Boating is fun as hell but it's not an easy hobby.
Think of the most unreliable car you've ever owned. Now imagine it breaks down twice as often, and it's twice as hard to find a mechanic who can fix it, and the cost is always twice as much as you expected, and the repairs always take twice as long as you were initially told. That's what owning a boat is like.
There's an old joke that goes "B.O.A.T. stands for 'Break Out Another Thousand'". It's not a joke, it's reality.
Jesus christ, I always felt a tinge of jealousy whenever I see someone living it up on a boat with some attractive women. Seems like a bit of a waste of time, but maybe fun.
It is fun as hell but the amount of money, time, and work involved with owning a boat is insane. My advice to anyone considering buying a boat is to make friends with someone who owns a boat instead.
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u/drmojo90210 5d ago
It's also oddly cathartic knowing that the boat can't punish some other poor bastard. My family has owned a series of boats over the past 30 years. Whenever you sell a boat, the sense of relief you feel is tempered by the guilt you feel for the buyer who is inheriting all those problems. Good luck, buddy. You're gonna need it.