Re: Cost of owning a old boat' rant
First, if you worry about every dime that you put into something, a boat is the last thing you should have bought. Second, if you think $54 for each day of use is expensive, take a pack of kids to the movies - between the tickets and the snacks, you'll think 54 bucks is a bargain!
Here's another view of the used boat situation, though. I am a photographer and spend more money on my cameras/accessories, than I do on my boats. A boat is a well used tool to me. That's not to say that I don't use them for pleasure, but I am more interested in utility.
My current boat was purchased about 6 years ago. It was in the "junk section" of a local boat/motor sales business. The reason why it was with the junk boats, is because someone rebuilt the transom in a way that made it look like the back of it had been cut out. It hadn't - what they did was to cut the very back of the cap off, in order to open up the transom from above. It was closed after replacing the interior wood, by glassing from the splash well, over the transom and then down the back of it. It was the obvious presence of glass down the back of the transom that made it look like the back was cut out.
The owner of the sales business, wanted $1,500 for the boat and it was obvious that he threw that number out, even though he was going to junk it, just because I expressed interest. I left, went to the bank to withdraw $500 and then returned with an offer for the 500. As you have probably already guessed, I got the boat for $500. I bought it because it is a trihull (very stable & good for photography), because it was structurally sound and because it had a pair of aluminum saddle tanks in it, that were/are worth every bit of what I paid for the boat.
Once I got the boat, I completely rewired it, cleaned the tanks, installed all new fuel lines, and valved them to a fuel/water separator. I also installed a line to the forward deck, so that I can use one or more aux tanks. Added to this, was a completely new steering system. Total cost of the upgrades, was about another $500.
The story of my current motor is a similar situation. It is a 1972 Johnson 65hp model, which I bought for $400. It was very sound mechanically (hardly used, in fact), so I put about another $1,500 into it. That was five years ago and the motor as been extremely reliable, with the exception of one incident, which happened before I got around to rebuilding the ignition system.
So, I have boat/motor combination that has been heavily used for quite awhile. Other than routine maintenance items, all of which have been relatively inexpensive, I have a total of about $3,000 in the boat. I use it frequently, sometimes as much as 3 -4 times a week. I think nothing of running the boat over a hundred miles in a day and I use it periodically, for volunteer search and rescue/recovery missions with local authorities.
My boat is old, ugly and sometimes the source of jokes at the launch. Its also one of the best uses of money that I have ever engaged in. It runs every time I turn the key and it carries my cameras and I, to where I need to go. While I do keep track of maintenance and fuel/oil costs in general, I have never even bothered to do the math, to come up with a daily expense figure. All things considered, its sure to be pretty low.
My point in all of this, is that used boats must be approached with enough knowledge to keep from buying a hunk of junk and they need to be purchased with an understanding of their potential costs. If done correctly, however, a used boat purchase can be a bargain - especially when you consider the typical cost of a new boat of any given length and/or engine size.
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