Sorry for being late to the party.
TexasLongHorn -- I think you caught Capt'n Fred's major mistake. He's counted depreciation twice (and pretty high at that). Here's my take on his numbers:
Buy the boat:..................$20,000
5 years slip + insurance:....$16,000
Total cost:......................$36,000
Sell at end:....................-$14,500
Net cost:........................$21,500
Cost/year.........................$4,300
About the lowest price I've seen for a bareboat charter is $2500 per week, and if you fly your family to one of those great cruising grounds, you'd get about a week per year for this amount of money.
I look at this the other way. For the price of chartering for a single week, you can pay for your own boat that you can use any day you want for at least several months per year.
Yes, as Fred points out, you can reduce your costs by sharing a boat with others. But if you want to share a boat with others, buying a fractional share will get you a lot more sailing for a lot less money. Plus this way you don't have to spend your single sailing week per year with people you're only sailing with to save a buck.
Capt'n Fred -- I think your 20% estimate for depreciation is pretty severe. Powerboats and racing sailboats, maybe, family cruisers, definitely not. Here's some values for Catalina 36s I pulled out of the BUC book
a year and a half ago:
Year........ Ave Retail... Loss per year... % per year
2006........ $130,750
2005........ $125,250........ $5,500........ 4%
2004........ $119,750 ........$5,500........ 4%
2003........ $114,000........ $5,750........ 5%
2002........ $108,000........ $6,000........ 5%
2001........ $101,650........ $6,350........ 6%
2000........ $95,550.......... $6,100........ 6%
1999........ $89,900.......... $5,650........ 6%
1998........ $84,300.......... $5,600........ 6%
1997........ $78,900.......... $5,400........ 6%
1996........ $73,650.......... $5,250........ 7%
1995........ $68,650.......... $5,000........ 7%
1994........ $63,900.......... $4,750........ 7%
1993........ $59,400.......... $4,500........ 7%
1992........ $55,600.......... $3,800........ 6%
1991........ $51,500.......... $4,100........ 7%
1990........ $48,050.......... $3,450........ 7%
1989........ $44,450.......... $3,600........ 7%
1988........ $41,150.......... $3,300........ 7%
1987........ $38,200.......... $2,950........ 7%
1986........ $35,450.......... $2,750........ 7%
1985........ $32,750.......... $2,700........ 8%
1984........ $33,050.......... ($300)........ -1%
1983........ $31,100.......... $1,950........ 6%
1982........ $25,800.......... $5,300........ 17%
It's easy to get a BUC or NADA book and trace back different boat models. It'd be even more accurate to calculate based on the initial purchase price rather than today's purchase price.
Cheers,
Tim