[CaptainFredGreenfield]

Originally Posted by Maine Sail

One boat I only owned for one season all the others were at least two+ years. We've had our current boat now for three. They all got LOTS of use and LOTS of love and attention so to minimize any loss in value. I used to detail boats for a living when I was younger so I know the HUGE importance of appearance on value.

You know how to detail boats inside and out. Yes, that will help resale value a TON. The novice boat owner may or may not understand that just because boats are in the water doesn't mean they don't get dirty.

But seeing as you asked here is my break down in Maine.

Mooring = $20.00 per year & about $350.00 every four to years for new chain or 107.50 per year over four years.

Winter Storage = I don't skimp and pay for shrink, pressure wash and remove my stick each winter to the tune of about $2200.00

Insurance = $680.00 per year

Registration = 68.00

Total Fixed Costs $3055.50 per year

Thats good costs. Do you spend anything on maintenance? Does your haulout cost anything? Do you buy any parts to replace anything or do you just dunk her in spring and hoist the sails?

We average well over 1k nm per season. You are ALWAYS upgrading or fixing something but you do with any large investment. This is the big hidden cost and why it is so important to DIY!!

DING! You DIY because you know how to and you can. Many do not or can not or do not understand the amount of upgrading or fixing. THATS WHO I WROTE THE ARTICLE FOR. You also conveniently leave out how much it would cost to pay someone to do most of the hard DIY stuff. I'm talking dollars and cents. Thats the premise for this article, not how to save money by DIY your mast lights and refinishing your rails.

Some boats yes but three of them had NO external wood including the current boat. We have a long winter up here and it gives us lots of time to putter away on things we enjoy. If you are not handy, and don't enjoy working on boats then you probably should not own one unless you have money to just throw away or burn..

But now you are setting conditions for who should and should not own a boat? What if someone just wants to do some basic cleaning and take their boat out? What if they have no idea that all of this work is necessary, and they aren't very handy, but they love to sail just the same? "you have money to just throw away or burn." Care to put a dollar figure on that? THATS what I'm trying to do with this article!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sure we haul out every winter for six months. Zincs cost me about $2.19 (LINK) and $6.99 (LINK) which is a FAR CRY from the $100.00 you quoted plus I get a commercial discount on top of those prices bringing my yearly grand total to about $10.00 (I usually buy three engine zincs one shaft). If you spend $100.0 on zincs you may have a problem that needs to be addressed. As for labor I have not paid labor in years and do everything myself. The only labor I pay on a yearly basis is the charge to pressure wash & step and un-step my mast. I tune it myself. I used to do my own pressure washing but for the $44.00 charge it's just not worth lugging my pressure washer to the boat yard anymore..

So you do all of your own labor, buy all of your own parts. Yeah you sound like the novice dreamer boat owner I am referring to with the article.

The zincs should have been $10 not $100. Its called a typo. Thanks for catching it though.

As for the bad data set I'd really like to know where you got your 30, 20, 10 number from. I will remind you again that my 310 sold for 107.5k which is 3.4% below what I paid for it. We sailed her almost 2.5k miles over two seasons and for a brand new boat I was expecting to lose at least 10% - 15% which is more standard.

If you bought her brand new, she's used now and she's worth 5-10% less the moment you take posession. Show me a single sailboat that is 2 years used that is worth the same as a new sailboat. It doesn't exist. When boats become classics, they can, become worth MORE than their sale price new. But compared to how much was spent simply keeping her floating in top condition, its a major money losing situation.

And you're not paying attention.

If you NEGLECT the boat, doing no MAINTENANCE, you will see an additional 10-20% drop. If she's already got severe wear problems after the first year, depending on the issues, you better believe you're going to see a sailboat worth 15-30% less than she was when she was new.

Remember your numbers had my 310 selling for 56k when it really sold for 107.5k. That is a 192% price difference !!!! Something is obviously wrong between a real sale and your 30,20,10 numbers. The last time I checked Soldboats.com, about 10 months ago, no 310 had ever sold for anywhere close to 56k.

No, 107.5k is 192% of 56k, but that is a 92% price difference, not a 192% difference. Come on now, if you're going to be correcting my math, please get yours straight.

Did you notice that once again, you are trying to apply my depreciation schedule to your perfectly maintained boat (regardless of how much it cost to maintain it)? To your boat which was undoubtedly bought well, is a coveted model for your area, and is among the finest of its class? Can you not see that you are not Joe sailboat buyer, sitting at his desk dreaming of buying a boat, not knowing what he is getting into? The massive depreciation in those first years comes from NEGLECT, wearing the new off, and not knowing how to fix it. It is further compounded by owning a model in which their is no coveting, in an area where they are plentiful.

Now your boat may have sold for only a fraction less than you bought it for but that is simply not true of all vessels, and the longer they are not new anymore the more they fall from the original price. For instance, Looking on boattrader.com, I can't find any 2006-2008 310's, but for an immaculate 2005 310, its at $84,900. 2005 Catalina 310 For Sale In Naples, FL: Cruiser (sail) - BoatTrader.com

As we go further down the line here's a 2003 310 for $83,000, 2003 Catalina 310 - Boats.com

and a 2001 310 at $69,900 2001 Catalina 310 - Boats.com

Now I realize my numbers aren't perfect, theres no way you could make ONE set of numbers work for EVERY boat in EVERY geographic location. But I want YOU to talk to the guy who bought that 310 in 2001 for $110,000, spent tens of thousands upkeeping her, and now needs to sell her because he can't afford her, so he's doing it at $69. YOU talk to him. YOU tell him depreciation doesn't exist. YOU tell him he didn't lose 35% of the value of his boat over 7 years, and that Captain Fred's a nutcase because he SHOULD be listing it for $100k, because thats how depreciation in your REAL WORLD works.

That even though he spent TENS OF THOUSANDS docking her and maintaining her, she still lost a whopping 35%, but if he had just done it like you - and put a new ipod radio in her, he could have sold her for $100k.

The you should put a depreciation range rather than trying to scare the living bejesus out of folks by telling them that in three years their 111.3k investment would be worth 56k.

At the worst end of the scale, engine broken, sails damaged, other issues, $60k isn't out of line at the end of 3 years. You break an engine by not maintaining it, how much did that depreciate the boat?

If you maintain your boat to a high standard, which DOES cost money, you will and can minimize losses. If you treat your boat like a floor matt then it will be reflected in your tail end losses...

How ambiguous. Care to attach a proper generalized schedule to how much a boat loses in value if you neglect it and use it 60 days out of the year? Can you honestly not expect that there will be some major cost in there somewhere? If you ignore it and leave it unfixed, HOW MUCH DID THE BOAT DEPRECIATE? How about after 5 years?

How much would you pay for a 310 after 5 years with the engine needing servicing, noticable wear and tear on everything, a sail or two damaged, its dirty, bottom hasn't been cleaned in who knows how long, zincs haven't been changed and possibly other issues?

GIVE ME A NUMBER!