Putting together a budget

[punjabi]

As someone who is new to sailing and dreaming about ownership in a year or two, I'm starting to put together some information to help me get a feel for what kind of spending will be involved both initially and on an ongoing basis. What I would like to do is put together a spreadsheet that would give a range of costs on a "best-case / worst-case" set of assumptions.

I'm a financial professional, so the spreadsheet and numbers portion is a breeze for me, but the practical experience of ownership is non-existent. What I would like to do is gather information from owners and develop some sort of spreadsheet that I could use, but that I could also make available for any of the other members that might find it useful.

Do you think something like this is doable, or are there too many variables to make it useful? Would something like this be useful to other members?

[sailingdog]

Ummm.. a lot of it depends on what boat you get... how old it is, where it is moored/docked, what kind of insurance you get for it... and so on. Maintenance costs will often be affected as well... A brand new boat will generally have lower maintenance costs, as will a boat that was recently re-fitted or upgraded, but a 5-10 year old boat may have some very major repairs and maintenance issues, like new standing rigging and sails coming up shortly.

Initial Costs:

Boat
Survey
Sea Trial
Haul out
Transportation to final berth

On-going costs

Maintenance
Docking/mooring
Insurance
Haulouts
Repairs

Long-term periodic costs

New Sails
Bottom Paint sodablasting/scraping (if using a hard epoxy paint)
New Rigging
New Electronics

These are just a partial rough list of the various areas that you'd have to cover.

[punjabi]

Yeah. It's going to be tricky to put together a generally useful model, but maybe I can start by collecting data and building a database. If nothing else, that would provide a lot of information to current / prospective owners.

Would people be willing to show their cards so to speak and provide information on their financial outlays?

[SailorMitch]

Originally Posted by punjabi

Would people be willing to show their cards so to speak and provide information on their financial outlays?

No. My wife might decide to visit this site someday.

[US25]

Originally Posted by SailorMitch

No. My wife might decide to visit this site someday.

hahahaha, that's too funny!

[punjabi]

OK. So I'll guess I'll add an additional zero on to any numbers provided and we'll be about right.

[MysticGringo]

When I was boat shopping... I made a list of everything I want on a boat, eventually. Searched the internets for all the prices of everything... figured out which I would do myself, and which I would need to pay someone to do. I put in costs of dockage, registrations, insurance... yada yada. Plus the first year of maintenance, including 2 haulouts (one would be for maintenance, and one would be for "incase I needed it"). Then I added a cost per 50 miles to move the boat to a better location for me.

Then I threw up.

Then I realized I shouldn't spend so much money on a boat... so I bought an older boat. I figure that a new boat won't have issues for a while... but then it will. A 5 to 10 year old boat is going to go through its first set of major issues at any moment. An older boat that has had good owners will be through most the major problems, but will require some updating.

I figured out that if I figured out how much this was really going to cost me, then I would likely not do it. I decided to be a little naive and do it... trusting that I will figure it out somehow... and now I go sailing. Its awesome.

Granted... I haven't eaten lunch or dinner out since buying the boat, but I have a boat!

[sailingdog]

Mystic-

Food is over rated...

[SanderO]

Of course this can only be answered with generalities and there are so many variables. Mooring in CT is very different than down East Maine for example.

But you have all the costs associated with acquisition:

purchase price
travel to and from in the process of buying
survey
legal fees
registration
delivery to your mooring location
insurance

Then you have gear upgrades and maintenance as they apply:

sails
rigging, running and fixed
deck hardware
mooring gear, ground tackle, fenders, dock lines
canvas as in cushions and dodgers
dinghy and outboard
auxillary Engine
brightwork
navigation equipment &instruments
bottom paint
cosmetics (wax and paint)
Refer
heating
life raft
safety equipment and emergency gear; life vests, EPIRB, flares etc.
galley equipment
entertainment equipment
communications
charts and plotting equipment, reference materials
tools
spare parts
charging systems
inverter
clothing

annual expenses

mooring
winter lay up storage, commission and de-commissioning
haul out and bottom paint
insurance
transport to marina. boat yard and associated expenses

That's a start.

jef
sv shiva

[SanderO]

One way to rationalize the cost of a yacht is to USE it. We use ours as a summer home. We don't rent or own a summer home and all the costs associated with a weekend home or vacation property.

But you need a boat that you are comfortable living on every weekend and using for vacations.

I estimate the cost of shiva on an annual basis is about $5k minimum with no new gear or projects. Since I do projects each year, I can expect another $4-10k... some years being more... like a new suit of sails.

This amount is comparable to what we would spend on a vacation rental for the summer and certainly less than a home. We have the advantage of enjoying our vacations and every weekend from Spring through Fall at many of the lovely locations in NE.

I intend to move aboard at some point and live in the tropics perhaps.

jef
sv shiva