SailNet Community banner
  • SailNet is a forum community dedicated to Sailing enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about sailing, modifications, classifieds, troubleshooting, repairs, reviews, maintenance, and more!

Where do the costs of a bigger boat come from?

3K views 25 replies 20 participants last post by  dinosdad 
#1 ·
Seeing my boat is surrounded by enough snow to be clinically depressing,
I've come up with this question for you all ( while most of us await the big thaw). It's been stated here and elsewhere once you go above 34-35 feet the costs add up fairly exponentially. So let's compare my c&c 30, and a alberg 37.
Let's dismiss slip/mooring , storage /hauling, as that's a no brainer that the longer the boat the higher the marina fees. Let's keep things pretty apples to apples , both simple galleys with icebox , alcohol stoves, manual heads , Hand pump sinks, simple lighting loads etc... Just how much more does that extra length equate in added costs? Anyone have any personal experiences? I'll throw the first one out ...more bottom paint , probably another gallon , how about it,
Sail costs? Rigging? Let's throw some numbers around( what else do most of us have to do, if you live up here in the north anyway!)?
 
#3 ·
Halyards are much longer, esp when led aft.. sails definitely increase in size, cost. ALL lines are 'upsized' for higher loads and more expensive. Same with ground tackle.. these particular costs, unlike moorage and haulout fees are not linear with length.

Of course if you don't upgrade/maintain/renew anything, then the increased costs won't be there - for a while...
 
#4 ·
Every single line, shackle and block on the boat gets more expensive. I guess the price goes up with the volume of material used and that's cubed not linear, or squared in the case of paints, gelcoat, etc.

Same is true of electrics, you'll have more lights fittings and likely more electronics

Plumbing? Add more sinks, hoses, valves, a shower, hell another shower. Pumps umps pumps. Add hot water, add pressured water. Add multiple water tanks. Keep adding stuff as the boat gets bigger.

And it's all corroding. All the time.

Oh - and the more stuff and the more complicated it gets the more you'll need to lean on expensive professionals who have families to feed and generally expect to get paid.
 
#5 ·
Sails are a good example. I am going to compare C&C 30 to C&C 37, since that is more apples-to-apples.

C&C 30 (per sailboat data) has a ~200 sq ft main and ~250 sq ft genoa.
C&C 37 has a ~275 sq ft main and ~400 sq ft genoa.

The larger sails require heavier sail cloth. Assuming similar construction, I would guess you would pay close to twice as much for a set of sails for the 37. Halyards would cost you more that twice as much since you need longer halyards of a larger size.

Another example is dock lines. General advice is at least the length of the boat. For C&C 30, 4 x 30 of 1/2 inch line. For the 37, 4 x 37 of 5/8 inch line. Using Defender price for Samson double braid pre-made dock lines the C&C 30 would be $180 and the C&C 37 would be $380. Again about double.
 
#6 ·
Mostly because all the additional equipment one is enticed to carry. It all needs to be bought and maintained. And by equipment I don't just mean proper sailing gear...for example things line power tools will suddenly seen reasonable to drag along, and extra shoes, both will rot and need replacement...etc.

It is not truly the size of the boat, it is the appetite. I full-time cruise a 50 foot monohull. But I am an odd sort. We are almost camping. Were have everything we need, but no more. There is no need that goes wanting. Far less than other large cruisers. Far less. I have one other cruising friend that has the same minimalist lifestyle. Never met any other. There is less here than on some 30 foot cruisers.

On the flip side, I maintain what little I have in first rate condition. My few sails are always new. All the running rigging is perfect and new. No crusty lines or blocks. No extra ones either.

So maybe it's the exponential lifestyle. Your results may vary...
 
#7 ·
Not that cost doesn't go up with length generally, but I would argue that displacement is a better proxy for cost than length. Sail size is selected to compliment the displacement, and the size, number and complexity of installed systems also varies more with displacement than leingth. Sail area not boat length then determines the size of the deck hardware, the loads on the running rigging, size of the fittings, ect.

As an example my Olson 30 used a 4.5hp outboard and was really more than it needed. While a J-30 uses a 15hp diesel and is a little underpowered. The difference isn't length, but that the Olson weighs 3600lbs while the J weighs 6500lbs.
 
#8 ·
Good feedback so far. I'll add, as LOA increases by a given percentage, total square footage usually increases by a larger percentage, as the boat gets wider too.

It's not uncommon for charges to increase exponentially for longer LOAs. For example, our storage fees are based on square footage, not LOA. Our marina increases the slip fees, based on a range of LOA. The longer your LOA, the higher your per foot fees are! I don't totally get that one, but it's common.

Finally, there's this little phenomenon. At some point, the marina figures you have enough money to own that bigger boat, they can charge you more for the same thing. This definitely happens.
 
#9 ·
I always tell my boating safety class students, most of whom are new to sailing and who dream of 40 plus footers, to get on the mailing lists to receive vendor catalogues. Choose anything on the boat and look at how much it will cost to replace it based on boat size.
 
#10 ·
"Let's keep things pretty apples to apples , both simple galleys with icebox , alcohol stoves, manual heads , Hand pump sinks, simple lighting loads etc... "

One of the big problems is that hardly anyone does that. You get to 37 feet, you'll have pressure water, you'll have a chart plotter/radar/wind/speedlog/depth, you'll want decent lighting for at night, you'll get sick of carrying ice an put in a fridge, all that will cause you do buy bigger batteries and a better alternator, then you'll say I'd like to work on shore power, then you'll say I'd like an inverter when away from shore, then you'll want a good dodger, then you'll get sick of handling that big genoa on deck and want roller furling, you'll want to listen to good music and add an audio system, you'll want to hear it below and on deck so you'll have speakers in both places, you'll get sick of the alcohol stove and want a good stove with propane, you'll need a propane locker with a shutoff, you'll want to barbecue on deck and not carry charcoal, so you'll need a gas grill, you'll stay on the boat enough that you'll want lots of galley gear for cooking, you'll go further offshore so you'll buy more safety equipment like harnesses, maybe a raft, you'll want more performance and you'll buy a folding prop, ....................

After you buy all that stuff, and get it all working, it will all start to fail, and you'll be in a replacement cycle.
 
#11 ·
I doubt theres much difference in a 30 to a 37.
But heres an example of the difference between a 30 and 40.

I needed some tripple blocks for my davits. The little ones cost about $40 probably fine for a little dink on a little boat, but the ones I needed cost $150 each... And i need 4!!!
Of course the forum nutcases will say I could of got them on eBay for 2 cents, but those people live at home, where I am "somewhere out there".

Cost don't go up exponentially, but the linear graph must be fairly steep. However, the added expense is worth it for comfort, safety and sailing enjoyment.

:)
 
#12 ·
In summary, I'd simply say "spares and maintenance". For example compare the standing rigging, chainplates and turnbuckles of that 37 footer with those of the 30 footer.

To dig deeper, the other consideration is the purpose the boat is set up for. A 37 footer set up for long distance cruising will cost a lot more to maintain than a 30 footer set up for daysailing. However, if the same 30 footer is also set up for long distance cruising, it's comparable upkeep expense will also rise well above that of the daysailer simply because it will be fitted with a lot more or heavier duty expensive stuff that breaks and needs fixing or replacing eventually. In fact, with items like electronics and navigation, it's entirely within the realms of possibility that a 30 footer could have near or as much invested financially as a 37 footer.
 
#13 ·
Yes SOME things for a bigger boat cost more. But comparing a 30' to a 40' is comparing a size jump of 1/3 length.

I used to have a 39' boat and now have a 43' boat and this was a HUGE increase in boat space and comfort. The yearly costs jumped about $100/yr, but that $100 is nothing compared to the extra boat enjoyment.

We are talking boats here. There isn't any cost savings involved really, it costs what it cost for the boating use you want to get out of it.
 
#15 ·
If a boat were a blob shape then costs sensitive to surface area (sails, bottom pain, deck wash, varnish, etc) would rise as the square of the basic linear dimension. Costs sensitive to volume (lead in the keel, resin in the hull, displacement etc) would go up as the cube of length. Since the basic boat shape is long and narrow this does not quite happen and the increases are less than squared or cubed, but they are certainly not linear.
 
#18 ·
The materials the boat is made of are sold by the pound (or ton), and weight goes up exponentially with length. A 40 footer isn't twice as heavy as a 20 footer, it could be more like 10 times as heavy. And we tend to use more exotic materials on the larger ones, at much higher prices. Engines tend to be larger as well on a hp to displacement basis. Then as most of the replies here say, you get more bells and whistles with the larger boat. You're just not going to find that 40 footer fitted out to the same Spartan standard as a 20 footer. At a certain point the saying is true: "If you have to ask how much it costs, you can't afford it".
 
#21 ·
Having moved from a 31 footer to a 19 footer to a 50 footer, I have some experience with this phenomenon.

Comparing a 19' day sailor to a 31' cruiser, weight increased 5-fold as did system complexity (heat, power, pressure water, head/tanks, etc.) Most of the cost differential had to do with systems. Rigging a 31' cruiser is more expensive, no doubt, but only 1.5-2X.

Comparing a 31' cruiser to a 50' cruiser, weight increased 4-fold but system complexity stayed about the same. Most of the cost differential has to do with the rig. Sails, lines, blocks, etc. are all about 3X the price.
 
#24 ·
I've gone from a 43 footer years ago to a 57 foot monohull. If costs really were to increase exponentially my current boat would have cost as much as the annual GDP of some smaller nations; which is patently not the case. Taking purchase price as one criteria, the $/Kilo of boat weight has gone up about 20% while the annual maintenance costs have gone up about 25% as measured per foot of LWL.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top