For this blog, we wanted to break down the cost of owning our 2002 Bayliner we recently sold after just fourteen months. Many of you have asked us, why we sold and that’s explained here in our previous blog. The question also has been asked, how much did that cost you and was it worth it?
Scott and I have broken down the costs into several different categories. Keep in mind your costs may be higher or lower depending on many variables. We’ll go through those as we review our costs.
Pre-Purchase Costs
These are any costs you incur prior to purchasing your boat. These include things like surveys and mechanical inspections. Note, that you may incur these costs multiple times depending on how many boats you place an offer on. We spent $1500 on a survey and mechanical inspection including oil samples for our boat.
We went with an individual who was certified to do both inspections. This saved us time and money by not having to schedule multiple inspections. In addition, we saved $600 for a haul-out for the survey because we won a free haul out at the Seattle Boat Show.
Included in this category is also the purchase of the boat. We financed this boat and we put down 15%. This amount will vary on the purchase price, lender and age of the boat. Some lenders require 20%, so better to plan on the high side just in case.
Accessories & Supplies
In this category we have included items to provision the galleys, heads, staterooms and miscellaneous items like fender hooks, cleaning supplies, LED lights, etc. Again, your budget for this expense depends on how you provision your boat. When we bought our Bayliner 4087, it didn’t come with much and the bedding was original from 2002.
We bought everything we needed, including the items above plus a new TV, barbecue, cockpit carpet, salon carpet and bathroom linens. In total, we spent about $2525, of which $900 was for the custom cockpit carpet.
Routine Maintenance
Routine maintenance (by our definition) is service & parts that you need regularly throughout the year. This includes items like watermaker service, filters, hull cleaning, replacement zincs (which includes divers), engine zincs, dinghy maintenance and minor repairs .
This is a pretty variable category. The more routine maintenance you can do yourself, the more money you will save. There were things we did ourselves like changing the oil, but we had divers check and clean the hull, intakes and zincs. Before we sold the boat, we replaced our broken spotlight and that cost alone was $850.
In total, we spent $2567 on routine maintenance in fourteen months. The next two categories are the two most expensive. Some of the costs you can control, others are just the cost of ownership.
Major Maintenance
Scott and I want to emphasize these costs are based on our decisions and may not reflect directly on your next boat purchase. We break major maintenance into two categories.
Post Purchase
The first is post purchase. What maintenance do you have to do to the boat to make it safe and seaworthy per your survey & mechanical inspections? This doesn’t mean you bought a boat with a hole in the hull, but rather what mechanical maintenance and improvements do you need to make? In our case, the previous owners had kept pretty good maintenance records, but our survey showed there were a few items we should take care of. Now, we could have looked past these suggestions, but we like to error on the side of caution. As a result, we had Union Marine do a full engine tune-up, replace all of the original batteries, upgrade the fuel filters and more for a total of $6400. Keep in mind we had dual Cummins 270hp engines, whereas you may only have a single engine.
Haul Outs & Painting
Our second major maintenance item was to haul out for bottom paint. We knew when we bought the boat in March, that it hadn’t been hauled out in years. In our research we found that the best time to haul out and do bottom paint, was after the boating season. So we hauled out in the Fall to complete the following: clean and scrape the hull, bottom paint, clean running gear and inspect sea cocks and rudders. Scott and I had intended on completing a lot of the work ourselves.
We had already purchased all of the bottom paint and accessories, but just before we hauled out, we both got called out of town for business. In addition, we were shocked to see 2″ of barnacles on the prop, shaft and rudders and we knew there was no way we could tackle this project.
As a result, in order to reduce the time on the hard and costs, we decided to have Pacific Fiberglass at the shipyard take care of it. They also introduced us to PropSpeed and showed us some work they were currently doing. This was an application to the props, shaft and rudders to keep growth off them and not something we could have easily done ourselves, given the amount of work to be done and the environmental considerations.
Pacific Fiberlgass cleaned the rudders and shafts before applying Propspeed 
The haul out and work was completed for $6022 (The roundtrip haul-out and yard fee was $2060 and the actual work and parts cost $3962). So if you’re keeping track, the total for major maintenance category costs were $12,422.
Fixed & Variable Costs
The second major category and final category overall is our fixed & variable costs. These costs include moorage, insurance and fuel. Obviously you’ll have a lot of control over these costs. These costs will vary greatly based upon what type of boat you have, where you moor your boat, who you insure it with and the type of propulsion you have.
In regards to moorage fees, our boat was a 2002 Bayliner 4087 Motor Yacht with an LOA (length overall) of 47’. We moored it at Elliott Bay Marina (which is one of the nicest marinas in the Seattle area) because it was only 5 minutes from our home. We could have chosen a less expensive marina, but we didn’t want to spend so much time commuting to the boat. Traffic in the Seattle area is some of the worse in the country. Spending an hour or two on a Friday afternoon to get to the boat is not exciting. Plus we love everything about Elliott Bay Marina.
We did save on fuel costs compared to our previous cruiser, as this boat had diesel engines and cruised at 10-12kts rather than the 25kts we cruised in our gas powered cruiser. As a result of the corona virus, we delivered the boat with full fuel tanks since we couldn’t really go out after our last fill-up. Overall, this category cost us $14,310.
Drum Roll Please
Now for those of you keeping up with us, we spent a total of $33,324 or about $2380 per month, plus boat payment for the 14 months we owned the boat.
Things to consider. While this may seem to be a large amount of money (and it is), we’ve also prepped ourselves to be able to afford this. Scott and I sold our business and our home, in order to downsize our living expenses (saving us over $26,000/year. ) Like most families, we would typically take one big vacation a year ($6500/year) and then multiple weekend getaways ($3000/year. ) Our investment in the boat, is part of our lifestyle or hobby, if you will.
Unlike a vacation or getaway, we get to enjoy the boat all year round. Some people invest in collectibles and never use them; other people buy brand new cars every year (ours is 14 years old and paid for). By buying our second boat, it gave us time on the water and experiences that you can’t put a value on. In the end, it’s all relative to what you want in life.
What would we do differently?
What would we do differently next time? Emerald Harbor Marine has some great advice, which perhaps we should have gotten before we invested – who knows? They suggest that before you buy a boat, have a 3rd party (like them) check the boat out. (Note, they are not a replacement for a survey or mechanical inspection). What they’ll do , is give you an estimate on what the costs will be for replacement parts and yearly maintenance. Keep in mind, some parts might not even be available for older boats. They also suggest to use the boat before investing in (new batteries, filters, etc), because it may not need them. Use the boat first and find out how it feels.
No Regrets
In the end, we are happy with how everything turned out. The experience we gained during these past fourteen months was amazing and not something we could “buy.” This pandemic has made us focus more on what we really want to do in life and we’re excited about our search to find that. Now we’re onto the next big thing – not sure what that is yet, but we know it will be fun and on the water!
As always, a big thank you to everyone who follows us! Be sure to follow us on Facebook , Twitter and Instagram @BoatingJourney, so you can see our stories and get current updates on our progress. Also, check out our YouTube channel at @BoatingJourney and subscribe for future episodes. Cheers, Scott & Ally
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Love your posts, Ally .. very informative – and fun.
Thanks Barb!!