The Cost of Owning a Boat - "Seas The Day" (Catalina 315) 2nd Season Costs

(Image Credit:  Wealthmanagement.com)

With the boat put away for the winter, it seems like a good time to tally the costs for this season.

I reference our post about our first year costs (click to read), but I decided that instead of going on a Year of ownership basis, it makes more sense to look at the 2nd season costs.  It does mean that some of the costs are duplicated in this post (those related to getting things ready in the spring) and I'll try and point them out.

In our second season, there are no more startup costs.  There are still "Seasonal Costs" and "Excursion costs".

SEASONAL COSTS

This includes the cost of owning the boat, maintaining the boat, storing the boat (in water and on land in the winter) and insuring the boat.  The total comes to $20,700.  This roughly breaks down into $12,000 in mortgage payments, $1,600 on insurance, $2,900 for maintenance, $2,400 for mooring and storage (including launch service), $1,500 to the yacht club (membership & events - we get the mooring through the yacht club), and another $100 for safety stuff and accessories (kind of light this year since everything was still new), and maybe $80 for registrations, etc.

Repeated costs from the earlier post include $1330 for a new bottom job and waxing (having a bottom job on a brand new boat was unusual, but I think that was related to plowing through the mud to get out on our delivery trip), $275 for "spring commissioning" and $185 for getting the mooring ready.

EXCURSION COSTS

The cost per type of excursion hasn't changed much for us.  I guestimate that a typical 4 hr day sail costs about $40 for provisions (we usually eat something on-board), fuel and tips to the launch drivers.  An overnight excursion to an upscale marina near NYC is maybe around $725.  (We had one of these this year.)  Our total excursion costs are about $1325.

So my guess that it would cost us about $24,000 wasn't too far off - our total was about $22,000.

THE BENEFITS??

We had 16 nice days on the water... even if the weather was iffy, it was still fun.  During this season, we shared boating with 18 people (including the two of us), and made a lot of deeper friendships at the Yacht club.

This was much lighter than last year.  But it was also a year where we had the task of switching jobs, moving, and getting a new house set up which knocked a few weekends off the sailing list and frequently prevented us from enjoying sailing on two days of the same weekend.

We expect this pattern of use to change next season.  We now live in Delaware and by next spring we will no longer have a waterfront condo right next to the Keyport Yacht Club, so we'll probably do more overnights on the boat.  Keyport for now still seems to be the best place for us, so we'll see you all next season.