The Cost of Owning a Boat - "Seas The Day" (Catalina 425) 1st Season Costs

Photo Credit: Wealth Management

First, a citation... we did this experiment with our Catalina 315.  Additional links to the costs over our ownership are found on that page.

If you click on the link above and go back to the first-year costs, I spoke about how we didn't approach buying a boat lightly and how we carefully researched costs and couldn't find specifics so I decided to share mine so others could understand the total picture.

Well... for Seas The Day 425... it's hard to say we didn't approach buying this boat lightly.  This boat was basically a spur of the moment purchase... we were at the checkout line and basically said: "oh look... they have 425s... let's put one on the belt".

Not quite... but close.  The story of the purchase is here.

As in the other cost-related posts, we'll group the costs into three categories.

ONE TIME COSTS - down payment and initial start-up costs.

RECURRING COSTS - Those costs that we expect to see regularly (yearly) as owners.

EXCURSION COSTS - We really didn't have any excursions other than our delivery trip.  The rest were just days sailing on the Chesapeake Bay.

Once again there are ground rules... I'm rounding excessively.   If you're a CPA type, you're going to rapidly realize that things don't cross-check, etc.  The goal here is to share approximate costs to other potential boat owners, not to give an exact accounting.


ONE TIME COSTS

With Seas The Day being kept at a marina rather than a club, there were no special initiation fees or other items like we encountered at Keyport five years ago.  One Time Costs simply are the $57K down payment and the cost of the winter cover at a little more than $4200.  We had a plethora of safety equipment and the like which we simply moved from the old boat to the new boat.

These two are guesses, but I'm guessing about $300 in a few additional safety items and another $200 in dock lines (one set to stay at our slip, one set to go with the boat in case we tie up somethere else).


RECURRING COSTS

Yes, we did pay the marina this year, but what we really did was take advantage of their "pay for next season and get two months in the fall for free" deal, so that cost will show up next year.

We had 3 months of the mortgage at $2500/month for a total of $7500.

We had net insurance payments (new boat remainder of year less old boat refund) totaling $1765.

We had maintenance costs of $2300 consisting of haul out, sail stowage and battery charging.


EXCURSION COSTS

The only excursion was the delivery trip... a rough estimate is $450 plus 2 days worth of gas ($50??)

The rest were simple day trips where the expense is a couple of quarts of diesel fuel and maybe some sandwiches (I usually guess at $40 for these sorts of trips.)


Again we're not looking at costs of meals on land, etc.  We do spend a lot of money in restaurants and the like while we're in Rock Hall (Vicky LOVES crab... and Rock Hall abounds in it).  But that's not really a boating cost as we can eat out a lot when at home as well.


SUMMARY

All that comes to $62K in startup costs and another $12K in recurring costs (plus the $500 for the delivery trip).  So what did we get for all this?

We had an additional 14 days on the water this season (in addition to the 15 days we had on Seas The Day 315).  That included orientation, delivery, and all the excursions.  What we did not include was days just hanging out on the boat (without leaving the dock).  There were a number of these, but I didn't count them.

We got to share Seas The Day 425 with 11 other people (in addition to Vicky and me).  Most of these people had been on the other boat, but a few were new to this.

An most important, we got to spend a week together enjoying our new boat as well as a final weekend before Vicky returned to China.


That's it for 2019.  It was a busy season - 29 days total (matching 2014)!

So Now She Sleeps - Winter Storage

In mid-November, we had Seas The Day taken from our slip at Osprey Point and moved to Gratitude Marina.  (It's amazing how fast our slip filled up at Osprey... I guess all the bumpers we installed are being appreciated.  On several visits now, that is the only slip that is consistently occupied.)

On the following Saturday, I found Seas The Day in Gratitude Marina sitting on the hard.

A couple of weeks later, John and I went to inspect the new winter cover.

So now she sleeps... I'll check in every month or so but probably won't blog about it.

I'm planning the final end-of-year financial update and maybe a mid-winter post about getting your dealer to take care of post-sale punch list items.  Other than those, we'll see you in April.

First Time Singlehanding & End of the Season

Nov 2nd.

Vicky flew back to China a couple of days after our last day of sailing together this season.  But there's still a couple of weekends left before our marina shuts off the water for the winter.  (Note, we could winter in the water - and even go out sailing if the creek hasn't frozen - but without water at the dock, we figured it would only be quick day trips.  Besides... I wanted to inspect Seas The Day's bottom while the warranty was still in effect.)

I had lined up a guest, but that fell through at the last minute so I had to face the music... it was time to try single-handing.  The winds were going to be light, but cold, so it seemed like an OK time to try.  

I headed down to Rock Hall.  Notice that dinners drop a lot in quality once Vicky leaves... so does the conversation quality.  I try talking to myself, but I hate when I lose the argument when doing that.

Breakfast was similarly... um... filling.  I always keep a few Mountain House meals onboard (from my prepping activities - if anything happens you can no longer count on the government to do more than toss some paper towels to you).  So I had a "Breakfast Skillet" from Mountain House.

One thing I noticed is that the fuel tank seemed lower than it should be.  That made me realize that the problem with the fuel tank vent might be bigger than first thought.  Photos aren't shown, but I went to Gratitude to refuel, but fuel spit out the vent while refueling so we stopped that.  I had enough for the day, but we would have to get that looked at.

With fuel on board, I headed out.  It... was... COLD!  Not many photos here because my fingers stung when I tried to take a selfie.  I motored halfway across the bay, then decided that I didn't want to go too far out as I'd have to then come all the way back once I finally admitted it was too cold.  So I then motored a bit south... back and forth around the area north of Kent island.  That way I was never more than 30 to 40 minutes from the dock.

I made another Mountain House lunch.  It was soothingly warm.  It tasted reasonable.  If I had to go without food for a couple of weeks (because of let's say... mutant biker zombies), I could work with this until paper towels were tossed in my direction.

One nice thing about single-handing this time of year is there were very few crab traps out there.  The one or two boats seemed to be bringing them in rather than "working the line".

As I headed in, my plan of attack to get back to the dock and tied up was to use Caribbean coils for all the lines and bringing the starboard bow line back to midship.  I figured I could get to the dock and then run off and reach everything.

I shouldn't have worried... I'm on B-dock.  Long before my stern kissed the bumper, a compatriot had the bowline in hand.  But my placing it thusly made it easy for them to reach.

And I was even able to figure out how to reach "Vicky's" bowline on the port side.

Back in the dock, I had 44.2 engine hours.  I may make my 50-hour goal this season.  In any event, I'm close enough.  (I would like to have the 50-hour service completed over the winter.)

 

Nov. 9

I didn't capture the weather report, but predictions were that temps would be in the mid-20s to mid-30s in the morning... perhaps raising to high 30s/low 40s by the end of the day.

So I called it.

There was nothing to be gained by freezing again, so today was just a quick trip down to pull the final items off the boat.  The first stop was the land side of Gratitude Marina to meet Wade and arrange for Seas The Day to be pulled on Tuesday.  There is a big event going on at work tomorrow and I can't be present for the lift.  In fact, I've never seen one of my boats being pulled out of (or put back into) the water.

That completed, I came back to a lonely B-dock.  Only the serious(ly crazy) folk were still here.

Anything liquid, bedding, or food-related got bagged up and heaved up the companionway.  That left a fairly empty boat all ready for winter.

With one last glance, it was time to head home.

This means my home is full of boat crap for the 2nd time this year!

Just The Two of Us - Vicky's Last Day for the Season

This time it was just the two of us... our planned guests canceled so we took Seas The Day out by ourselves.

But first, there was one detail to take care of.  We had been pumping out (waste, that is) at nearby Gratitude, but their pump-out system was broken, so I had to try pumping out at Osprey Point.  It was a bit of a challenge to pull around the other side of the marina, spin the boat and back into the slip by the pump-out station.  Only then did I see this... yes, a big sharp angle iron to hold the dock to the piling.  How many ways could this destroy our new boat?

It took a couple of tries...

Words were said (in both directions)...

I had to apologize afterward...

Somehow we avoided noticible scratches in the boat, got tied up and pumped out.

Then we departed for the bay.

We finally had wind and Vicky wasted no time trying to squeeze every last knot of boat speed from the 6 or 7 knots of wind we had.

She worked on the boom vang...

She watched the telltales...

Then adjusted the mainsheet...

And the jibsheet...

We had a few moments of calm when we could sit and enjoy the ride.  I was tired from just watching her... I'm much more of a "set it and forget it" type of sailor.

But then a gust came up and she had to push harder...

The sail had a great shape, but I told her the jib needed some adjustment... she had to look for herself.

After it got chilly... we took a break for noodles and chicken broth!

She even tried to work (but that's just for show... she learned that you can't charge a computer while you're away from the dock - it was dead).  I'm not sure you can run the generator underway.

The best speed was 5.8 knots from 9 knots of wind!

She even remembered Red Right Returning on the way back to Swan Creek!