Costs of Owning a Boat - "Seas The Day" (Catalina 425) 6th & Final Season Costs

  

Photo Credit:  Wealth Management

Most important... We sold Seas The Day, our Catalina 425!!!, so this post will cover this weird season where she was for sale and not being used heavily.

For reference see last year's post for 5th season costs of owning a Catalina 425.

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

If you click on the 315 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 about boat ownership.  Purchasing the 425 was less researched, but still the total costs figured large in our brief discussions.  For that reason, and to be able to project from year to year, we are continuing this tally.

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

ONE-TIME COSTS - costs of major equipment that we don't expect to have regularly.

RECURRING COSTS - costs that we expect to see yearly as owners.

EXCURSION COSTS - costs for longer multi-day excursions.  We did zero multi-day excursions this year... we only did a few days of sailing on the Chesapeake Bay.

Once again please understand that 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:

There were no one-time costs this year.

RECURRING COSTS:

Recurring costs are the costs for running the boat for the year assuming we never did anything other than take day trips and anchoring out in the northern Chesapeake area (e.g., no additional marina costs).

Our total recurring costs round to $32,600 (remember, everything is rounded).

The mortgage is $2500/month and we only paid that for January to September - $22,500.

Insurance for the partial year was $1200 (net of refund at the end).

The marina clocked in at $7100 (including electric).  Note that this was higher since we paid month-to-month (because we might have sold her early in the season).

Commissioning in the spring came to $1200.

A short haul mid-summer was $600.

EXCURSION COSTS:

There were no excursion costs... we only had it out for a few day-sails.

SUMMARY: 

There is only one way to describe this season... even with much reduced expenses, it was a colossal waste of money.  We spent 5 days out on the water; stayed aboard for 12 nights.  So each night on the water cost us $2716, which is less than last years were we lost half the season, but still much higher than the typical of ~ $1500 from earlier years.

It was time to sell her... it would have been better to sell her earlier.  While the saying that "the best two days in the life of a boat owner are the day they buy the boat and the day they sell her" isn't really true (we had many many happy days with Seas The Day), we were relieved in the end that she sold.

OVERALL SUMMARY

Here are Season 1 Costs (August to December 2019) which were $74,000 ($62K of that in startup costs)

Here are Season 2 Costs (January to December 2020) which were $44,400.

     (Note that we posted the "Is it worth it" post this year.)

Here are Season 3 Costs (January to December 2021) which were $44,000.

Here are Season 4 Costs (January to December 2022) which were $45,000.

Here are Season 5 Costs (January to December 2023) which were $45,000.

And Season 6 Costs (above) were $32,600.

That gives a total on Seas The Day (Catalina 425) of $211,800 over the 5 years that we owned her.  I can add, that total reflects the proceeds we got from selling her when all the dust cleared.  During that time we had a total of 142 days out on the water, and 230 nights onboard (with up to 4 guests on a given night).

Finally (since they all cite it), remember our citation at the beginning about the cost experiment with our earlier Catalina 315 costs.  There we had $127,500 in costs for 120 days on the water (we only spent a few nights on board that boat during the 5.25 years we had her.

And then the final total... $339,300 over the 10.25 years we owned new(ish) Catalina sailboats.

Was it worth it??  I think so.  We had a blast over our 10 years of sailing.  But like most hobbies, it started to loose its luster, and once we stopped doing it every weekend of the season, it just no longer made financial sense to keep at it.  

Seas The Day Has Finally Sold!

 

Seas The Day has finally sold!!

This has been a LOOOOONNNNGGGGG and somewhat frustrating process.  We first listed Seas The Day last year.  And so for the past year, we have been living with Seas The Day trying to keep her in the state of always ready to show.

Very few showings happened.  

There was some initial interest last fall, and even a floated offer, but our dealer said it was too low and the guy wasn't serious.  (It turns out he was... live and learn.)

I was thinking of writing more details on the process, but I'll let discretion be the better part of valor and just say she has been sold.  If I had to sell another boat, I will go with a local broker rather than a dealer (different motivations).

So in early October, we went down to Rock Hall and scrubbed Seas The Day to be spic and span - both inside and out, removed the last of our personal items and prepared her for her new owners.

We closed the sale in mid-October.

Saying a final goodbye!!!

The Rest of the 2024 Season (w/Short Haul)

 

I last left you all in June.  We had been on the boat but the heat was just too intense for us to do anything.

The rest of the 2024 season was similar to that.  But first, full disclosure - I was laid off in late June.  Please don't worry for me.  I was planning to retire in December... they paid me into August and I left with severance enough to cover until March, so I'm quite happy with my "early retirement".

With the heat being so intense this summer and Seas The Day up for sale, this year we allowed ourselves to imagine doing other things than boating.  The first might be counter-intuitive, but we headed back down to The Villages in Florida.  I wanted to experience the place at the height of Florida's heat and humidity (and that we did).  You'll see that most photos are from early morning or evening.

The visit did not rule out the possibility of moving there.

Of course, we visited Levi, my grandson frequently.

I continued to go down to Seas The Day at least every other week.

I spent a lot of time cleaning her.  I did some lounging.  I even took her out a few times.  But in all honesty, once the decision to sell was made, boating lacked appeal.  I even spent four days on her in mid-August, expecting to go visit a few ports for the last time... but I never left the dock (except for trips to "Pompout Cove").

One interesting trip was in mid-August... I took her over to Gratitude Marina to have a "Short Haul" completed.  This is just pulling her out of the water and power washing the marine growth off her bottom, and checking things like the zincs.  In the past this was always done on a weekday and I opted not to waste a vacation day.  This time, with my newly retired status, I could take her there myself and watch.

Here's a bunch of videos from the process...

Video 1

Video 2

Video 3

Video 4

Video 5

Video 6

Video 7

Video 8

I know that's a lot of detail, but I have some young readers who are really into big machines and would want to see the entire process.

With Gratitude Marina in the rear view, I headed back to Osprey Point.  

The rest of the season, I made it a point to go down every week or two to check on her.  I even lived on board for four days (intended to be a week of going out to visit some old ports).  But I never left the dock... the desire to go out sailing had flown once we decided to sell her.  So I basically just enjoyed Osprey Point Marina for a few days.

Clearly something else other than sailing had captured my interest!

Finally, this past weekend, we had the whole family over as I celebrated my 60th trip around the Sun!!

Stay tuned for an important update on the boat selling process!!!

Some HOT Weekends

 

There's been quite a few weekends where we have not been on the boat... sometimes it was too hot, sometimes too windy and let's face it... the main culprit has been this little one.

These are from Father's Day, but we also went there the week before.

We did finally get back to the boat this past weekend, but it was the zenith of this massive East Coast heatwave and we basically became slugs... just watching movies in the salon.

I did put the cushions out in the cockpit and was able to enjoy a brief respite as sunset approached on both Friday and Saturday evenings.

We had a "strawberry moon" on friday night, but on Saturday!!! Oh boy!  The heat index reached 108 Saturday afternoon.

Some poor couple had their outdoor wedding at Osprey Point on this day.

We again went out to enjoy the sunset and right after sunset I filled the water tanks.

I said hello to the wedding photographer who was photographing the couple (they stayed on the boat next to us... it had a "Just Married" sign, but I didn't look to see if it was dragging some tin cans.

On Sunday morning, they wanted more heat wave along with some violent T-storms, so we packed it in.

I later went to the Colonial Theater in Phoenixville, PA to hear Ian Fraser play their Wurlitzer.

Cleaning Seas The Day and a VSC

 

This weekend, Boatus Cleanus awoke from her winter slumber and returned to Seas The Day with a vengeance (against dirt).  I had been swabbing the decks for the past month or so, so she was "George clean" which cleary isn't "Vicky clean".  ALL nooks and crannies were shined up (even the line locker).

Line locker is spic 'n span!

The lines are back in place, stowed neatly.
(Yes, that is neat... we have to be able to run out certain
lines quickly when needed.)

Later Saturday afternoon, a member of the Main Line Power Squadron stopped by to do my US Coast Guard Vessel Safety Check (VSC).  Seas The Day passed and a sticker was awarded.  The sticker (placed on the port side of the mast) is supposed to ward off evil spirits like coast guard and law enforcement patrols (letting them know that everything checked out and they can move onto another vessel).

We actually did not go out this weekend.  After her cleaning frenzy, Vicky went to bed and slept for 12 hours.  I grabbed dinner at the pool bar.  Since my workplace has a company-wide shutdown next week and we will be sailing a lot, we decided to head home on Sunday.