Alot of non-members read this forum too. Many of those are not yet boaters and read topics to get them off the fence, either way.

Troop is correct in fact. Other people spent hours and dollars sitting in front of slot machines or at craps tables for entertainment. I do not. Pick your passion and enjoy life.

Over my three years of ownership, I have about 250hrs logged out on the boat, not run time.
boat, $11,500
maint, $350
fuel, $1100
insurance, $750
registration, $135
Total: $13835

So, about $55 an hour.

How did you deal with resale value?

I figure the longer I keep it, the more the initial cost will get spread out, and the hourly rate will decrease. But the longer I keep it, the lower the resale value will be, and therefore increase the cost per hour. I call it a wash for now, but don't know how accurate that really is.

Grabbed my ankles and filled up at $4.10/gal. this weekend...not premium and not even at a marina!

Not sure about Troop's math, but he may not be all that far off.

Still worth it for us. Most families choose some activity or another to build memories around.

Boating is as good as they come as far as we are concerned.

We'll have fun fun fun til Daddy takes the T-Bird away!

Since I am daddy, I wont be taking the T-Bird away

Hey, 1961 ?

We spent from Saturday afternoon until Sunday afternoon on the boat this weekend. Total cost was about $40 for gas and a few bucks for food. I'm not counting moorage payments and licensing and insurance because those (and an annual oil change) are my only other costs.

For that $40 we spent the weekend with friends we hadn't see since last year, met a new couple who has extensive cruising experience up in the Canadian waters we want to go to, checked out another couple's new 31' Chapparel, and had a great time all weekend.

Pretty cheap fun IMHO.

My wife loves the beach so every year I give her one weekend. Total costs was $200 that included tolls, meals, lodging, parking. We arrived Friday afternoon and ordered a pizza so enough was left over the next day for lunch. For Friday's dinner we had a doggy bag. Saturday was eating left overs. The hotel was discounted thru work, parking at the beach was free because we left the beach by 10 AM when the tolls start. (we have a 7 month so we didn't want to be out on the beach during peak times). The $200 would have gone a long way in putting gas in the boat and tow vehicle but since my wife loves the beach, i took one for the team. This was not the father's day gift that I wanted but I wasn't a father when I made the reservations.


Once again, boating can be inexpensive compared to other activities.

troop - I think your math is a bit too pessimistic. Even though we have a monthly payment AND we pay for moorage, I did some math now including all our expenses including fuel and maintenance and it comes to a number closer to $300 per engine meter hour. But then if you factor in all the time you can spend on the boat when the engines aren't running, that a whole different deal!

I was on the boat about 32 hours this weekend, the engines were running for about 4.

Good point Ernesto. We spent about 25 hours on the boat and only cruised about 10 miles total, using 10 gallons of gas. I don't have boat payments but do pay moorage (190/mo), insurance (450/year) and licensing (435/year).

If you take the total of the expenses and divide it by about 400 hours a year spent on the boat it's still pretty cheap by my yardstick....and a helluva lotta fun!

We take all expenses incurred on the boat and divide it by each day we stay on the boat - not engine hour.

We then come up with a dollar amount per day that it costs us to own the boat.

Then when distant cousin Earl has a cotillion on a prime boating weekend, we figure, if we go to Earl's shindig, it'll cost us $500 in boating time. So we simply send a card, wishing Earl good luck with his hoe-down, and we'll see him next Christmas.

While this might be a bit of an abstraction from the thread's original topic, it is a way to maximize the investment we have made, which in a sense, keeps expenses down.

In other words, we made a committment to ourselves before we got into boating that we would stay at the boat every weekend to justify the expense of owning the boat. If we bought the boat, slip, maintenance, gas, etc. and only went to the boat occasionally, we would be wasting our money.

So far, this is the 7th season, and we have not missed one weekend yet. Sure, on Mother's day, we leave early in the morning to visit with my mom, and on graduations, we were able to get by either sending money (which is what they really want), or at least salvage a weekend by taking Monday off work. Luckily, all of the weddings that have occured in the last 7 seasons have been in the spring or fall.

Being "tied" or "married" to the boat does not justify ownership IMO. You should own a boat because boating means more to you than justifying the expense. Feeling like you have to be at the boat, or it is a waste of money, is not my idea of boating.
If I ever start to feel that way, it's time to get out of the hobby.

I prefer not to add up all the cost to the penny. I know roughly what it costs to own my boat. The question is are you a boater or a boat owner?