Does a sailboat hold value?

[Paul Bradbury]

I am a novice to the sailboat game, and almost made a purchase of a 1997-36s7 Beneteau last week. My question,...is a sailboat a good investment? Will it hold value if maintained, or is depreciation just part of the price to sail? At what point will a sailboat slow it's depreciation and how accurate is a site called "Bucnet" with regards to representing the suggested boat values. eg 1997 Beneteau 36s7 dropped $8000.00 per year and that to me seems kind of high. Could use some help with the real truth to boat ownership...and not some story from a boat saleman about how these boats will actually go up in value over time.RegardsPaul Bradbury

 

[Tom]

Not as bad

as it might seem. A boat is not a good investment however, Ken's comparison between a new boat for $200K and the same boat for sale 13 years old selling for half that price is not as bad as it might seem on the surface because the older boat did not cost $200K back in 1987.I decided to buy a new boat because the same boats five years old were not that much cheaper. I decided not to buy older than 5 years old because I just didn't want to face the maintenance of an older boat.What makes a boat a bad investment is how much money you continuing have to put into it with no increase in market value. Your boat is constantly lossing value and you are constantly throwing money into it. If you are looking for a good investment don't buy a boat buy mutual funds. If you love sailing buy the boat because you can't take it with you. When you start dreading the maintenance of the boat more than the enjoyment of the sailing sell it.

 

[Ken Cobb]

Further thoughts

I generally agree with Tom, but I do think it is fair to compare 10 and 15-year old boat prices to new, for these reasons: The new boats really aren't much better than the old ones technologically, so we usually are comparing apples to apples. Second, whatever the new price was in 1987 on a boat, if that money had been invested at the rate of increase in the consumer price index, it usually would approximately equal the price on the same 2002 version of that boat. So the depreciation must be expressed either in adjusted 1987 dollars or in 2002 dollars. It is simplest to look at 2002 dollars for both new boats and old.To accurately figure the cost of sailing, I figure in my traveling costs to and from the lake, repairs, insurance and slip fees, and finally, I figure in a depreciation charge. That, taken together, is the true annual cost of the boat.

 

[Barry Hill]

Money for Old Rope

Paul,Interested to see the responses to your leading question. In my view the investment in a boat is not from a financial point of view but in quality of time and life. I agree with the other guys that you cannot expect to make money from the purchase of a boat. My favourite quote on this topic is from Ted Heath former UK PM and owner of Morning Cloud who noted that ' Owning a boat is like standing under a cold shower and tearing up five pound notes.' These days its more likely to be 50 dollar bills. Go for it.Regards Barry

 

[Capn' Nemo]

Sailboat are like English Cars

Sorry.......fell off my chair LOL on this one. Sailboats are like English Cars; the only good one is a used one. A used 97' Jag XJS with 39,000 miles is only $19,900. A far cary from the list of $65,000. Check out the resale of a Range rover 4.6 there in the toilet. A good buy for the person who was $750 to fix a broken headlamp (true, my buddy has one). The same with boats, I'm the third owner and bought my Beneteau $65,000 under BUC. Buy when the snow is about to fly and it's amazing the deals out there.

 

[Paul Bradbury]

Pay now or pay later?

HiThanks for your response to this. Ok...what vintage of Beneteau (how old) and if you do purchase an older boat will you spent lots of cash getting it up to date? Would you be better off getting slightly newer without the cost to upgrade it to new?RegardsPaul Bradbury