We are planning to buy a new 42-47' sailboat within the next 1-2 years, retire and live aboard. We don't own a boat now. We have chartered. My question is to all the live aboards. What are you actually spending a month/year for maintenance on your boats, assuming you do a lot of the maintenance and generally keep your boat in good condition as you go? How often are you replacing your sails? Please give me some real life experience here. I've read some, but there is so much variance out there that I'm looking for some actual numbers. I've read 15% of the boat cost a year. That's $37,500/year for a $250,000 boat. That seems extreme. Am I wrong. please help. Thanks.
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Altho we don't live aboard full-time, we do 25 percent of the time. For sails, canvas, engine, bottom paint, cleaning, insurance, taxes, upgrades and repairs, I came up with a number between $750 and $1,000 a month for a 40' boat. That excludes dockage. This is for SoCal. So, I get 7-10% on a used boat of that size of recent vintage. However, many of these costs are fixed regardless of the vintage of the boat and since you are buying new, I would expect SOME of the maintenance to be less in actual dollars. I think 15 percent on a new boat number is way high. Figure 10-15 years on the sails depending on how picky you are and the quality going in. Canvas 7-10. Rick D.
Altho we don't live aboard full-time, we do 25 percent of the time. For sails, canvas, engine, bottom paint, cleaning, insurance, taxes, upgrades and repairs, I came up with a number between $750 and $1,000 a month for a 40' boat. That excludes dockage. This is for SoCal. So, I get 7-10% on a used boat of that size of recent vintage. However, many of these costs are fixed regardless of the vintage of the boat and since you are buying new, I would expect SOME of the maintenance to be less in actual dollars. I think 15 percent on a new boat number is way high. Figure 10-15 years on the sails depending on how picky you are and the quality going in. Canvas 7-10. Rick D.
I'd agree with Rick.
Deb: Most liveaboards use their boats even less than boaters that only do weekend boating (unless that are really cruising). I would say that most anyone can get 8 years out of a set of sails (unless you are racing). You should not need bottom paint any more often than anyone else. Most marinas are going to get you for an additional liveaboard fee (varies by marina) but I would think that it would be $100-300/month more. You are probably going to pay more for insurance if you tell them what you are doing too. As far as what others are paying you are going to find costs all over the place. Some boaters eat out every night and others never eat out. Are you going to need a storage facility for you household items that you cannot store aboard...... You should check out the Live Aboard Lists and get some numbers from those folks.
Deb: Most liveaboards use their boats even less than boaters that only do weekend boating (unless that are really cruising). I would say that most anyone can get 8 years out of a set of sails (unless you are racing). You should not need bottom paint any more often than anyone else. Most marinas are going to get you for an additional liveaboard fee (varies by marina) but I would think that it would be $100-300/month more. You are probably going to pay more for insurance if you tell them what you are doing too. As far as what others are paying you are going to find costs all over the place. Some boaters eat out every night and others never eat out. Are you going to need a storage facility for you household items that you cannot store aboard...... You should check out the Live Aboard Lists and get some numbers from those folks.
Thanks for your input. We are planning to cruise versus staying put. I've seen numbers all over the scale, and while I can figure food, fuel, etc., I had no good idea on maintenance. Our grown daughter is keeping our house "lived in", so we won't need storage, etc.
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