BoatBanter.com - View Single Post

Earl[_2_]

Happy John wrote:
On Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:29:29 -0500, wrote:

wrote:
On Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:35:58 -0500,
wrote:

wrote:
On Wed, 04 Jan 2012 23:51:48 -0700,
wrote:

The cheapest way to own a boat is to use it a lot. Then your per hour
cost drops to a very low number.
Or rent it. Also saves patching up road chipping and the like. Better
gas millage too when getting there.

--
Most of the people I know would be thousands of dollars a year ahead
if they just rented a boat on the dozen days a year they actually go
out. By the time you amortize a $40,000 boat over the 40 or 50 times
they use it before it just rots on the lift and toss in the
maintenance headaches from stale gas and other things sitting around
unused causes, $150 an hour rental is a bargain. They usually end up
getting a few thousand on a trade in and start over, promising
themselves they will try to use the boat more next time.
We get out 3 times a week for a couple hours each and I figure boating
costs me less than $8-10 an hour, all costs including maintenance and
gas in the computation. Gas is the biggest part of that number and
when we go slow in manatee season or when my wife says it is cold
(below 80) that can get me closer to $6-7 an hour.
That's an interesting thought but I prefer to have my boat available
whenever I need it and I'm lucky enough to live in an area where I can
use it 300+ days a year!
The question is, will you?
I log about 300 hours a year so it is easy to justify owning a boat.
There are other people here who don't use 10% of that a year.
I boated over 400 hours last year - about 285 underway according to the
hour meters. Much of that was fishing and trolling - I have a
trailerable center console fishing boat.
Best way to go, in my opinion. I got my Key West 186 CC a couple years ago and love it!
I've seen a lot of them and they look like they are very well made! I
fished on a 268 (I think) that was a friend of a friend's boat and it
was very comfortable and had nice features.