Ok so if the plan is for the boat, how do we best get all the ducks in a row. If the end game is a live aboard boat for at least 6 or more months out of the year, how do we do it.
Well last weekend, I had an idea. A while back ago I purchased 3 books about boats. By there way there seems to be a plethora of information about sail boats; classes, books, blogs, etc. But not that much information about motor boats. I’m not sure what that all means in the scheme of things, but what it has meant to our search is that all of the books I purchased (while purported to be about boats in general) really had its roots in sailing. Therefore, some of the information we have now might not be as accurate as we might hope, but what’s a girl to do?
So .. back to last weekend. I got the idea that we pick a boat from yachtworld.com and claim it as our own. Do a price breakdown like we own it. And just see how outrageous our expectations for expenses are or aren’t. Also, since we had a good idea of the type of boat we wanted to go with, our idea was much more easily implemented. AFT cabin baby!
So we found a lovely 2002 Carver 44 for $199,000 and began the process. We used Google docs (who me.. use the web, naw!) In it we listed the what the mortgage like look like, what gas might be for the year, taxes, fees, down payments, estimated repairs and the like. Most of the estimates were readily available in one or more of the books I had already purchased. We broke the expenses up to reoccurring and annual. Then I divided the annual expenses by 12 months, to see what it would look like on monthly granularity.
In the estimates we included BEST-CASE-SCENARIOS (ie. docking fees in a downtown Chi marina at the most expensive location there is, transporting the boat 1 way from Miami to Chi yearly, hauling and painting the boat at least 1 per year, emergency repairs, upgrades, and $10,000 of gas.) The bottom line was the total expense for the boat was $4k a month. (WOW that looks just like my failed condo experiment, LOL) The only thing that did not get included is a single one way sail back to the original location, or truck back. That haul cost was $3500, so we would either need to add that, or to figure the repositioning cruise price.
This makes our boat dreams, well within the realm of doable! Of course, it would take 2 of us to manage. AND we couldn’t be supporting another residence, but that was the plan anyway. Also, we wanted the boat to in some ways be a money generator when in Chi. So, if say we dock in Chi for 6 months, and we can make $10 or 12k over the summer, that would more than pay for the expense of having it in Chi for the summer. The way we make money on that end is still being investigated.
Now for BF, the question becomes, how much do we currently spend on a house. My condo is obvious that the boat is CHEAPER. As my condo alone (without repairs, furniture, fun or adventure) is $4k/mo. But for BFs house, his mortgage is low, his expenses are few, but it is worth looking to see how something like that compares. The results of that comparison will be discussed later.
For now, it seems that boating is cheaper than living downtown, and probably in the long run, a lot more fun.
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