35ft vs 42ft: maintenance costs

[houseofcharm]

Something to consider if you're lucky enough to find is someone just pulling into port and done cruising or moving up is their 'cruise-ready' and proven boat. RAN Sailing was this fortunate after looking at a few frogs, their prince pulled into the slip next to them. Yes, they're sail-ebrities and have a network or minions, sorry, patreons, on the lookout for them which helped.



Buy a boat like the one they just sold(cheap, I thought) would be the perfect thing to find vs a dubious condition from sitting on the hard or in a slip. Just my 3c.

[Sofa King Fishy]

Originally Posted by houseofcharm

Something to consider if you're lucky enough to find is someone just pulling into port and done cruising or moving up is their 'cruise-ready' and proven boat. RAN Sailing was this fortunate after looking at a few frogs, their prince pulled into the slip next to them. Yes, they're sail-ebrities and have a network or minions, sorry, patreons, on the lookout for them which helped.



Buy a boat like the one they just sold(cheap, I thought) would be the perfect thing to find vs a dubious condition from sitting on the hard or in a slip. Just my 3c.

That’s exactly what happened to me sound advice! My vessel came off a two year Island hopping cruise & already had everything needed to go, right down to a watermaker, solar & a brand new dink! I do credit my extremely helpful broker for the find.

[Timbokc]

Great response from all.

When it comes to serious... Serious water sailing">blue water sailing. And considering a lot of the very good responses.

Bigger is better... Not cheaper

Therefore,. Afford the biggest boat l possible.

You will no doubt want a bigger boat in the open water

[Paul Howard]

The more disposable income people have the more things they want. The necessary equipment can easily be carried on a small boat. I circumnavigated the world, five years, including my wife and two young children on a 30ft. boat with 9ft. 6" beam. We had plenty to eat, a dinghy to get ashore, enough anchors, etc. to make good a 42,000nm circumnavigation of the world. We made passages at the same rate as others, stayed in the same anchorages and spent time ashore as we wished. I did not get bogged down waiting for parts anywhere, we sailed as we wished and had a care free five years.

Make sure you have good cockpit protection whether at sea or anchor.
If you are truly sailing around the world, rather than hanging around an island group like the Caribbean, the smaller and handier and less expensive boat will pay dividends. If you are using the boat as a house boat, sailing a few thousand miles per year, get a larger boat and pay the marina fees and load it down with all the stuff you have in your house.
As per watchkeeping, on long passages (we did up to thirty days at sea) I was on watch from midnight to 6am, we did three hour watches through the day, and she did a 6pm to midnight watch. I was always on call, but getting six hours sleep at a stretch is enough.

[Fore and Aft]

If I remember your book correctly Paul, you sailed some big passages in the Indian Ocean so you must have carried enough supplies.
Another thing with Paul’s boat is that she would be classed as a small 30 footer by today’s standards. Our 32 footer in comparison is 11’ 6” wide and carries her beam right aft.
The house boat analogy is pretty correct for a lot of people.
Cheers

[Sofa King Fishy]

Sounds impressive! Was there room for your soapbox?

[Paul Howard]

Originally Posted by Sofa King Fishy

Sounds impressive! Was there room for your soapbox?

No soap box necessary, only letting people know (after they have asked for an opinion by someone who has circumnavigated the world) they do not need a 42ft boat loaded with all available household goods, just a seaworthy boat and skill and determination.

[Sofa King Fishy]

Originally Posted by Paul Howard

No soap box necessary, only letting people know (after they have asked for an opinion by someone who has circumnavigated the world) they do not need a 42ft boat loaded with all available household goods, just a seaworthy boat and skill and determination.

Agreed, and I absolutely appreciate you’re resume-!but bigger is better on a day to day basis as far as living. On a lighter note- some dude just rolled from San Fran to Hawaii on an SUP, no, yeah nothing is ‘necessary’! All good

[GrowleyMonster]

Two types of expenses. The first is stuff you will pay for, no matter what. Slip. Fuel. So on and so forth. The second is stuff that a perfectly maintained boat won't need for a good long while. Rigging is a big one. Not only are all wires and ropes longer, but they are bigger, too. Major components like mast or boom. Engine rebuild or replacement. Blocks, winches, and other hardware. It all goes up in price more than you might expect. More paint or gelcoat. More bigger sails. Anchor, chain, steering gear components, all that stuff. So, a perfectly found boat of a certain size costs a good bit more than a smaller one, but a poorly found project boat costs a LOT more to fit out or maintain than the smaller one.

[Fore and Aft]

Paul so many people reading this forum would not set out and do what you did in your yacht. I think you are a bit of a lost voice and people do not want to hear you can happily cruise on a basic boat. I bet a lot of these cat budgets we read about would have been the cost of your entire circumnavigation?
Cheers

[Michael Cobbe]

All boat kit is made for weekend and holiday sailors, so long distance sailing everything, except electronics, will break more than once. We carried two spares for everything, exploded diagrams and a whole range of tool including open and ring spanners. I spent at least one day a week doing maintenance or fixing things, the longest I didn't do something was a month then three things broke one day in Bonaire,Caribbean.

[ilenart]

Last year I purchased a 40ft yacht to replace a 34ft yacht so can provide a direct comparison of costs fairly close to what you are after. All amounts are in Oz $

Type. 34ft. 40ft
rent per mth. $480. $588
antifouling. $2,000. $3;200
Insurance. $907. $1,828
Batteries. $513. $2,684


Note we are definitely not comparing apples with apples. For example the values of the boats are vastly different (hence the differences in insurance) and the batteries are 2 x flooded compared to 8 x agm. The antifouling were both carried out by the yard, including paint and labour.

My philosophy is to go with the smallest boat that fits your needs. For the type of sailing I am looking at (world cruising with a fair few comforts for two people) 40ft was a good size for me.

Hope this helps, Ilenart

[AA3JY]

Originally Posted by eefj33

Hi everyone,


My partner and I are looking around to buy a liveaboard boat this year. We want to live on it almost immediately, but the goal is to sail around the world with it asap. We're still a bit in doubt about the size we want, though. The general 'rule' everyone keeps repeating comes down to 'go small, go cheap, go fast'. I get that the bigger the boat, the more costs you will have on maintenance, mooring, insurance ed. I also found some loose statements like '40ft is the magic boundry' and 'maintenance is 10% of the purchase price'.


But the one thing I've been searching for but are unable to find is, how much more expensive is a 42 footer actually compared to a 35 footer? Are we talking about a few bucks per month, or does it add a few thousand per year? I get I won't find any hard numbers, but are there people who have owned a boat around 35ft and around 42ft who would like to share their experience?


Thanks in advance!
Eva

No mention of: Power or Sail..mono haul, Cat. or Tri.???

[dcstrng]

Originally Posted by u4ea32

the cost of a boat -- to build, operate, and maintain -- is driven primarily by displacement. And displacement increases by the cube of length.

For example, a Baba 35 weighs 21,500 lbs. If scaled up to an imaginary Baba 42, the displacement would be 1.2^3 or 1.73 times as much. The cost to run the 42 will, over a lifetime, be 1.73 times as much money...

we went with a light displacement 40 footer, that has about the same displacement and interior size as a Catalina 30, which is plenty. So my costs are like a 30 footer, but speed and motion in a seaway are fundamentally better...

This used to be the accepted rule of thumb and I think still is probably closest, all other factors being more or less equal. In modern boats, electronics can distort this somewhat -- if you feel a $5K chart-plotter is necessary for your boat, it will cost $5K whether you put it on a 5 ton boat or a 15 ton boat (or the inverse if you can get by on a handheld), so with modern boats it might be safe to mentally make allowances -- also, dock/storage/haul-out will likely be measures against overall-length, but generally the it has been my experience that the rest will be more a function of displacement for non-racing vessels...

I'm of the go as small as is reasonable school -- not just to go small, but as was voiced elsewhere, I'm no longer enthralled with taming a 800 sq.ft. sheet of "canvas" so try to keep the work-load (also displacement dependent to a degree) within the enjoyable range...