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A Floating walletOct 11 '00 Write an essay on this topic.The two opinions preceeding this one are obviously written by individuals still in the giddy stage of boat ownership. This writer started out 25 years ago convincing his wife that he absolutely needed this little 22' cuddy cabin cruiser for family fun and outings, never mind the fact that the wife and daughter could hardly stand on a dock without getting sick, much less on a heaving boat. The 22 footer led to a 24 footer, both with inboard engines and outdrives and easily towed with the pickup that I had to add to the inventory for that purpose. So in a short period of time I had added not only the necessary equipment and maintenance costs to the budget, I also added in the cost of insuring two new toys and all of the pertinent personal property taxes and licensing costs too. It must have been the raise I got on the job because I decided that trailering a boat to and from lakes and oceans was not only hectic but downright dangerous. This decision was reached after losing two wheels off of the trailer on the freeway, bearing buddies and all. So I went out and bought a 31' flybridge cabin cruiser that could be kept in a slip within quick putt putting to the ocean. I was in a position to get rid of the pickup then but you know the convenience of having a pickup grows on you so it was decided that since it was already in the budget, might as well keep it. Doggone if I didn't have so much trouble with that darn boat, replaced two engines, painted the hull, did some fiberglass work etc. all to the tune of 6 to 7,000 dollars and then decided the doggone thing was too small, traded it in on a 39" trawler sedan. Great boat, great weekends too now that we could stay on it in comfort. Never mind that the cost of this thing was so much that we didn't feel that we could do anything else than make use of it to justify the cost. Had this boat for a couple of years, had gone from a 30' slip to a 40' slip too but that was OK cuz we were having great weekend fun. Now you know that the boat broker and I were bosom buddies by now, what could I do when he told me about this great deal on a 42' trawler that he had repossessed for the bank. Sure, it needed some TLC but doggone it, you could buy this thing for 70 cents on the dollar. Well doggone, a bigger boat, more powerful engines, a much better living layout with an aft cabin etc., what the heck - we were already used to the costs involved and besides, couldn't we squeeze this 42 footer into our 40' slip. You bet we could, never mind that the marina charges by the boat length or slip length, whichever is longer. We jumped to this wonderful bargain knowing full well we could peddle the 39 footer in a short time. So here we were, two boat owners paying for two slips, two insurance bills, two personal property tax bills, two divers (bottom cleaning) bills but it was only going to be for a short time, right? Wrong - how did we know the economy would sour and boats would become an unattractive investment. Two years later we finally sold the 39 footer but that was ok, we almost got what we paid for it so it must have been a good deal, huh?? Well in 1994 the wife finally said, sure, lets move onto the doggone thing and live there full time. I never thought it would happen, hallelujah, gonna get to live on a boat. Boy, everything went great for a couple of years, of course we now had to pay a liveaboard charge of a hundred plus dollars a month but that was OK. We were sure someone would rent the house and take that expense off of our backs. Someone did, but that took a couple of months and also we had several vacancies over the 5 year period we lived on the boat but lets face it, maintaining two residences is a piece of cake when you are having fun. Doggone it, two years into the great adventure the boat was getting cramped and we just had to get that bigger boat so boy, what was better than this 50' sundeck motor yacht with two double turboed Detroit diesels, all the toys, bells and whistles. Son of a gun, $1700 a year for insurance, you say? Holy mackeral, $2100 a year for personal property tax you say? Doggone it, what was the rate again for that 50' slip with liveaboard priveleges? Whaddaya mean, the diving bill is going up? Did you say that mechanic wants $450 just to set the rack on that engine - whaddaya mean he starts charging from the time he leaves the shop!! Well, do you get the message? The above may sound exaggerated but it is true. But even with a small trailer boat, set aside a thousand bucks to have the outdrive overhauled, set aside another thousand for the VHF radio, GPS, depthsounder and autopilot. Boating is really great fun - it also is an expensive hobby - believe it!  |
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