Chipster55

New guy here (boatless) but i'm a lover of all things fast. Currently my toy is a Lamborghini Diablo but I've always liked the Cigarettes. I've tried searching on here and the General section for Ownership costs type threads but havent' found much. I know the cost of the boat and fuel would be the big ticket items on a monthly basis and I know that maintenance on engines will be dependent on usage and N/A vs. FI but i'm curious if anyone could provide some raw figures specifically for Top Guns or maybe the Cafe Races since that's pretty much all i'd be interested in. Would mainly be a cruising boat and hanging out on the river in Virginia.

Boat: $75-95k
Assuming about 10 hours of usage a month what do you guys imagine the annual costs for:

Fuel: ?
I know soem engines will be more efficient than others but a ballpark guess based on the hours above maybe.
Storage or docking: ?
Would not be able to keep it at home haha.
Insurance: ?
Being fairly young with sportscars, I'm used to decent insurance rates even though my record is clean but how does that transfer to boating insurance since I've never owned or insured a boat. Is jumping straight to a Top Gun the equivalent of getting a Ferrari for your first car?
Maintenance/Upkeep: ?
Oil changes and other routine maintenance.
PP Tax I can guess based on my car since i'm assuming the rate them in the same method.

I'm not looking to buy anytime soon but I'm just trying to get a solid grasp on what to expect. There are other factors (like a truck) I would need to see about as well before I did buy a boat but curiousity has me interested!! Thanks in advance for any feedback or if anyone knows of a good thread already on here that I may have missed.

OldSchool

OK, I'll take a stab at answering some of your questions. The first thing to know that the cost of the boat is minimal compared to insurance, storage, maintenance and fuel. It seems like you understand this already, so you are ahead of the game! Many will buy a boat and then not be able to enjoy it because of the costs associated.

Insurance: Depending on if you can get Allstate, State Farm or any of the other big companies or if you have to go with one of the "marine" insurance companies, it will run you between $750-$2500 per year. I'm with Allstate and I pay $850 per year... but I have two other boats insured with them as well, so that brings down the cost.

Fuel: I burn 60 gallons per hour at cruise in my boat. That is big cubic inch N/A engines that make 750HP or so. I imagine that 500's would burn a little bit less.

Storage: Another one that it depends on what you want. I slip with a lift will cost over $5,000 per year in the Annapolis area... but you may also be ble to find a place that will let you store the boat on a trailer and use the ramp whenever you go boating. That should be $100-$150 per month.

Maintenance: It depends how much (if any) you can do yourself. Obviously it's much more expensive if you pay someone to do tune-ups, oil changes and the basic stuff such as winterizing and un-winterizing.

Surprises: Face it, it's not a matter of if any boat will break...it's when! I build up a "boat fund" so when something breaks, I get that phucker fixed and am back on the water as quickly as possible. Sometimes it's a grand... sometimes it's 20 grand, you never know!!!

I hope that this helps.

Craig

Chipster55

Thanks Craig. I learned my lesson with Lambo about purchase price being only part of it. Had a surprised $20k+ repair bill soon after purchase. I'm an engineer so I could do the work, just not sure about space to do it but everything else you mentioned seems reasonable. I guess i'll just have to see if I can wrap my head around having so much money into something I'd probably use less than the Lambo haha. I do have USAA so maybe they would do the boat with my cars. How frequently do you have to change oil in the engines? Is there some per # of hours guideline or is it a seasonal thing?

tcelano

I'm ex-military too, with USAA. They don't do boats, but they refer you to Progressive, and give you some kind of break.

You are definitely on the right track thought wise. If you can do all your own work, and have the ability to make or have machined the occiasional part that just eludes production replacement, you will be in fine shape. The only people I hear complaining about how much repairs cost are those who don't understand what's wrong or how to fix it.

My last boat was a single. After I got done rigging it in 2005, my only repair cost was $350 for a new oil cooler that froze and popped its head despite winterization. Otherwise, it ran trouble-free for five seasons. I changed the water pump impeller maybe twice, and the one I took out always looked new. That said, having a good setup in the first place, i.e. adequately sized fuel supply lines, cooling system, oil system, etc, are key to making the machinery live trouble-free.

If you can keep it on a trailer, and you don't owe any money on it, then you can basically make the expenses stop whenever you want/need to.

On the oil changes, if you are running N/A engines, you can get 40-50 hours probably. For blower motors, they say to do it every 20 or less even due to fuel dilution. Again, do it yourself, and you are looking at 12 quarts high quality oil @ $10 bucks + racing oil filter @ $20 = $150 per side.

seafordguy

I'll take a stab too.

Insurance - 1000-1500/yr assuming you have a nice clean record (Call Stacey at Wakezone)

Fuel - if you're using it 10 hours a month I'd guess you'll be at 40 hours or so a year. Assume 5000/yr in fuel.

Maintenance - Assume 500/yr (drive lube, engine oil, water pumps).

Storage/Docking - I'd guess 3000-5000/yr depending on where you are and what they offer.

Property Tax - Register it in Delaware and avoid them if you're worried about it.

USAA refers the boat insurance out, I got a quote from them and it was 3 times what I am paying at Wakezone.

Chipster55

Thanks very much! If you have no prior boat history (ownership or insurance) they just base your rate off your driving (auto) record or are they tied together anyways? I have a clean driving record but just curious. If I bought a boat I'd aim for finding something that doesn't need anything right off the bat but I guess i'd need to be prepared for anything haha.

Captain YARRR

I thought the same thing about my Viper at first...I use my boat way more often than my Viper actually. But I'm not DDing it.

Chipster55

I used to have a 97 GTS. Great cars!

Tom A.

Agree with all above.

Now put aside $2000 per year for the inevitable engine and drive rebuilds.
Consider adding $$$ for:
trailer maintenance
fuel / maintenance for the truck
(do you have a 1 Ton truck+ to move the boat and trailer or will you keep the boat in one spot)
registrations, safety gear, etc.
events, overnighting, day trips, etc.

The real number for me each year is $20,000 on top of my monthly financing cost.

It is a crazy sport when you really break it down. If you boat 100 hrs a year it costs $200/hr.

Crazy....but so worth it!..... and probably cheaper than a therapist would cost me.

rlj676

A real easy/inaccurate calculation is 10% of purchase price per year is operating cost.....but obviously lots of ways to throw that off.

On the insurance, you mentioned "young", how young? It definitely will be a challenge/expensive if you plan to go over 75 mph or so, or have over 500 hp per side. When I bought mine several years ago I had trouble getting insured reasonably on a 500 hp single. I think the quotes I got on top guns were either "no thanks" or quite a bit more. Allstate was able to help me because I'm slow.

Your costs will be proportional to power. If you have Merc Racing HP 500's or EFI's and bravo's your costs will be minimal (the 10% total operating costs probably would work). You get some 800+ big cube blower motors and bravo's your costs can go way up (rebuilds, insurance, drive issues, etc).