Boating on budget - no such thing anymore
 

I am a working slob - not some trust fund kid - and have always tried to keep boating in my life by doing things myself. I am not a mechanic or electrician by trade but for the last 30 years I have always managed to keep a boat running and usable for family fun, scuba diving, and just trolling around South Florida waters.

Recently after an A/C hose broke and old 454s got wet I decided to repower my 1988 40-footer with arneson drives. She is old school, cosmetically about a C+, but good hull and normally floats. Perfect for overnights and cruising the Keys.

Post Covid I am finding some challenges:
1) Marinas are closing to become condos and those staying open are geared for rich dudes who dint mind paying $8k to get their props painted (WTF)
2) Do it yourself marinas are extremely rare and require $200k of insurance and "proof" you will not abandon your boat
3) ALL rates have quadrupled since pre-Covid. Got a quote for a bottom paint (2 coats and some light scraping) $4,200 or more than $100/foot (Wow)
4) Mechanics willing to work on older boats with inboards are charging $200/hour and you wait weeks for em to get started if they ever show up. I had one younger guy show up and he had never seen a counter-rotating motor before - ???

Sorry to ramble but things have changed significantly in S Florida and I now understand why everyone is going outboards. At least those can be pulled and worked on elsewhere but at $50k a piece - the convenience is at a cost I cant swing. Do it yourself boating is dead.

Might be my last repower then the old Kayak will have to enough

;-)

I don't think it's dead, you just have to lower your expectations. If you have something with less than 550 hp and can be trailered and kept in your backyard it's pretty affordable, no marina costs at all, work on it in your driveway, no crazy expensive driveline repairs.
I run a 24x7 nearly every summer weekend on LSC and Huron and my biggest yearly cost is gasoline and Coors.

I'm considering a shift from trailer-sailor to the marina slip life. Convenience goes WAY up but so does the overall cost. But as you get older, the ability or the desire to do your own wrenching goes down.

You need $$ for this hobby, so hopefully your life choices and career decisions, as you get older, keeps you on the water.

it's definitely getting tougher just like every hobby. Last season I fried my ECU. Luckily I was able to get it repaired at Whipple for 1/2 the cost of a new one. The cost of parts has sky rocketed. My slip fee has gone up 20% every season for the last few. My boat is a 2007 but a new one is out of the question!

Last year i started to look buying a condo in south florida...
pretty expensive and had hard time to find one with big enough dock available
so ithen thought about why i wanted that and the answer was to go boating
so i then thought lets add a big motoryacht to my fleet. Plenty nice one available between 45-70k
besides the fact no dock space were cheaper than 10-12 k a year, they all had waiting list for 2 plus years, at least the 18 i called... so back to start, will buy a condo with available dock when i see one that fits the bill! Savings on marina will pay all if not more of the hoa on the condo!

sad but true!

Working slob here too, and I came to the realization that if I ever want to be able to retire, I have to rein in my spending. Running a twin BBC go fast boat wasn't helping me to make any progress towards financial security, especially with the costs of everything lately. So, the go-fast is gone, and now I'm cruising around in a single SBC Shamrock. Fast, no... not at all. But still good fun, some good exhaust rumble, easy to work on and cheap. The old saying, speed costs money, how fast do you want to spend?, is more true now than ever before.

I can get to the same sandbar I went to before, on 1/3 the fuel, and I don't spend the whole time worried about my boat. I'm not the poker run type, or the kind that needs to run WOT everywhere I go, so I'm not missing out on all that much.

Boating on a budget CAN be a thing, but it depends on what you can be content with.


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...c3e0dbc599.jpg

Cool boat!!! Is that a stern drive or shaft drive?

Straight shaft inboard with a keel, so the running gear is protected and I can beach it without worry. Draft is about 18".

With a small block you say?
That's cool.

Yep, 350 Mag MPI. It's a neat little rig. Originally these came with Ford 302s but since marinization parts for 302s are hard to come by these days, a lot of them have been repowered to Mercruiser/GM power.