How much a powerboat cost to operate
 

I'm not talking cost of the boat payment and insurance if you have them. I want to know "estimate" how much you spent this season whether it was a paint job, new engines or a compass. Just a number and a brief discription of what you did to it. Photos are welcome... Thanks guys.

I'd say about $10,000 a year between fuel, maintience, dockage, insurance, etc

Built new motors, new ignitions, new oil coolers, new Lightning Headers, only re-used the blocks and timing covers. Everything else is new. Motors made 721hp on 93 octane. Somewhere around ~35k for everything... labor is free, as I did all the install and rigging and tuning (although much tuning wasnt necessary).

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...1/DSCN0725.jpg

I used to keep track when I had my 1994 Checkmate 216 convincer, and without a payment it was like $9500 a year with insurance and keeping it in the water.... on the trailer it was like $2000 cheaper.... I stopped keeping track when I got the Velocity, I really don't wanna know....

I too stopped keeping track, however I can tell you that what it comes down to is everything I have in my pocket and a plan to come up with the rest in time for whatever is happening next. This winter it will be new engines, drives, boxes plus rigging and alot of new smaller parts. I figure $40K "MIGHT" do it! ?????????????????????????????

I have to agree to the 10 large . For a basic maintence and cost of operation for a basic Go-fast boat, nothing exotic. Exotic's are in a class all by themselves, As the saying goes "If you have to ask you cant afford it".

lets give this a whirl......
 

This was a fairly light season for me breaking in a new boat I had taken delivery of in December.

Boat 1 about 10.6K (New LaveyCraft 2750 ilmor 710 )

This is the shortened version.

3800 approx 10 tanks gas (100Gal tank) (boat gets relatively great mileage)

220 Blown sea pump impeller, replace damaged water lines, ??!??! boat had 8 hours on it

75 gas to tow to Teague & back –N/C Flirt with Sheryllyn ( I think shes pretty cute, smart, and funny plus her dads Bob Teague)

200 Gas back and forth to Laveycraft 6X picked up boat from drive repair, left bimini top had to drive back and get bimini top …..etc. Drop off boat install,

800 TOYS! New Furuno AIs receiver

175 AIS antenna and mount.

375 Laveycraft install Furuno AIS receiver, Wrong mount, order new mount……

275 Teague - oil change & filter, drive oil change and filter before trip to Naci

7 replace lost drain plug WTF? Boat uses a different drain plug than my other boat? GRRR

110 slip fee san Diego trip 1 (stayed on boat- wont do that for more than 1 day again)

450 hotel & slip fee San Diego trip 2 ( whoa ….maybe Ill stay on the boat again)
100 moorings at Catalina inc shoreboat guy (water taxi)
500 Booze on Catalina island (not ice chest booze- Island booze, different category)
200 annoying trinkets, a few bikinis sandals , and other tourist crap from Catalina t-shirts etc.

250 estimate - Variety of crappy breakfast lunches and dinner at 2 harbors and Avalon

110 Box Anchor drunk friend threw overboard without holding the line stupid focker

400 Prescription custom blued Oliver Peoples sunglasses lost at lake Naci when I turned my head to see where "Big D" was in his Cole Superhawk with a boostpower big block during a race.

50 Sunscreen the good spray on kind and the expensive Jack black 20

900 Honda EU200 generator to run Margarita maker and battery charger while weekending at the lake.

125 New AGM compatible charger

50 DVD hot Lesbian porn dedicated to the boat to play in the stabin cabins 2 monitor and to route to the GPS screen for parties involving 2 or more chicks.

60 Broken margarita maker pitcher CRAP
45 Custom embroidered laveycraft towel“disappeared”

225 Phantom Marine Newport onsite 2 times to install GPS software updates, fix sounder, figure out radar overlay mode and update satellite imagery (must have to one up buddies) neither trip accomplished this update, but the sounder problem was fixed, and the connection to the fluxgate compass was checked and fixed.

160 Phantom Marin San Diego visits boat to actually do the software update the Newport guys could never finish, AIS receiver now accurately portrays target size when vehicle broadcast this data.

500 Television/ postproduction engineering staff/ artists/ sales guys- consumed about an ounce of medical grade Marijuana (also see DVD/margarita maker)

500 est..Very likely on the low side, Patron, Grey Goose, Knob Creek, Crown Royal & coke , Smirnoff Ice (for the chicks) + 20-100 beers per trip. Used after arrival or by guest during the voyage- no drunken boating- I get hammered on MY time.

10 Aspirin, Tylenol, Acetaminophen- applied liberally



This is all on top of actual cost for engine rebuild. Est 30K every 500 hours if I can keep from blowing it up, insurance, the actual boat payments, and the amortized cost of the boat in general.

Divide the whole cost into the actual hours and the numbers will scare you....

Uncle Dave

PS: I should write a book about boat 2.

hey...
not sure if this helps, but...
26 Sutphen w/twin 350's:
about $400/mo pmt, reg, ins.
misc repairs/winterize/upgrades 1000 per year.
gas +/- 1000 each season.
amount of fun had...priceless (that's freakin' cliche)

I can honestly see 8-10k as a reasonable estimate for a 22-30 foot trailer boat, 10-15 for a similar marina boat....

this season, however, ...to quote Disney's "CARS".."it's all just gas and go's"...cheapest season in years, not due to the economy...about $500 in gas....for a bunch of great weekends...
c

Probably $20,000 more than I actually made!:drink:

$300 every 2 hours of run time in fuel. New dock 10k. New lift 3k. New to me blowers 9k, getting blowers rebuilt 600. new lower intakes 1200, fuel system 1300. building a custom light weight hatch with scoops to cover the blowers and chillers. it never stops, its an addiction. It will never be fast enough or loud enough. And I guess Im lucky I dont have a loan or storage or insurance to pay for cause they wont touch a cat

Winter bill(storage included): $2,700

Summer:
repairs: $1000
Gas: $1000
Storage: $1500

That's a really affordable season

I like the active thunder 28 nice rig very big for a 28.

Im guessing the 1000 bones buys you about 3-4 tanks of gas depending on where you source your fuel.

How many weekends/days of use is this for you?


Uncle Dave

Im close to that:(now I have to pay it back:eek:

Gino I didnt spend a dime on gas this year:evilb::evilb:

Fun ain't it....Motors, boxes, drives , trailer, Monster dash
$50 per side installed.

Awesome ride and great job documenting it.

- for guys that haven't seen it its a great read.

VV to your comment on my post in my forum - the injection is amazing, But I am also really happy with the single 850 demon on my 406 I think those carbs are great stuff.


And....I still wanna ride.


UD

Im there also.................... :coolcowboy:

But the bravo shop is making money......................:evilb:

Yea, but those big tube dry pipes sound freaking awesome. :evilb:

60 hrs use. Nothing major, just some minor upgrades, repairs and maintenance=$1000. Prop labbing $600.
Fuel??? probably about 3k.

Throw in payments, insurance and boating vacations and add another 10k or so.

Thanks D, back at ya. My 1050's run great idels great no hesitation. Jump on anytime brother. Drive this puppy...:drink:

[/QUOTE] endeavor1: Yea, but those big tube dry pipes sound freaking awesome.[/QUOTE]

And your ride is so cool. I want to see it closer. Throw some photo's up here. Drytails, Matt told me someone heard it and said it sounded pi$$ed off. The swim platform muffles it down ideling around but when she stands up they do bark.

You did good Griff....Thanks for all the help you gave me on my build. I'm ready for a break free season...

Man you got some thumpers in there 572's?....good job...:drink:

Best answer yet and he makes a whole lot $$$:eek:

i get away cheap! the further you push the throttles the more it hurts your wallet. i spend about 200$ everytime i go out. (slip fees,gas,lunch,maintenance,etc) and thats with a 20 ft nothing special boat. and i do all the work at my shop and keep it at my house on the trailer. its worth every penny.

Nah, 540's. Bob Madara engineered the combo. They definitely get your attention.

I don't add it up. If I did I would probably stop boating.

Cabin work: bulkheads, reinforcement, 50% upholstered. $6,500

2x Prop Repair = $400

Turing 100 hrs. and haven't removed a valve cover... priceless. (700HP 572's)

I'm too sacred to turn on the calculator.

Thanks for all the post...Just letting newbies know what they are getting into when they buy a powerboat. There is alot more to it than just buying the boat.

31 ft sonic... No major upgrades just regular gas and fixing little thugs here and there that break is 5-10k a year....insurance is $1200 a year.... When upgrades start it will be different. I'm one of those anal car/boat collectors that keeps a detailed excel spreadhseet for every dime I spend on her other than cleaning supplies and things and run all gas through a fleet card so I can see how much I spend on each vehicle. Makes things easy to account for and great for resale

Thanks. I love my 28.

Tank is 100 gallons and I fill up with 87(about 2.80 a gallon on the street). I usually fill up every 3 times out, but I never seem to put more than 60-70 gallons in it, so that works out to about 20-25 gallons each time out...not bad.

IF you have a link to your boats details Id love to check it out.

I'm getting pretty great mileage 2.2-2.4 so far, but I take loonng trips.

On the lake trips I always hit the auto gas station and that saves me some money, but on the long 300 mile ocean trips I take I'm stuck finding docks, and anal rape only begins to describe what they can hit you up for premium at 50-80 gallons a throw.

The only annoyance other than the initial upfront "body slam" pricetag of the Ilmor Im running is that it calls for 92 which isnt available period on most water so I have to find particular gas docks and on the ocean that can be a pain. Im told the ilmor ecu is really good and will retard the timing automatically blah blah... and that a tank of 89 wouldnt be the end of the world, but Im trying not to go there.

The guys running race gas in offshore rigs completely mystify me, but my definition of "offshore" is likely different than most of the guys in this forum.




Uncle Dave

Could you just carry octane boost? Or is that to unreliable?

Octane boost in those little bottles is completely worthless.

I Started doing that on the last trip I got a case of <some brand I cant remember. Underneath one side of the rear bench in this picture.>My rig has 2 separate 50 quart "coolers" with drains etc integrated into the mold.

In retrospect I should get all petrochemical product out of an "ice chest" and into the bins Lavey put in the back for things like this.....

You need a bunch on a 300 mile trip- didn't use any I found 91 pumps- I'm really keeping it for when I can only find an 87 pump.

I'm fairly sure its also more expensive to boost up 91/2 than to just buy the gas. I'm just not sure what I'm really ending up with as a final product using it.

Actually looking looking at these picts reminds me of the compromise of not getting buckets seats in the back which I love the look of and the feel, but absolutely kills the overall usability of your boat. They guys decided to mimic the look of buckets in the design, but retain a bench.


Uncle Dave

Last year...

11hrs blew drive 3,200
26hrs 200ax Blower let go, upgrade to 5.0L Whipple 13,200
Bigger scoop for blower and instalation 1,000

2008: 17,400

2009:

67hrs All new carbon fiber and drive refreshed 7,000
69hrs Broken clutch shaft...2,300
101hrs another broken clutch shaft and upper gear set 4,600

2009 total 13,900

Project over the winter:

Engine pulled and gone through with upgrades 8,000
new Outdrive 17,000
so the start of 2010...25,000:eek:

But out of all of it I love it and if I keep my wife drunk and the new drive holds for 1 season I'll be in high cotton, besides she doesn't know how much I have spent or she would kill me...:angry-smiley-038:

And pictures of :drink:the bad azz PPI interior

Sweet ride- Where'd all the oil come from?

UD

sweet ride. Is that a Max machine works drive?

The seals in the SC let go, boy what a mess, but i didn't have to get towed in:grinser010:ran it about 5 miles back to launch and put her back on the trailer...