GL: What are annual maintenance costs?

[Skipper Bob]

Keith,

Maintenance costs for live aboard boaters will vary by six important 
factors.   First, how big a boat do you own?  As a general rule the 
bigger the boat the higher the maintenance costs.  This is true because 
most services (such as haul out, storage, bottom painting) goes by boat 
length.  So to help keep maintenance costs down follow my rule from my 
book /Cruising Comfortably on a Budget./  "Don't buy the biggest boat 
you can afford, buy the smallest boat you can be comfortable on!" 

Secondly, will be the age of the boat.  Generally speaking older boats 
require more maintenance as different components begin to reach the end 
of their life cycle.  If the black waste hose's have a life of 12 years 
and you buy a 10 year old boat, then sometime in the near future you 
will have to replace them all. So plan on slightly higher maintenance 
costs for older vessels.

Third, how much equipment does the boat have on it?  The more equipment 
the higher your maintenance costs.  If you have three heads on board 
then there are three times as many repairs to be made periodically in 
that department than on a boat with a single head.  This is partially 
covered by the rule about buying the smallest boat.  The bigger the boat 
the more we tend to put on it.  If you have two 36' boats but one is 
outfitted to the hilt with radar, auto helm, three VHF radios, three 
depth finders, ice maker, refrigerator, freezer, water making system, 
electric winch, etc. and the other boat has only the bare essentials (no 
radar, no auto helm, no ice maker, etc.) then the boat with less 
equipment will generally require less maintenance than the boat that is 
equipped with "everything".  And believe me you don't need "everything" 
to be very comfortable living aboard.

Fourth is the history of maintenance.  If you are talking about a boat 
that has been well maintained over its life, then overall maintenance 
costs for one year will be in line with the average cost for most boats 
of that make, size, age, etc.  However, if you are buying a used boat 
that has not been well maintained you can expect a lot of repairs the 
first couple of years.  Higher than normal.  Once you get the boat 
cleaned up and begin performing regular maintenance on it maintenance 
costs will level out.

Fifth is the use of the boat.   I find that a boat that is used 
regularly and well maintained costs less overall to maintain.  On the 
other hand a boat that sits in a marina months on end without use 
generally begins to deteriorate and once it starts to be used, many 
items fail nearly at once.  As an example.  We lived aboard full time 
and went through a 250 gallon tank of fuel about every 3-4 months.  As a 
result algae and water never built up in our fuel tank.  Our fuel 
filters, fuel pump, fuel injector, etc, never caused us any problems.  
Take another similar boat that had only 100 hours of operation in 3 
years.  When the new owner (me) took it out the first time the engine 
quit because the fuel filters clogged up from all the gunk in the fuel 
tank.  We had to hire a company to clean out the fuel tank because the 
first owner had used the boat so little he had never filled up the fuel 
tank once after the first time.  All the fuel was 3-4 years old and the 
inside of the fuel tank was a disaster.  Within two months of buying a 
boat that had seen little use in 3-4 years we had to repair/replace the 
fuel tank, fuel filters, water pump,  head, refrigerator, two VHF 
radios, hot water tank, many lights, etc.  

Sixth there is the matter of who will do the work.  If you do the work 
yourself it generally costs less than half of what you will pay someone 
else to do.  If you can change your own oil and filters, replace your 
own zincs, paint your own bottom, maintain your own teak, etc you will 
have lower maintenance costs than those that hire it all done.

So there is no one figure for anticipated maintenance costs.  The figure 
will vary as widely as the cost of boats people buy to do the Great 
Circle Route.  For us aboard a single engine diesel trawler made by 
Krogen that was 36' long our annual maintenance costs were about $1,200 
per year.  That included a haul out and painting of the bottom (we did 
the work) every other year as well as things like rebuilding water 
pumps, the head, new lights, etc.  That does not include upgrade costs 
like adding radar (we didn't), auto helm (we didn't) a new ice maker (we 
did).

If you are really trying to determine how much it will cost you to live 
aboard for a year then there is no easy answer.  Will you continue to 
keep a house?  (costs go up)  Do you want to stay in a marina every 
night?  (costs go way up)  Will you do most maintenance work yourself?  
(costs go down).  This is really a subject that is far more complicated 
than can realistically be answered in this forum.  I can tell you this.  
There are many people living aboard and cruising full time that live on 
social security checks and not much more.  I know people that live on 
$1,500 per month (the boat is paid for).  I also know people who live 
aboard on $5,000 per month.  My experience indicates that money doesn't 
buy happiness.  It does buy a bigger faster boat.  It will pay for more 
stays in a marina.  It affords you a car wherever you may be.  However, 
it does not make you happy.  Some of our greatest memories of living 
aboard include the quiet nights anchored in a small cove off the 
Tennessee River or in the Bahamas watching a glorious sunset followed 
the next day by a visit to a new town or a game of cards with new found 
friends living aboard another boat anchored next to us. 

If you are interested I would suggest you start by reading /Cruising 
Comfortably on a Budget.  /I address the size and layout of the boat, 
how much to pay for it, what maintenance costs will be, what a 
reasonable live aboard budget is, and much more.  This is a book for 
someone wanting to see what it is going to cost.

Bob

Skipper Bob Publications
Http://SkipperBob.home.att.net