Mid Size Power Boats

How Much Time is Involved?

Second to the cost issue is the amount of time boat ownership involves for both management and maintenance.

It may surprise you when I say that boats require time to be managed.

Management time means time involved with issues such as arranging for insurance, dockage and repairs, as well as whatever effect ownership may have on managing your finances and taxes.

If you do not perform much in the way of maintenance and repairs yourself, then rest assured that you will spend plenty of time making arrangements for other people to do these things.

Most would-be boat owners will want to know how much time should be devoted to routine maintenance.

It’s hard to get a handle on the answer to this question simply because some owners will perform all their own maintenance while others will do none.

The later, however, are rare because paying others to do everything is normally far too costly for the budgets of the vast majority of midsize boat owners.

My own experience and that of many others is that it takes about an hour of work for every hour of pleasure with normal usage.

That also assumes, of course, that a boat is maintained to a certain standard, and a consistent rate of usage.

This answer is not very satisfactory, so let’s see if we can’t be more specific.

I’ll use the example of an owner with a 28 foot express cruiser who performs all his own maintenance – keeping in mind that maintenance does not include things like engine overhauls and other major repairs – and who also maintains his boat to a fairly high standard.

The amount of time spent on maintenance will vary widely depending on the length of the boating season and the owner’s proximity to the location where he keeps his boat.

Obviously, travel times to and from the boat can be substantial and should be included in our estimate.

It’s also a demonstrable fact that boats that are kept far from the owner’s home are usually among the most poorly maintained.

It goes without saying that people who have to travel far just to get to the boat won’t much feel like working on it once they get there.

Routine maintenance includes jobs such as cleaning the interior and exterior.

Exterior maintenance is not unlike auto maintenance. Boats get dirty mainly from air pollution, which tends to leave black streaks of water runoff that is not easy to remove.

And, if you want that shine to last beyond the first year, there is compounding and waxing to do once or twice a year, depending on the climate you’re in.

Interior maintenance involves most of the same tasks as housekeeping: the bigger the boat, the more there is to it.

There is dusting to do, carpets to be vacuumed and even toilets to be cleaned. And of course, the bigger the galley, the more kitchen tasks there are to do, like cleaning all those spills inside the refrigerator.

Mechanical maintenance is a class all by itself, one in which there is always something to do, even on new boats.

Most of the mechanical work usually involves minor repairs and adjustments, as well as making additions and improvements that, although minor, do add up to considerable amounts of time.

Time need be taken not only to perform these tasks, but to make the frequent inspections to the various systems to ensure that all is well.

Unlike automobiles, with boats we do not just drive them until something goes wrong. Not unless we’re stricken with terminal stupidity.

Taken altogether, performing all the various tasks will average two to three hours per week on an annual basis, exclusive of management tasks.

Obviously, there will be periods in which the owner will do much more, and much less, but boat maintenance tasks can be expected to entail at least 100 hours per year.

Management tasks include not only paper and telephone work, but also the time it takes to bring a boat in for warranty service or general repairs to a marina or boat yard.

On an annual basis, I would estimate an average of another twenty to thirty hours. Therefore, reasonable boat ownership responsibilities can be expected to demand at minimum of at least 120 hours per year.

Thus, if you do not enjoy at least some of the tasks of routine maintenance, you’re not likely to be a happy boat owner.

People who get the most satisfaction from their boats tend to be those who enjoy puttering around on a boat.

The alternative is to ignore maintenance and end up taking a huge resale loss on a poorly maintained boat.

Even boats that haven’t been maintained that are only a couple years old, can be expected to take big depreciation hits.