I often hear people say “you must be rich to own a yacht” my reply is normally “no, my yacht has all my money”
The marine trades seem to think all owners are rich, and can pay ever higher invoices year after year. The decline in yacht ownership dosn’t seem to support this. When I started cruising 20 years ago, yacht values where at an all time high, but the bankers crash of 2008 started the decline, and by the time we bought “Elektra” at the end of 2016 yacht values had halved. There was a little spike in values around 2020-21 because travel abroad had been stopped due to Covid 19, but as new owners tried to sell again afterwards, the values dropped even lower than before!
In 2005-6 when we started cruising a second hand Sadler 29 would have set us back in the region of £30,000, the previous owner of “Elektra” paid £25,000 in 2010, we paid £16,500 in 2016, I have seen Sadler 29s for as little as £10-12,000 these days. But values don’t matter until you come to buy or sell.
I tend to split my yacht spending into running costs (things which need to be done to go sailing) and improvement cost (things which improve life aboard). To be honest, I don’t care much about “Elektra’s” re-sale value, I care more about my use of “Elektra” against running costs. Over the last 20 years and 2 yachts, our running costs have adveraged £2440,00 per year and since 2016 when we bought Elektra the adverage is £3591,00. What is in the running costs, you might ask. Well everything you need to go cruising, seasonal moorings, laying up moorings, visitor moorings, fuel, gas, repairs, replacement flares, replacement of equipment, antifouling, engine service ect.
The things which go in the improvement costs are things like new sails(nice but you can keep the old ones), new furrling gear, new instruments, Flexi-Teak decking, New stainless solar frame, new cockpit encloser, new engine, new davits, new Eberspasher and other improvements.
The figure £3591,00, might seem like a lot to some, but all hobbies cost money, and some like to have 2 weeks away in the sun. How much does that cost? I don’t know, I haven’t ever been on a fixed wing aircraft or even been south of 49.53N, the only time I ever left the UK was when I was at the age 4, when my family went to Ireland for a holiday.
I have always loved numbers, I like to know the details, the costs of everything.
I can tell you, since we first started sailing Elektra in March 2017, she has logged a total of 5,193nm (without leaving UK south coast between The Isles of Scilly in the west and Poole in the east), we have, day sailed her 70 times, been away for 232 weekend days aboard and had 342 holiday days aboard. You name it, and I have probably, got numbers for it. I know against Elektra’s adverage running costs, it has cost £70.40 per night aboard, or £50.28 per day aboard. I know we have spent 65 nights on swing moorings, 50 nights on pontoon or marina berths(most of these at association rallies), 337 nights at anchor, 3 nights against a harbour wall and 2 nights at sea over the 9 seasons.
To help keep cost down, I our normal winter lay up for Elektra is up a creek, we have used boat yards some winters for marine trades and jobs ashore, but these yards are 3 or 4 times the cost of a mud berth. Here Elektra only floats on a spring tide. The creek we use dose costs some money, but this fee keeps the creek clear of abandoned boats which is becoming a big problem now, as the costs of owning yachts continue to rise.
When we started cruising in 2006, the cost of owning a yacht was said to be a 10th of the yachts value, but over the years, the costs are now are about a 3rd of the yachts value.
Saying all this, we still love going sailing and having worked hard to get Elektra updated over the last six years, we are hoping to use her as much as possible for as long as we are able.
Love Sailing 