Getting a new boat!

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: acemcmac

Originally posted by: SearchMaster

Originally posted by: acemcmac
That's pretty sweet, but I really prefer the pocket cruisers. I specifically like the ones betwen 25 and 26 feet because thats usually the largest size you can get berthed in a hi-and-dry which saves you a lot on bottom painting costs.

My family has always had 245 SeaRay Sundancers, but today I was looking at Bayliners and I think now that this value is unbeatable, even if Bayliner used to be the crappiest boat on the water. Mercruisers and Mercury's replace the pre-Honda force engines and apparantly aircon is now standard on all pocket cruisers

Yeah, I'm definitley getting that.

Aren't you the guy complaining about being a poor college student with a rich spoiled gf? And you're looking at a $50K+ boat?

In 10 or 15 years and probably used for 15% of that cost. Boats depreciate faster than domestic automobiles. I won't be able to afford a boat anytime in the immediate future anyway. I just bought a house. Oh, and I ditched the GF. Traded up for one that was 600 SAT points higher :beer:

I didn't think boats depreciated faster than cars... hence the availability of 15 year loans. No bank is going to give a loan which results in the principle owed being far greater than the value of the boat after a couple of years. Because of the easy terms of those loans, I had a hard time convincing myself that it was still better to get an older boat and save a few thousand dollars, than to get a brand new model and have payments of "only" $230 a month. Given the cost to rent a nice boat for a weekend, we'll be gaining equity for about the same amount of money (considering the amount of times I think we'll be out boating.) Gas prices don't bother me that much; I'll happily pay $50-60 in gas just to take my two sons out for an evening of fishing (5 or 6 hours)

 

[SearchMaster]

I don't know the general depreciation rate, but we bought our 5 year old boat with 40 hours on it for about half its original price. My brother-in-law bought a $130K boat about 4 or 5 years ago and hasn't been able to sell it for $80K.

That looks like a pretty nice boat though. They're fun, and really the maintenance on our two boats hasn't been that much over the past decade. Other than general winterizing, which isn't that much, we've had only about $500 in repairs between the two boats over the years. We live on the lake so it's an easy hop down to get into the boat, and even then we don't really use them as much as I'd like. I can't imagine how rarely we'd go out if we had to drive the boat to the ramp and back every time.