Cost Per Sail

[casampson]

I recently calculated that, based on annual fees of about $2000 and the fact that I get out about twenty times per season, the cost to sail my CD 25 averages out to be about $100 each time I go out. This came as quite a shock to me. I had a nice little Typhoon on a trailer that cost me next to nothing to sail, and now I am dropping a C-note every time I cast off.

I have no intention of going back to a smaller boat -- in fact, I plan to upgrade -- but I would appreciate some therapy on this. How much does it cost you, and how do you justify the expense?

Chris

[Frenchy]

Chris, my numbers are probably close to yours. If I was a bean-counter, I'd stay home, read, be antsy all the time and end
up spending $300 a week at a psychiatrist's office. - Jean

[wikakaru]

It's funny you should post this--I was just doing the same calculation myself about a week ago.

I think you are getting off cheap at $100 per sail, although it depends on when you choose to start counting costs and what you choose to count. Do you include the cost of the boat itself, or figure that you will make it back when you sell the boat? What about major upgrades?

Anyway, that said, here are my expenses for the last two years since we purchased our Typhoon:

2018 included a new outboard and a new suit of sails (main, jib, genoa). So far this year we have sailed 99 times and spent $5,732, for about $56 per sail.

2017 was an even bigger year, with a professional repaint of the cockpit and a bottom peel and re-epoxy. 85 days sailing, $12,496 spent, $147 per sail. I know, I know, I'm crazy to put this kind of money into a 40-year-old 18-foot boat. But there's no talking me out of it--it's love.

Including the purchase of the boat itself and two years of major refits in addition to operating costs, our typhoon has cost us $154 per sail.

I expect those costs will fall drastically for 2019 when we don't have any more big refits and our only costs are insurance, normal maintenance, mooring/slip rental, and the like. If we spend what we spent this year, less new sails and outboard, and we sail as much as we did this year, it should be about $23 per sail.

My benchmark cost is what we would pay to rent a boat. For daysailing we used to rent from Mansell Boat Rentals in Southwest Harbor, Maine (http://www.mansellboatrentals.com/sailboats.html), and their charge of $295/day for a Rhodes 19 shows that even our extravagant refits and purchases are way cheaper than renting. Or compare it to a week's charter of their Cal 25 at $1,450.

Another comparison I use is the sailing club we joined several years ago that offered supposedly "unlimited" use of the boats. It was a $720 one-time buy-in plus $95/month, or $1,860 for the year we were members. Unfortunately, we could only use the boats for a half-day at a time, never after 5PM, and never when the weather scared the club owner (15 knots was considered a gale, any raindrops were a flood, and a little haze on the horizon was considered pea-soup fog--how could someone like that own a sailing business?).

Sailing is an expensive sport, even in little boats like a Typhoon or CD25, but owning is much less expensive than renting if you like to get out on the water more than once or twice a year, and is much more flexible than being a member of a club.

I'm sure you will hear from a lot of people who spend a lot less than I do, so I'm here to make all the rest of you feel good about yourselves! Cheers!

[csoule13]

My former hobby was flying airplanes, and at one point was considering purchasing my own. Talking to a fellow pilot at the airport one day, we got to talking about this. He put it thusly.

There are operating expenses, and there are lifestyle expenses. Once you have decided to have the lifestyle, it's a sunk cost. Do or do not, there is no try. In this case, that meant the cost of the airplane, hangar, insurance, went into one bucket. Cost of the lifestyle. His cost per flight was just that - gas, oil, any fees incurred on the trip, and any mx that kicked in due to hours of operation.

So for me, the slip fee, haul out, insurance, monthly winter land storage? Cost of deciding to live the lifestyle, and the things that affords me. This season, I'm going to struggle to get ten sails in for a variety of (mostly enjoyable) reasons. But I have a boat to putter on, dockmates to chew the fat with, a hobby that my Dad and I can share, and a very nice marina that that Admiral enjoys spending time at.
The sailing part is the cheap part of it.

Buy the ticket, take the ride, right?

Chris

[jbenagh]

A few years ago my stepfather asked if I had done that calculation. I said the first day of the season costs $4000, after that they are all free.

Jeff

[John Stone]

Thoreau once said “Most men live lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.”

To me, sailing represents freedom...sometimes real...sometimes imagined. The quest for freedom is a fundamental ingredient of the human psyche. To deny it is to begin the slow death of one’s spirit.

I think sailboats represent to many men the last true chance of freedom from the shackles of unrelenting lifelong responsibility. Even if you know sailing off over the far horizon will never occur, the possibility always exists. There is a powerful undercurrent in the relationship between men (perhaps women too) and their boats. The power of the possible...when the possible means to be unshackled from the tyranny of obligation to others...whether it be for an hour, a few days, or years.

I don’t think about putting a price on something that can evoke such joy. I just feel lucky to experience it.

[mgphl52]

I don’t think about putting a price on something that can evoke such joy. I just feel lucky to experience it.

Well said! And I also have a motorcycle for all the same reasons!

[Neil Gordon]

Take the total, all in cost of your boat for the season. Divide by the number of on board nap hours. It's worth it. (Once the naps have fully amortized your costs, sailing is free.)

[Bob Ohler]

I hate to say it, but it's pretty much... "If you have to ask..."

In the book The Quotable Sailor... there is a quote that starts off... "You have no right to ask that question," when the owner was asked how much it costs to campaign a boat.

We do it like this...
Save money every month towards the slip. If we are going to need to purchase something extra, we budget for it. When we are out there sailing, all thoughts about the cost are quickly forgotten.

Bob Ohler
Cape Dory 30B
sv Aloha Spirit

[tjr818]

Keeping track of the expense would just ruin the fun for me.
I don't want to know how much sailing "costs", nor do I want to know the "cost" of sex with my wife.

[Pembquist]

When I bought my boat 3 years ago I just figured it was money I'd never see again. I bought it fro the Sea Scouts and figured I should just expect to donate it back when I was done with it. Whenever it is a go sailing or not question I joke that we have to at least try to get it below $100 an hour. The real cost per day or hour I honestly don't know, and I don't think I want to know. Just the slip and insurance cost at least 3000 a year so If I go sailing once a week for the half a year it isn't raining I know it costs more than 100 a trip for those expenses alone. Is that expensive for what you get? I don't know, that is kind of an individual value kind of thing. I mean, it is a luxury but then what does a luxury car cost to lease and that seems popular, (personally I have never had a new car in my life.) Right now it is totally worth it, that might change and I will have to sell the boat or give it away.

[mgphl52]

... (personally I have never had a new car in my life.)

In reality everyone drives a used car...

[Jim Walsh]

My "cost per sail" is zero! Every penny spent on Orion is deducted from my children's inheritance.

[Brimag]

We all have our own costs to be sailors, I had been without a boat for twenty years. After my first sail on my "new Typhoon" I felt a rush of feelings you don't get anywhere else at any cost. My only disappointment was realizing I had lost those sailing years. No regrets , family first, now spending time sailing, Priceless!

[Steve Laume]

I just don't keep track of costs. Just keeping the boat on a mooring for the summer and in a slip for the winter is around $2500. Then there are short hauls and up grades of equipment. I remember Leo McDonald saying his boat cost him about $5000. per year and I doubt I am too far south of that on average.

Being able to sail my own boat as I please is a life long dream of mine. At first I did a lot of weekends and day trips. Now it is month or more adventures. I kidded one year that I only got to sail my boat three times for the season. One of those sails lasted for 42 days so I did more sailing than most that year. I never launched Raven this year. It was sad but I did save some money on marina fees and am spending all of it and more on upgrades. So for this year it is costing me thousands of dollars with no sailing days. It just doesn't matter to me. Next year I hope to go on a trip that will last for a couple of months and that I could never afford if I had to arrange traditional transportation, lodging, meals, and outfitters. Plus I enjoy working on my boat.

There are people who pay tens of thousands of dollars to go on cruises and never get a chance to truly experience the places they visit. Raven allows me to go to places I would never visit if not for her. I do it in the comfort of my own space at my own pace and you cannot put a price on that.

I love my boat and what she offers to me. Do you ever really worry about what you spend on someone or something you love?

As long as I am able, both, physically and financially, I will keep on sailing and not keep track of the money, Steve.