Realistic Costs

[Degu]

Hello,

 

I was wondering what you think to the monthly costs I have come to for owning a 60 foot liveaboard for 2 adults and a baby. Im mainly trying to work out if its financially viable to live on a boat (not looking for it to be cheaper).

 

These roughly what I'm thinking a month:

 

Item Monthly Cost

Mooring Charge.................£290.00

Boat Repayment................£485.00

Licence...............................£88.33

Electric (landline)................£26.00

Diesel.................................£42.00

Safety Certificate................£4.17

Gas.....................................£25.00

Hull Blacking.......................£27.12

Engine Servicing.................£9.00

Toilet Pump out..................£10.00

General Maintenance.........£30.00

Insurance............................£10.00

 

Total...................................£1,101.30

 

EDIT: It did not put the figures in the pretty table i made

Edited September 4, 2014 by Degu

[MtB]

I think you need to add a zero to your general maintenance figure if you need to employ people to do it.

 

Blacking alone will soak up your £30 a month with NO other maintenance. £200 a month will be more like it, £300 ample, unless you are happy for the boat to degrade into a wreck over ten years. Or if you are a diehard DIYer, I'd still budget £75 a month in stuff to fix things as and when they go wrong, and keep the boat in a good state of repair.

 

MtB

[ditchcrawler]

I think you need to add a zero to your general maintenance figure if you need to employ people to do it.

 

Blacking alone will soak up your £30 a month with NO other maintenance. £200 a month will be more like it, £300 ample, unless you are happy for the boat to degrade into a wreck over ten years. Or if you are a diehard DIYer, I'd still budget £75 a month in stuff to fix things as and when they go wrong, and keep the boat in a good state of repair.

 

MtB

Blacking say £500 every 36 months is just under £14 per month

Hello,

 

I was wondering what you think to the monthly costs I have come to for owning a 60 foot liveaboard for 2 adults and a baby. Im mainly trying to work out if its financially viable to live on a boat (not looking for it to be cheaper).

 

These roughly what I'm thinking a month:

 

Item Monthly Cost

Mooring Charge.................£290.00

Boat Repayment................£485.00

Licence...............................£88.33

Electric (landline)................£26.00

Diesel.................................£42.00

Safety Certificate................£4.17

Gas.....................................£25.00

Hull Blacking.......................£27.12

Engine Servicing.................£9.00

Toilet Pump out..................£10.00

General Maintenance.........£30.00

Insurance............................£10.00

 

Total...................................£1,101.30

 

EDIT: It did not put the figures in the pretty table i made

Double the pump out costs

 

are you doing your own servicing as burning that much diesel you will require a service every 5 months or so, Oil and filters will probably set you back £30

You also need to alow for a repaint, £1000 per year as paint doesnt seemed to last long nowadays.

[Degu]

Thanks Mike,

 

I have blacking down as £27.12 a month based on some numbers I found here. The £30 was more a finger in the air so will put that in my figures.

 

As for getting people to do the work i would like to do as much as possible myself and do plan on going on some of the maintenance courses.

[MrM]

I think you need to add a zero to your general maintenance figure if you need to employ people to do it.Blacking alone will soak up your £30 a month with NO other maintenance. £200 a month will be more like it, £300 ample, unless you are happy for the boat to degrade into a wreck over ten years. Or if you are a diehard DIYer, I'd still budget £75 a month in stuff to fix things as and when they go wrong, and keep the boat in a good state of repair.MtB

There is a seperate entry for blacking at just over £27 so looks like they agree with that figure, i agree from research i have done and talking to boat owners maintenance does need to be higher. Even doing my own and the kindness of very useful friends i am allowing £100 to £150 for a 28ft boat when working out finances

Edited September 4, 2014 by MrM

[Degu]

are you doing your own servicing as burning that much diesel you will require a service every 5 months or so, Oil and filters will probably set you back £30

You also need to alow for a repaint, £1000 per year as paint doesnt seemed to last long nowadays.

 

Yes i do plan on doing my own servicing. Diesel is an interesting one as this really was a finger in the air. I plan to be based in a marina connected to main power cursing at weekings and for some holidays. But i like the idea of a diesel heater so not sure how much diesel this will all consume.

[MrM]

Yes i do plan on doing my own servicing. Diesel is an interesting one as this really was a finger in the air. I plan to be based in a marina connected to main power cursing at weekings and for some holidays. But i like the idea of a diesel heater so not sure how much diesel this will all consume.

 

I often power curse when things get bad sometimes cursing isn't enough ! Something tells me becoming a boat owner will put both my cursing and power cursing levels through the roof

[Felshampo]

Yes i do plan on doing my own servicing. Diesel is an interesting one as this really was a finger in the air. I plan to be based in a marina connected to main power CURSING at weekings and for some holidays. But i like the idea of a diesel heater so not sure how much diesel this will all consume.

 

I find using a spanner leads to cursing no matter what day it is......

[Degu]

I often power curse when things get bad sometimes cursing isn't enough ! Something tells me becoming a boat owner will put both my cursing and power cursing levels through the roof

Dam it! I have now tuned my post from being 'Are these costs im planning realistic?' to 'Yes you buy and live on a boat you will cursing all the time'

 

Oh well you win some you lose some

[Paul G2]

Dam it! I have now tuned my post from being 'Are these costs im planning realistic?' to 'Yes you buy and live on a boat you will cursing all the time'

 

Oh well you win some you lose some

 

You didn't think a simple typo would go unnoticed, or unrewarded, did you?

[Degu]

 

You didn't think a simple typo would go unnoticed, or unrewarded, did you?

no as soon as i realised I knew this was going to happen. I didn't notice it in time to edit it. Seen this on here before and other forums so understand the consequences

[Graham Davis]

I can't see any figure for contingencies, which should be there.

[Alan de Enfield]

You dont say where abouts in the country you are but I would suggest you try and find some figures to substantiate your mooring costs.

 

Central London Residential (if you can find them) will be £1000 / month

Nottinghamshire Residential will be £350 / month

 

Others will quote alternative figures which is why you need to investigate yourself in your preferred area.

 

A full professional repaint will be £5000+ every 4 05 5 years - you can maybe stretch it a bit depending on how worried you are about the looks of your boat.

 

You will need to keep a couple of 1000, in quickly available cash to cover any breakdowns or emergencies (gearbox, engine etc)

 

The cost question has been asked many times before, and, YES you can live on £1000 per year ( + moorings + loan repayments) but your boat will be deteriorating away around you. I believe that the general concensus is to plan on £5000 per year (+ moorings + loan repayments) unless you are in the South, and London in particular where everything seems to be more expensive.

 

Toilet edit :

You can save £200 per year by having a cassette toilet in lieu (see what I did there ?) of a pumpout.

Edited September 4, 2014 by Alan de Enfield

[Pete & Helen]

Costing is a difficult one as there are so many variables. Keep a log for 5 years or so then you might have some idea of what it has cost you but predicting how much it will cost you is sticking your finger in the air.

It all depends on where you are, what your boat is like, age condition etc... any solar for example. Home mooring of CC'ing. are you factoring in any depreciation so you can get a new boat every x number of years or spending lots of cash keeping an old boat going?

questions questions questions + all those above

 

Have you ever been able to work out how much your car cost you each year??? see what I mean

[nebulae]

Obviously,having a boat painted by experts is expensive .A well painted boat lined out and sign written is a joy to behold.The boat may have windows and fittings removed and be shot blasted before painting.This all costs money. We have an old boat which had a good paint job about 10 years ago.We have kept to the paint scheme and paint as and where required. As the steelwork has ripples and welds that show,a top paint job is never going to be worthwhile .We regularly polish the paintwork with baby oil to keep it going as long as possible .We think the boat still looks quite smart and our total expenditure on paint in 8 years has been about £150 .As painting can be a major item of expenditure, D.I.Y. Also D.I.Y. blacking saves a few hundred quid.and you get to look close up to any issues(And make sure the blacking is dry between coats and before the boat goes in the water. The problem with giving advice on the cost of running a boat is that there are so many variables .For instance the newer the boat,the more expensive it will be,but maintenance should be less the newer the boat.

[Boat&Bikes]

Easy. Unless I am missing something your figures will comfortabily cover the cost of running a boat.

 

Ian

[Pykebird]

As mentioned before, costs vary around the country. When I was up north, things were so much cheaper, so I took advantage.

I was lucky enough to get a job in a marina so had my boat out, welding done re painted and blacked her myself and got a survey done. The total cost was under £600! Now I am back down south you could probably add another "0" to the total!!

If I can get something done cheaper I usually do it whether or not it is needed.

[Naughty Cal]

General rule of thumb for costings.

 

Pick a number, double it and add a zero. Then you will be somewhere close to what the actual cost will be.

 

Nothing to do with boats is cheap.

[Ricco1]

Are you planning for the £42 a month diesel to cover all of your heating costs? With a boat that size, I'd doubt it. A solid fuel stove might be a cheaper option, maybe £15-20 a month over the year.

[MtB]

You dont say where abouts in the country you are but I would suggest you try and find some figures to substantiate your mooring costs.

 

Central London Residential (if you can find them) will be £1000 / month

Nottinghamshire Residential will be £350 / month

 

 

 

This touches on another point I was intending to make.

 

As newbie you're probably liking the idea of being fully legitimate with a proper residential mooring. Once you get a little better immersed in the world of canals you'll realise about 90% of people living on boat do so unofficially on leisure moorings, or continuously cruising with no mooring at all. (A further 5% - my estimate - have no mooring and don't cruise either, preferring to hang around in one place until moved on by CRT - bad form.)

 

So once you've been on your £290 a month legitimate resi mooring for a while you might decide to drop it and get a cheaper leisure mooring for £200 a month, or even £150 a month. Or you might get wonder lust and go continuously cruising and have no mooring costs. Fuel costs will rise with the last option though.

 

MtB

[Tuscan]

I've never broken down the costs of boating, just the cost of converting ours was frightening. My boating comparator is a simple one club hammer from a chandler used for mooring typically £7 same club hammer from B&Q £3.50 I would use this simple formula in all your calculations.

[Degu]

That's for all the responses so far. Just to clarify some common responses:

 

I am based in the midlands and the morning cost is based on a figure I got from the marina for a residential morning and this wasn't the cheapest residential morning I was quoted but the marina is in a good location for me.

 

We do plan on having solid fuel as well as diesel heating so do need to factor in that cost. Main reason we want alternative to just solid fuel is due to the baby as others with children on a liveaboard have recommended this

[Naughty Cal]

BOAT = Bring Out Another Thousand.

 

Remember this and you wont go far wrong.

 

Make sure you have a contingency fund for when things go wrong.

[MtB]

I've never broken down the costs of boating, just the cost of converting ours was frightening. My boating comparator is a simple one club hammer from a chandler used for mooring typically £7 same club hammer from B&Q £3.50 I would use this simple formula in all your calculations.

 

 

Funny you should say that. I needed to buy a club hammer yesterday. Cheapest I could find was £7.99 in Screwfix. I'm SURE they used to be cheap!

 

MtB

P.S. Cheapest in B&Q is £10.48, so your chandler club hammer for £7 is a screaming bargain!

[Alan de Enfield]

 

 

Funny you should say that. I needed to buy a club hammer yesterday. Cheapest I could find was £7.99 in Screwfix. I'm SURE they used to be cheap!

 

MtB

P.S. Cheapest in B&Q is £10.48, so your chandler club hammer for £7 is a screaming bargain!

 

Lump hammer on special offer at Aldi this week (if you can mix with the great unwashed for a few minutes)