Have you ever done the math on your boat???

I just sold my 2005 22v Tige (upgrade time! ), bought it used, i had it for 4 seasons, put about 400 hrs on it. So i did the math:
Bought price less sell price divided by 400hrs divided by 5people (average)= $2
So cost me about $2 per person per hour. Maybe $4 if you count gas. Can you believe that?
There is a lot of things im not counting (like insurance; Cheap, Gear; I still got for my upgrade, Maintainence; cheapish, those "$50 to $500 "Opp's"(yeah we've all had'em)) but the cost of the boat itself was $2
Best money I EVER spent!!!

Have you ever done the math?

I never really wanted to figure this out thinking/knowing that it's a bigger number than I wanted to look at. I just did the math, spurred by your post. I keep pretty good records: maintenance & upgrade costs, gal/hour, etc. I had to estimate launch fees (obscene at the lake we go to most often). This does not include the truck (which I probably wouldn't have otherwise) and towing gas & lodging, etc. for out of town trips. Estimating what I could get for my boat if I sold it now, over the four years I've owned it, my cost comes down to $90/hour to run the boat. Divide by an average of 4, we're looking at $22.50 per hour per person. Then again, I rarely get everyone on board to chip in equally or pro-rata So most of this cost is on me. Regardless, I think the truer number is more like 10x your calculated cost.

The breakdown:

$29,000 Purchase (including taxes & Perfect Pass upgrade)
(20,000) Est. current selling price (2002 Sanger V210, excellent shape with 705 hours)
1,400 Insurance ($350 / yr. for 4 years)
700 CA property taxes @ $175 / yr. for 4 years
3,740 Gas @ 4.4 GPH, $3.40 avg. / gal, 250 total hours
5,244 Maintenance & Upgrades (stereo upgrades, trailer tires, annual maint., new alternator - majority of work done myself)
2,500 Est. Launch Fees @ 3.5 hours per launch, $35 per launch avg.
$22,584 TOTAL
250 Total Hours
$90.34 per hour to run the boat, $22.58 per person assuming 4 people average on board.

Yeah, it was as ugly as I thought. And consider I bought a used value-cost boat, no financing/loan costs, no storage costs (at home) and do nearly all maintenance myself. I'd hate to see the same on an $80k Mastercraft / Nautique.

Still for me, priceless.

Even if I got $22,500 for the boat now and my hours were 100 per year instead of 63, cost per hour is still $59.60 per hour to run.

Wow gotta love those CA taxes Andy!

But we are acually pretty close if you think about it. I have no launch fees and if you go out for 3.5hrs and pay $35 bucks that's 10 freakin' bucks right there!
Oh what you have to divide that by 4people so $2.50.
But if you could have got more hours like me you would probably be down around 14
I would be around $7 if i counted everything.

PS i bet you could get better than 20K, you think? especially with 5k of upgrades! the used boat market is STRONG.

Yeah 60 divided by 4 = 15 so i was close

Around $315/hr but I only got mine out maybe 5 times since I got it in September. The way I figure gas is going I figure it'll be pushing $25-$30/hr just to run the boat this summer. At least if gas is expensive there shouldn't be so many tubers this summer? Who likes PB&J and mac&cheese?

I had a guy at work (a non-boater) say to me, " what you gonna do with that boat this summer with gas prices up?" I told him, "I'm going to put in water and use it. I might not be able to eat, but I am going to be using the boat!" Some people just don't understand how important this hobby is to some of us.

I am with you Chris! There's nothing like a day (or 1/2 day) on the water. Maybe I'll travel less to go. Maybe we won't cruise the lake just to joyride (but instead board only). We'll probably do more just floating & relaxing. But my boat will be out int he water!

When I'm out on the boat, I never think about the cost. I also don't think about the time, I am lost in the moment, at least until the sun sets.

Yep, people who don't boat or ride just don't get it. I cut back in other areas when gas goes up. For one, this summer instead of driving the truck to work and all over at 10-12 MPG I'll be riding my Honda a lot more. At current prices I can go about 200 miles on the bike for $15 vs. 200 miles in the truck for $62. That's easily over $1000 in savings right there and I'm not even sacrificing anything as I enjoy riding!

$175 for taxes in CA per year? Wow. I paid over $900 per year here(thats why I moved it out of state!)

I have to agree with Chris and Andy. I love it when gas prices are high because there aren't as many people on the water. In July of 2008 we used the boat a ton. It was an awesome summer.

I did not read any of these postings and skipped to the bottom because I know the information posted will be inappropriate, offensive and unsettling to my stomach. David please delete this thread.

Dude your math at 2 bucks an hour is like Obama cutting $100M out of the budget you are ignoring a ton of factors.
Even taking launch fee's, taxes, gear, upgrades ect... out of the equation. You are ignoring fuel, you are burning somewhere between 5 to 8 gallons of fuel per hour, average price of fuel the last 4 years has been around $2.50(trying to be conservative so I don't cry). So in 400 hours you've burned up 2000 to 3200 gallons of fuel, at $2.50 a gallon you are at $12.50 to $20 an hour just on fuel.

I'd love to think I can ride for $2.00 an hour, I'll have to pitch that to my better half next time I'm in the market for an upgrade. I can prolly get a $2 an hour usage out of an $800 dollar mountain bike after 400 hours ha ha.

yeah- this is what you call an excersice in futility. I have had my boat for 10 years now- and all I know is it's paid for, takes up a lot of room in my garage, costs me a LOT more to run / upkeep than I can justify for the time I get to use it and I want to put MORE money in it every year because I LOVE playing with it and can't afford to upgrade. Everyone knows what "BOAT" stands for and over time- it's so true- but I can't see a time in the future when I would be without one.

My Supra burns around 7.5 gallons of gas every hour the engine is running. That is $30 bucks an hour right there.

Still, the only time I am completely relaxed without a care in the world is when we are on the lake. Wouldn't change anything no matter how much gas goes up. Just won't eat out as much.

Originally Posted by snowslider76

Dude your math at 2 bucks an hour is like Obama cutting $100M out of the budget you are ignoring a ton of factors.
Even taking launch fee's, taxes, gear, upgrades ect... out of the equation. You are ignoring fuel, you are burning somewhere between 5 to 8 gallons of fuel per hour, average price of fuel the last 4 years has been around $2.50(trying to be conservative so I don't cry). So in 400 hours you've burned up 2000 to 3200 gallons of fuel, at $2.50 a gallon you are at $12.50 to $20 an hour just on fuel.

I'd love to think I can ride for $2.00 an hour, I'll have to pitch that to my better half next time I'm in the market for an upgrade. I can prolly get a $2 an hour usage out of an $800 dollar mountain bike after 400 hours ha ha.

$4 sets this summer.

Spencer, I TOTALLY agree!
Jason, I got the Obama thing, but my post was pretty much about the cost of the boat. Hence "Have you done the math on your boat". Yeah we did kinda swich to dollars on the lake. BUT I was per person/ per hour, and DID mention the gas. Im a surfer, we are all wakesurfers, i assumed we (surfers and wakeboarders) all burned the same amount of gas, but i guess not, i burn about 3 to 4 gal/pr hour which, like i said i rounded to 10 buck an hour, or 2 buck a person. I guess THAT will be MORE this summer!!!!
PS. I load down surfing, like 1600lb or more but i guess the wakeboarders do too...