Erith Yacht Club The finest sailing water on the tidal Thames
		Club Ship 'Folgefonn' Anchor Bay, Erith, Kent, DA8 2AD Tel 01322 332943 Secretary Tel 0208 310 2686 email - secretary@erithyachtclub.org.uk

Keeping a Yacht Cost or Benefit - take your choice! - By Peter Minch

From the day that I bought Lieveling I decided to keep a careful record of costs and benefits and I believe that hardly a washer has gone unrecorded. The results of 5 years ownership are tabled below. Capital costs include anything likely to last more than a year, such as the initial purchase price of £3000, new mainsail, outboard motor, instruments, solar panels, charts etc. Sadly many of the costs have been occasioned by theft. The annual costs include mooring fee, insurance, VHF licence and antifouling. I have not included things that I would have had to buy if I was chartering a boat such as oilies, life jacket, hand held GPS. I have included charts but not my compass binoculars. Clearly some people might draw the line in a different place.

For the benefits the calculations becomes somewhat less clear. The joy of being master of your own vessel cannot be priced just as the hundreds of hours of work in the winter has not been costed. Being retired that is a pleasant way of passing the time amongst good friends. Very roughly from the cost of yachts I have hired on flotilla holidays I decided on £5 per hour, £60 for a 12 to 24 hour day and have carefully logged every hour I have used the boat. Obviously there would not be much benefit in owning a boat that you did not use. Here are the results of my deliberations.

So if I wanted to move on to something bigger or gave up cruising completely I could most likely sell my boat easily for about £4000 to £5000, showing a clear profit on the venture! But if you look at the bald figure for capital cost, £8227, you might well seek a different hobby.

Peter Minch