What was your first boat and how did you pay for it?

The slip fees, fuel and maint will be exponentially more. In central Illinois, slip fees (covered) at a nice marina is $5300 a year, I put 50-75 hours a year on my boat and the bill is 3-5k (just a guess) then avg maint is a grand. If anything breaks or you want to upgrade something, it’s thousands. It’s not uncommon to stick 10 grand into a boat in an offseason.

First boat was a 17’ 1976 mercury marquis in 1994, then a 19’ 1996 rinker, then a 28’ 2002 four Winns vista and now a 2000 sea Ray 380 DA. Insurance will ask a lot of questions when you get to 34’ boat and with no boat ownership previously, will price accordingly, if at all

Do you think it’s better to pay $20K cash and get a used 10 year old 19-21 footer or is it better to get a 10 year old 30-34 footer cruiser and putting 20K down, but having a note of about $100K with a payment of at least $650 a month, depending on interest rate? Then there are slip fees and general maintenance to worry about. Would appreciate any feedback.
 
Do you think it’s better to pay $20K cash and get a used 10 year old 19-21 footer or is it better to get a 10 year old 30-34 footer cruiser and putting 20K down, but having a note of about $100K with a payment of at least $650 a month, depending on interest rate? Then there are slip fees and general maintenance to worry about. Would appreciate any feedback.
The real question is do you want to pay $20K cash for a 19-21 foot boat, sell it a year later and buy a 30 foot boat. Or do you want to buy the 30 foot boat now and forgo the smaller boat?
 
The slip fees, fuel and maint will be exponentially more. In central Illinois, slip fees (covered) at a nice marina is $5300 a year, I put 50-75 hours a year on my boat and the bill is 3-5k (just a guess) then avg maint is a grand. If anything breaks or you want to upgrade something, it’s thousands. It’s not uncommon to stick 10 grand into a boat in an offseason.

First boat was a 17’ 1976 mercury marquis in 1994, then a 19’ 1996 rinker, then a 28’ 2002 four Winns vista and now a 2000 sea Ray 380 DA. Insurance will ask a lot of questions when you get to 34’ boat and with no boat ownership previously, will price accordingly, if at all
Holy crap Chris, that’s nuts! Dammmmm!
 
The real question is do you want to pay $20K cash for a 19-21 foot boat, sell it a year later and buy a 30 foot boat. Or do you want to buy the 30 foot boat now and forgo the smaller boat?

if that’s the scenario, I would prefer just to go with the 30 footer.
 
The slip fees, fuel and maint will be exponentially more. In central Illinois, slip fees (covered) at a nice marina is $5300 a year, I put 50-75 hours a year on my boat and the bill is 3-5k (just a guess) then avg maint is a grand. If anything breaks or you want to upgrade something, it’s thousands. It’s not uncommon to stick 10 grand into a boat in an offseason.

First boat was a 17’ 1976 mercury marquis in 1994, then a 19’ 1996 rinker, then a 28’ 2002 four Winns vista and now a 2000 sea Ray 380 DA. Insurance will ask a lot of questions when you get to 34’ boat and with no boat ownership previously, will price accordingly, if at all

thx for sharing.
slip fees for me would be roughly 4K. Even so , not so much concerned with slip fees, Gas and boat price. What I am concerned about is maintenance. Which seems like a big X factor. Trying to avoid a situation where I have to lay out thousands for engines , for example. Now the survey should hopefully mitigate some of that risk, but it doesn’t eliminate it. I’d be comfortable spending $5K on maintenance, for example. If it gets to 10K, I’d feel uncomfortable. So that’s why I’m looking long and hard at this, trying to learn as much as I can. Hoping to mitigate some of this risk by buying a newer boat, let’s say 5-8 years, so I don’t have to spend as much on maintenance. Spending less on an older boat but spending more on maintenance might also work.
 
Knock on wood, been boating for my entire life (48 years old) always older boats, like at least 12-15 years old and I have not have had major engine repair, nor drive repair. The big items mechanically has bad been fumble ring and bearing.... besides that alternators/starters/shift cables/bellows etc...
New cockpit interior(old was ok, just getting worn) was $3200. New camper enclosure/biminis, isenglass/cockpit cover will be 12k. The old one worked, but stitching was breaking, it was time.... so there is 15k, maybe I should of put that into a little new boat, but I would of had the same issue 2-4 years later.

Good luck, can’t wait to see what you get

QUOTE="RutgersAl, post: 1208518, member: 56012"]thx for sharing.
slip fees for me would be roughly 4K. Even so , not so much concerned with slip fees, Gas and boat price. What I am concerned about is maintenance. Which seems like a big X factor. Trying to avoid a situation where I have to lay out thousands for engines , for example. Now the survey should hopefully mitigate some of that risk, but it doesn’t eliminate it. I’d be comfortable spending $5K on maintenance, for example. If it gets to 10K, I’d feel uncomfortable. So that’s why I’m looking long and hard at this, trying to learn as much as I can. Hoping to mitigate some of this risk by buying a newer boat, let’s say 5-8 years, so I don’t have to spend as much on maintenance. Spending less on an older boat but spending more on maintenance might also work.[/QUOTE]
 
Holy crap Chris, that’s nuts! Dammmmm!
Sometimes, I question my love for boating! My 268 FOur Winns vista would get 2 miles a gallon, now it’s .7 typically.... but hey, spend it now if leave it to my wife/daughter when I am dead? Lol, let’s have some fun!
 
We bought our first in June 2015. It was a 1986 250DA. We bought it from the original owner and it was in very good shape. Spent it's whole life on Lake Erie. Kids were grown and out of the house and we were looking for a new hobby so bought an older boat (paid $8800) to see if we liked it or not. After raising 4 kids and sending 2 through college and 1 through the police academy we didn't have much in savings so financed through Lightstream. After 3 years we decided we wanted a bigger boat so sold it for $10,000 (we bought new canvas and a few other upgrades). That was June 2018. Spent a month looking at bigger boats and they were in rough shape. Couldn't find anything decent. We knew about a 2006 Crownline 250CR that was in excellent condition so we looked at it a few times then made an offer. Owners were having financial issues so the boat had sat for 3 years in shrink wrap. Survey went well and we financed what we needed to through Bank of the West. That was August 2018 and we still have it. We paid about $7000 or so below market value and have replaced the canvas. Guessing it is now worth about $7000-10000 more than we have in it but we have no thoughts of selling it now. Oh, and it came with a brand new Venture trailer. The first time the trailer hit the road was when I towed it from the shop it was stored at to the ramp for the sea trial.
 
First boat 19.6 closed bow Imperial with a 4 cylinder 120 hp.. I was 28yrs old had a good job was looking at use boats in my price range . It was an old clapped out Mark Twain open bow. My dad only owned one boat a 18' Starcraft Holiday with a 110 hp merc on the back he loved that boat. Make a long story short he didn't like the Mark twain one bit he hated open bows. He pointed to the Imperial said what's wrong with that I said 3k more I don't have then he smiled and said ya but I have so with the 5 grand I had he covered the extra 3 grand.
 
My first was an older but mint Larson 21.5’ cuddy with a Merc 5.0 that had about 200 hours on it when I got it.

It ran flawlessly for years and did for the guy I sold it to. I really loved that boat but got caught up in my friends all buying bigger ones. Now I have the biggest one of the group.

I took out a small loan, paid it off early and made a couple of thousand when I sold it.
 
I'd advise going the older/bigger route if you have some cash. Leaves a lot more to play with during the season if something crops up while not having to worry about a huge boat payment as well.
 
I grew up in a boating family in a coastal community, so I really didn't actually buy my first boat until adulthood. It wasn't until we bought the present house that has ocean access about 35 years ago that we started owning them. For the first ten years the boats were mostly meant for me to fish from and to ferry folks between the house and the state park beach down river at the mouth of the river. Basically a series of tin boats and zodiacs. I can't really recall how they were paid for, but since all but two were used, best guess is cash. The 280 and the Sabre were bought outright. Although the new zodiac dinghy and motor I bought with a AMEX card at the 2020 Boston Boat show.

Sorry I don't go for the buy the second boat first logic especially when someone is new to boating. How the heck are they going to know what features they want if they haven't figured out how they were going to use a boat in the first place?
 
I grew up in a boating family in a coastal community, so I really didn't actually buy my first boat until adulthood. It wasn't until we bought the present house that has ocean access about 35 years ago that we started owning them. For the first ten years the boats were mostly meant for me to fish from and to ferry folks between the house and the state park beach down river at the mouth of the river. Basically a series of tin boats and zodiacs. I can't really recall how they were paid for, but since all but two were used, best guess is cash. The 280 and the Sabre were bought outright. Although the new zodiac dinghy and motor I bought with a AMEX card at the 2020 Boston Boat show.

Sorry I don't go for the buy the second boat first logic especially when someone is new to boating. How the heck are they going to know what features they want if they haven't figured out how they were going to use a boat in the first place?
I didn’t figure it out til my 3rd boat.
 
I say to each their own. Depends on what type of boating you want to do. We purchased our first boat 21 years ago as 23 and 24 year olds with only a car payment (him) and student loan (me) between us. Crazy kids with a boat before a house or even being married!! Was a 8 year old 20' Mariah cuddy cabin and paid maybe $10,000. Realized we loved the lifestyle, trailering from here to there and within two years ordered a brand new 23' Ebbtide cuddy. We had that for 5 years then moved up to a 2 year old 23' Crownline cuddy (deeper like a cruiser with frig, etc .) when we were pregnant with our first born. Outgrew that one 7 years later (now with two kiddos) and bought a leftover, brand new 28' SeaRay cruiser 7 years ago (and left our trailering days behind). We have always financed - but I've always done a tremendous amount of research on lenders, terms, interest rates, etc.).
 
Just my opinion.

The boating market last year was robust. Brokers were selling left and right.

Don’t look for that much longer. Fuel prices are rapidly increasing, insurance is climbing. Basically the outlook is for a declining economy.

Most of those boats purchased last year, the allure will wain quickly. The market is about to be flooded with boats as people start dumping them. People will soon find out they will not get out of their new boats what they paid, nowhere close. Many will be upside down.

If you still want to buy, be patient. But also don’t get in to a boat with more than you’re willing to lose.

Yes! And that is where my next boat is coming from. I passed on a used Cobalt last year, I saw virtual the same boat a few months ago for $10k more than what they were asking last year - it sold for asking price in days.
 
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1978 Ski Nautique. Purchased this in 1992. 200 hours and in mint condition. Super basic not even a stereo. Had to add that. Financed a portion of this boat.
 
Like some others here I grew up around boating and did not actually purchase my own boat until I was in my 30's. The first boat I remember much about the cost is the 1979 Correct Craft Ski Tique my father bought - paid $7,661 for it, I remember that because 12yrs later after my father passed I sold that boat for $8,000 not bad! Fast forward to the first boat I bought myself - 2000 SeaRay 290DA brand new bought it at the boat show $116k. That was back when we thought we would be a little richer than it turned out! I put 1/2 down on it and put the remainder on my HELOC - you could deduct the interest like a regular boat loan then AND there was no lien on the boat. I made regular payments to my equity line just like I had a regular loan though. Sold that boat in 2006 for $80k (more than I owed on the HELOC). Can't decide if that was a good deal or not, but we sure enjoyed that boat. My current boat was bought to keep at a lake house the family had - it was not expensive, $14k in 2006, I paid cash for it. So, should you pay cash or finance? That's a decision based on the individual circumstances - if you have the $$ sure pay for it - but I always consider what it is going to cost to borrow money and weigh that against what I could do with the money (or might need it for) if it was not tied up in the boat, car or whatever. Borrowing leaves me options - I can always pay the loan down/off - but once I have paid cash, the cash is gone and the only way to get it back is to sell the asset, usually for less than you paid for it. Also, consider how long you plan to keep it - I keep things a long time, the guy that buys a new boat every 3yrs needs to think about this differently. Kinda like the guy that want's a new luxury car every 3yrs - usually better to lease it - your never going to get ahead of the loan and dumping cash like that every few years is just doesn't make sense - not to me anyway. Just because you can pay cash for something does not mean you can or should afford it! That's just me, others might have a different opinion and it really is a personal decision, neither way is right or wrong.

Another good example of when it is better to finance - a few years ago (4 exactly) we bought our daughter a car - the sales price was $20k and I was intending to pay cash. Turned out if I financed it through Volvo the rate was 1.9% on a 48mo loan. I put $5k down and financed $15k - the total interest paid on that loan was around $400 - that was a no brainer, the investment return on the $15k was a little highger than 1.9% AND I had the $15k to use for other things if I needed it.
 
We always financed our boats, back in the day you had tax advantages, interest write-offs. I was pretty much always self-employed and could have paid cash at almost any time. Always put my cash into the business, it made me a lot more than I would pay in interest.
 
First boat,
A van de stadt, pioneer 30.
Sailing type rig with an engine if you could find it.
Paid in cash 6000 clams.
Sailed it around England then ending up selling it to the same guy a bought it from for 4000 clams. I wonder how many times that went on for.
Amazing boat 2” of GRP on the hull, in 1965 they used so much glass like it was free lol. because you ask how you paid for it. The truth is the girl I was with at the time was rich so she paid half. That was 2001.
 

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