If Your Boat Was Destroyed In A Catastrophe, Would You Replace It?

If Your Boat Was Destroyed In A Catastrophe, Would You Replace It?


  • Total voters
    102
A guy at our marina had a 318 Four Winns and sold it and bought a big camper. They used it for 1 year then sold it to buy another 318 FW. They couldn't go without boating
 
Why would anyone want to be in a marina or at anchor when they could sit in rattling bus in traffic on your way to a parking spot in dirt? Oh, maybe I answered my own question...
Because where the water ends, land begins. The boat and the RV each have their place in my world at the moment. That said, I can definitely be happy without the RV but the boat is a necessity. The RV is how we decided to travel to the places not accessible by boat. Your analysis of battling traffic to get to a "dirt slip" is accurate for most of the places we've visited and why the boating is so much more attractive.
 
For a younger person planning retirement it is the dumbest purchase I’ve ever made. From a family perspective it’s the best purchase.

Today it is 0F/-17C. Ask me again in April when my waterway is measured in feet deep instead of inches thick.
Minus 37 c here yesterday. Id be replacing mine . Life is a catastrophy so might as well enjoy the best parts of it and they are to be found on my boat.
 
Totally get a new boat. It’s my family’s summer vacation. As the kids get more involved in sports, boating lets us have family time is short chunks. I’m currently shopping for a larger boat that’s roughly 10x what I expect to be able to get for my current boat.
 
The reasons to get another boat:

* I'm smarter about what to look for and how to buy a boat, so I think I'd end up with a better boat
* Not going anywhere for another 10 years and really love boating

The reason to NOT get another boat that is boating related:

* I love boating a lot and definitely could see a near-liveaboard situation in retirement. My gas sterndrive 310DA is no good in salt water and not really big enough. Dumping what I pay now in dockage, maintenance and other expenses into a fund for that future boat would probably get me a long way towards that lifestyle, in cash. I don't mind the idea of borrowing for this (future) boat, but I'd like to walk in with $250k cash so that when I walk away in my 70s from it I get something back.

The closer I get to retirement age, the more my existing boat (which I love now) seems like a potential albatross that hurts my retirement lifestyle potential. Not the boat itself, but the money sunk into a lifestyle that could go into funding the future lifestyle.

But of all this balanced against the risk you get cancer, a bad heart attack, or whatever and you never see that retirement dream come true. My wife and I have a saying we coined after buying our 310DA "buy the boat" -- we had two good friends get cancer (one is now dead) and we felt that living in the now was as important as planning for the future.

Realistically what I'd probably end up doing is actually downsizing to something smaller (maybe a 260, which gets us into a cheaper tier of slips), single engine (less maintenance), and then socking away the difference. Stay boating, but slightly less extravagantly.
 
Definitely get another boat. About 10 years ago I sold a boat in May, and didn't replace it until the following May..worst summer ever!
For all the $$ and aggravation they can cause, there's nothing like being on the water with family and friends!
 
ABSOLUTELY! Unfortunately, been there, done that. We had our boat burn to the waterline almost four years ago. Insurance company was great and we had all records. Couldn’t stand not having our boat. Even though we still had a 28’ pontoon boat, it wasn’t the same. We purchased another boat within 6 months of our loss.
 
The reasons to get another boat:

* I'm smarter about what to look for and how to buy a boat, so I think I'd end up with a better boat
* Not going anywhere for another 10 years and really love boating

The reason to NOT get another boat that is boating related:

* I love boating a lot and definitely could see a near-liveaboard situation in retirement. My gas sterndrive 310DA is no good in salt water and not really big enough. Dumping what I pay now in dockage, maintenance and other expenses into a fund for that future boat would probably get me a long way towards that lifestyle, in cash. I don't mind the idea of borrowing for this (future) boat, but I'd like to walk in with $250k cash so that when I walk away in my 70s from it I get something back.

The closer I get to retirement age, the more my existing boat (which I love now) seems like a potential albatross that hurts my retirement lifestyle potential. Not the boat itself, but the money sunk into a lifestyle that could go into funding the future lifestyle.

But of all this balanced against the risk you get cancer, a bad heart attack, or whatever and you never see that retirement dream come true. My wife and I have a saying we coined after buying our 310DA "buy the boat" -- we had two good friends get cancer (one is now dead) and we felt that living in the now was as important as planning for the future.

Realistically what I'd probably end up doing is actually downsizing to something smaller (maybe a 260, which gets us into a cheaper tier of slips), single engine (less maintenance), and then socking away the difference. Stay boating, but slightly less extravagantly.
Nice analysis and yes for your saying buy the boat.
 
I went through the 2016 season without a boat after selling my old one around Memorial Day and not finding another one until December of that year.
It really sucked not having the boat that summer. It was kind of nice not worrying about winterizing, polishing, waxing, and doing maintenance that fall and winter, but it was nicer to take delivery of my current boat the following Spring.
The idea of an RV does sound appealing to me, but I think my wife would kill me if I rolled up in one.
 
All the work, effort and expense instantly fades away the moment you get to the end of the “no wake” zone. Opening the throttle and getting up on plane with a view of the open water ahead........how many weeks of winter left??
 
I probably wouldn't replace my boat due to our current lifestyle & kids sports obligations but it was sorely missed last year when we left her on the hard. My boys who competed several times a week in hoops & baseball said it felt like school never ended & we had no summer. We are putting her back in this year & will create the time to use her!
 
I probably wouldn't replace my boat due to our current lifestyle & kids sports obligations but it was sorely missed last year when we left her on the hard. My boys who competed several times a week in hoops & baseball said it felt like school never ended & we had no summer. We are putting her back in this year & will create the time to use her!
We’re facing a similar schedule this year with my son on a travel basebal team that’s going Cooperstown. We likely won’t have a summer vacation. To us this is all the more reason to get down to the boat when we have pockets of time. It’s also why we are looking to go bigger - be able to go out and stay out with less concern about the weather.
 
We went through a couple of years where our old boat didn’t get used as much as we wanted because of the kid’s schedules.
Hang in there. Now that my kids are 21 & 18 that all changed drastically, especially now that we have the bigger boat. The last two summers we were on the hook with them and their friends in raft ups just about every weekend. They share a small boat, and some of their friends families are boaters. Either they come out with us or meet us out there. They like the space and amenities the bigger boat has. When they both went away to school in late August my wife and I spent almost every weekend on the boat.
 
We went through a couple of years where our old boat didn’t get used as much as we wanted because of the kid’s schedules.
Hang in there. Now that my kids are 21 & 18 that all changed drastically, especially now that we have the bigger boat. The last two summers we were on the hook with them and their friends in raft ups just about every weekend. They share a small boat, and some of their friends families are boaters. Either they come out with us or meet us out there. They like the space and amenities the bigger boat has. When they both went away to school in late August my wife and I spent almost every weekend on the boat.

This is basically what we see in our future. When they are gone in a few years we have a bigger boat for going away. In the mean time, we still have a bigger boat for all of us to hang out on.

The problem right now is that my wife recognizes all the advantages of a larger boat, but is extremely reluctant to part with the current one because of all the memories of good times with the kids. She's making noise about keeping it an adding a bigger one.
 
This is basically what we see in our future. When they are gone in a few years we have a bigger boat for going away. In the mean time, we still have a bigger boat for all of us to hang out on.

The problem right now is that my wife recognizes all the advantages of a larger boat, but is extremely reluctant to part with the current one because of all the memories of good times with the kids. She's making noise about keeping it an adding a bigger one.

I had the same problem. My wife gets separation anxiety just throwing out the garbage. The new to us 410 made her get over the old one pretty quickly.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
112,950
Messages
1,422,865
Members
60,932
Latest member
juliediane
Back
Top