I think the time has come to get out of boating....

tdschafer

tdschafer

Well-Known Member
Aug 24, 2009
6,154
Long island , NY
Boat Info
1997 330 sundancer
Engines
twin 454's, Carb, V-Drives
I have finally started to face the fact that my best boating days may be behind me. Its not an age related thing as I'm only 58 but, rather a lifestyle thing. To date, I have used my boat once this season, for a raft up in a local river. Last year I slept on the boat one night and did 4 day trips, all after Labor Day. The year before similar usage. It seems to cost me about a minimum of $10k a year for dockage, storage & mechanic fees. I just can't see tossing this money out indefinitely with no payback in enjoyment. Most times it just seems to be another job for me getting it ready to go in & come out. Plus, the two closest Fire Island Marinas that I have frequented changed their reservation systems after being leased out by the feds & my town. It is harder & harder to just get in the boat to spend a day at the beach. I guess I'm saying "no mas". I'm curious if others here have reached this point in their boating lives & how did you handle it? I know that in rare instances I may miss having a boat but, I also feel like a weight will be lifted when I no longer have to worry about it or toss money at it. For those recently looking or selling, how is the market for a 1997 330 DA look?
 
Well, you could drop down to a smaller trailerable boat size. Its much less expensive, easier to maintain, and you won't feel guilty if you don't go out as often as you used to. Unless I wet slip I wouldn't have a bigger boat ie..30ft or 9ft beam. And now that Im in salt I wont wet slip an IO. Might be a consideration to find a smaller runabout. I just picked up a classic SRV195 with a 350 mercruiser for $2500, trailer w brakes. Won't cost much to maintain and store on the property.
 
I think you know the answer and that is okay. I have felt that way at times. Our boat is paid for so it is easier to use it less in my mind. But the ongoing projects do get old if you have owned the same boat for a decade plus. When it was new I loved projects. I also have learned after dislocating a rib trying to replace the float switch under the generator that I am going to write more checks. I don't mind some things but some projects take all weekend and are not fun. I also do triathlon and own a business. So time is my limiting factor.
 
I have owned my old boat for 20 years. Some years, hardly any use as the kid was involved in baseball (bye, bye summers). Other years, more use, but never a lot of use. Mostly sitting around the docks, drinking beer, and gabbing with the neighbors. Plus the never ending projects. Key was it was less than 30 feet, so relatively speaking inexpensive to store and maintain. Thus, it didn't matter if I used it. I had it and that's what counted. And yes, at times it was more of a chore.

Now I have moved up. Admiral wanted it. Kid is out of school and on his own. But the carrying expenses have doubled. We'll see how it all works out. I am thinking a few years, and as we get closer to retirement, back down to more of an outboard day boat. We'll see. If she really likes the big boat experience, we'll keep it longer.

Bottom line, in these northern climates, boating sucks.
 
I'm in a similar situation. Our lake is 2 hours away. We leave on Thursday afternoon and come back Sunday. While we LOVE it, we rarely get shit done at home and when we do, things are so rushed.

First grandkid last year, others will hopefully follow in the next year or so. We are putting in a big pool to spend family time at home.

While we can keep the boat and get the pool, it's hard to justify the expense of the boat if we don't use it regularly.

I can see us getting another boat in a few years....
 
I'm in this position right now and I've only owned the new to me boat for 4 plus months. I've spent all my recent free boat time working on it trying to solve an overheating issue. The marina it's at sucks and I had to pay for a year.

I play a lot of tennis and all my teams are winning and advancing further, so I have that on the weekends too. I made a commitment to these teams so I make that a priority. I have another tournament this weekend and I'm going to try to squeeze in some time Saturday to get to the boat to continue working on it. It's 2 hours away each way with traffic so that's a pain in the butt.

The other part is turning wrenches and becoming a pretzel in the engine compartment wears down my body, then I can't play tennis, or have to rest. For example I have a bad elbow and bad knee. So do I play tennis or do I work on the boat and then have to rest for a week from aching? Do I risk re-injuring my elbow, which I had surgery on 5 years ago, to work on the boat?

I paid cash for the new to me boat, I don't know if that makes it easier or harder.
 
mrsrobinson said:
I'm in this position right now and I've only owned the new to me boat for 4 plus months. I've spent all my recent free boat time working on it trying to solve an overheating issue. The marina it's at sucks and I had to pay for a year.

I play a lot of tennis and all my teams are winning and advancing further, so I have that on the weekends too. I made a commitment to these teams so I make that a priority. I have another tournament this weekend and I'm going to try to squeeze in some time Saturday to get to the boat to continue working on it. It's 2 hours away each way with traffic so that's a pain in the butt.

The other part is turning wrenches and becoming a pretzel in the engine compartment wears down my body, then I can't play tennis, or have to rest. For example I have a bad elbow and bad knee. So do I play tennis or do I work on the boat and then have to rest for a week from aching? Do I risk re-injuring my elbow, which I had surgery on 5 years ago, to work on the boat?

I paid cash for the new to me boat, I don't know if that makes it easier or harder.
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Damn! And you had quite the search.

To the OP - I've realized life has many different phase's. Though through all of mine, I've had a boat. We are switching gears a bit and will likely be back in a bowrider come spring...but now it's about laying some groundwork for future generations to enjoy...
 
Golfman25 said:
I have owned my old boat for 20 years. Some years, hardly any use as the kid was involved in baseball (bye, bye summers). Other years, more use, but never a lot of use. Mostly sitting around the docks, drinking beer, and gabbing with the neighbors. Plus the never ending projects. Key was it was less than 30 feet, so relatively speaking inexpensive to store and maintain. Thus, it didn't matter if I used it. I had it and that's what counted. And yes, at times it was more of a chore.

Now I have moved up. Admiral wanted it. Kid is out of school and on his own. But the carrying expenses have doubled. We'll see how it all works out. I am thinking a few years, and as we get closer to retirement, back down to more of an outboard day boat. We'll see. If she really likes the big boat experience, we'll keep it longer.

Bottom line, in these northern climates, boating sucks.
Click to expand...
Living in northern Wisconsin I have to disagree. Late winter I really look forward to getting the boat out. Late summer I really look forward to getting the snowmobiles out. If I could boat 12 months of the year I think I’d get bored. We have some amazing boating opportunities. Lake Superior, Lake Michigan and Mississippi/St Croix rivers.
 
Maggieiscrazy said:
Living in northern Wisconsin I have to disagree. Late winter I really look forward to getting the boat out. Late summer I really look forward to getting the snowmobiles out. If I could boat 12 months of the year I think I’d get bored. We have some amazing boating opportunities. Lake Superior, Lake Michigan and Mississippi/St Croix rivers.
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Smaller boats, that works well. But when you have to haul, store, launch, slip, rinse, repeate, it get's old after a while. Plus being on the Great Lakes reduces the number of days you can go out. This year especially sucked. If I could trailer my boat home to my driveway do the work and then storage, it would be easier, I think.
 
I’ve boated for going on 50 years and have several thousands of hours at the helm so it was an adjustment to sell my last boat which our family truly enjoyed. Arthritis finally caused me to hang it up. However, my wife and I then spent 18 months building a new home and that occupied a lot of time. We also enjoy road-tripping in the Porsche. I’m on my second one now and just ordered a 2023 4.0 GT. That will be my final Porsche as the company is transitioning to EVs. Also just picked up a new S5 Sportback for my wife and spent the better part of today researching winter tires for it as summer tires will become unsafe in about 60 days. So, to answer the question, there is fun to be had after boating. You just need to move on with it as time is fleeting. Our youngest son will be visiting us in October, and I will rent a pontoon boat so we can putz around our old stomping grounds on that for a while. So I am technically still “boating”. (;-)
Here are two pics of the latest cars.
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68C77FAB-1D1B-4E02-B2E8-27B3E9C61DF6.jpeg
 
I grew up on a lake and boated for close to 30 years. Got out of boats and into cars (Goodguys, National Street Rod Assoc and local events and cruise-Ins). Neither are cheap hobbies. Anyway, moved north and sold the cars before heading up. Now it's back to boats. I'm 15 minutes away. I head over to it 2-4 days a week. I actually skip the weekends for getting it out. If it wasn't convenient, I wouldn't have gotten back into the boat. If I lose interest, I'll broom it and still keep the well and rent it out.
 
mrsrobinson said:
I'm in this position right now and I've only owned the new to me boat for 4 plus months. I've spent all my recent free boat time working on it trying to solve an overheating issue. The marina it's at sucks and I had to pay for a year.

I play a lot of tennis and all my teams are winning and advancing further, so I have that on the weekends too. I made a commitment to these teams so I make that a priority. I have another tournament this weekend and I'm going to try to squeeze in some time Saturday to get to the boat to continue working on it. It's 2 hours away each way with traffic so that's a pain in the butt.

The other part is turning wrenches and becoming a pretzel in the engine compartment wears down my body, then I can't play tennis, or have to rest. For example I have a bad elbow and bad knee. So do I play tennis or do I work on the boat and then have to rest for a week from aching? Do I risk re-injuring my elbow, which I had surgery on 5 years ago, to work on the boat?

I paid cash for the new to me boat, I don't know if that makes it easier or harder.
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You will get through this and it'll be a distant memory. Trust me... Unfortunately sometimes you just go through these big events.
 
sbw1 said:
I’ve boated for going on 50 years and have several thousands of hours at the helm so it was an adjustment to sell my last boat which our family truly enjoyed. Arthritis finally caused me to hang it up. However, my wife and I then spent 18 months building a new home and that occupied a lot of time. We also enjoy road-tripping in the Porsche. I’m on my second one now and just ordered a 2023 4.0 GT. That will be my final Porsche as the company is transitioning to EVs. Also just picked up a new S5 Sportback for my wife and spent the better part of today researching winter tires for it as summer tires will become unsafe in about 60 days. So, to answer the question, there is fun to be had after boating. You just need to move on with it as time is fleeting. Our youngest son will be visiting us in October, and I will rent a pontoon boat so we can putz around our old stomping grounds on that for a while. So I am technically still “boating”. (;-)
Here are two pics of the latest cars.View attachment 132137
View attachment 132138
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I bought a used N54 BMW 335i almost 2 years ago as a project car to modify it and tune it. I wanted a project and wanted to challenge myself to see if I could do it on my own. I did. That car is awesome fun. I also turned a beatdown old shed into a garage for it.

Fast forward to now I own the boat and it's keeping me busy. Haven't driven the car in about 6 weeks. I was thinking about selling it. I drove it to a tennis tournament this weekend because it was finally cooler enough to do so, it's a hard top convertible, and I had a blast. And after all the crap I've been dealing with related to the boat I needed it. I didn't know that though.

My point is if you can afford to keep it and you get joy from it on those rare occasions when you can use it, keep it.

You asked about the market, it was very strong a few months ago and everything I see says it still is, so if you want to sell I think now is the right time. Lots of folks on here will tell you different anecdotally, but I think the market is still strong for boats.
 
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Up until last year I've had a cabin Sea Ray kept in the water for the last 34 years. We bought a small condo in Florida in 2020 and a run about boat to cruise the area. Always planned on keeping the 420 and dividing out time between locations. As things panned out the 420 got less and less usage and finally I got an offer I couldn't refuse. I was VERY anxious letting it go but thought, what the hell, I'll buy another if I miss it too badly.

So far, no regrets. Well, almost no regrets. Following all the threads here about AC units dying, over heating, toilets cycling, etc., etc. have me smiling at my new found freedom. I'm going to enjoy it for a while longer.

That said, I have every intention to move up in the next few years when I have more time to enjoy it and explore more. Maybe not all the way to a 420 but, who knows, all me again in an hour and the story may change.

My advise is take the break. See what grabs your attention. If you eventually miss boating it's not like you can't find another one.
 
good thread

i have the benefit of keeping the boat at the dock behind the house.

Moved into the 450 DA as it better "fit" my need to single handle with better amenities and no more climbing over the transom as with the 10 meter.

Whats that old saying... USE IT OR LOSE IT ?"

BEST !

RWS
 
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After growing up in a boat yard, transporting boat's and working as a captain on fishing boats. Living on boats and working on them. When I was ~40 I decided I was done and started playing golf and bought a sports car and and picked up racing again. My decision to quite boating lasted all of two months.

I sold my then boat and bought a new boat that was a project. That got me through the winter and I had the best next summer I had had in years. Had that boat for 10yrs and bought a bigger one. Now I want a bigger one and sell my house and live on the boat again, but the wife won't have any part of that.
 
copb8tx said:
My advise is take the break. See what grabs your attention. If you eventually miss boating it's not like you can't find another one.
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Excellent advice as well, a different way to look at it. Good sellers market now as well.

I recently asked my real estate agent to start my riverfront cottage search again as I'm rethinking that. That was my direction before purchasing the boat but I kept getting out bid so I walked away from it.
 
Interesting to see that some of us are car guys as well and we bounce back and forth between boats and cars, sometimes owning and maintaining both.
 
I still have my motorcycle license but gave that up about 30 years ago.I guess you could say we're all motor kind of guys. Really, I just think we are a project kind of people,

OP I'd worry you'd go bored after you sell the boat so just have something lined up ready to go.
 
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