Are Boats used frequently? (engines, road, costs, work)
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Is it true that many people who buy boats just practically end up just mostly keeping it in garage?
Well, unless you live on waterfront property or dock it at a marina... yeah, that's where your boat spends the vast majority of its time.
I personally wouldn't own a boat unless it's docked just outside my back door, or at the very most docked within a few minute's drive. A possible exception is if I lived near a lake with a boat launch and enough parking space to leave the vehicle and trailer in the lot while I did my thing. Otherwise it wouldn't get enough use to justify buying it, storing it, and/or hauling it around.
From my location you can see I live on some fairly big water. There are usually quite a few boats out, some are work boats (crabbing, charter) but most are pleasure craft.
Having said that, the marinas are full of "slip queens", boats that the owners come down to sit on, maybe to entertain, sometimes to overnight, many just so the owner can say he owns a boat. Most of those are high dollar boats, especially the sailboats.
The cost of operating the boat is incredible, just the fuel bought at the marina is usually a dollar/gallon more than a gas station.
The old saying is, "The Happiest day in a man's life is when he buys a boat, the second happiest day is when he sells it!"
By the way we just sold ours...........and I am happy about it, over this past year the most it got moved was to cut the grass under it.
I have a pontoons boat and a stand up jetski. I use them both regularly. The jetski sees use up to 3 times a week when it's warm, twice To three times a month over the winter. It's almost as expensive to run the ski as it is the boat.
And hours don't tell the whole story. We get on the boat and head to the sandbar or a cove and enjoy a day on the lake. The engine doesn't have to be running to be using a boat.
Renting a boat for a season to gauge just how much you'd use it definitely sounds like a good idea before going forward with a purchase. Might turn out that an occasional rental is plenty for you and save yourself a lot of money and trouble.
The old saying is, "The Happiest day in a man's life is when he buys a boat, the second happiest day is when he sells it!"
By the way we just sold ours...........and I am happy about it, over this past year the most it got moved was to cut the grass under it.
So true. We live on a lake with a dock and have used our boat 5 times in 8 years. It makes a great decoration. Our neighbor uses his boat like it's a patio, he just sits in it with some friends and drinks a beer or too. Rarely takes it out.
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Based on 2012 numbers, you're 39 TIMES more likely to die while driving than while boating.
