twistedtree
Guru
Really? So your new Nordhavn costs double or triple (or whatever the selling price difference) to maintain to your standards than say a 15 year old 47 foot boat of similar configuration, from a second tier builder ? Why is that?
I think Marin already covered most of what I would say, but .....
I'll reiterate that the 10% cost is NOT every year, year in and year out. Most years, at least for me, have been significantly less. I do nearly all my own maintenance and repairs, and the annual costs are more in the low single digit % per year. I also agree that for many expenses, there is little to no relationship to the value of the boat.
What I've found with my boats is that I spend a bunch in the first year or so getting the boat the way I want it. So that's going to be close to a 10% year. The next few (hopefully many) years of ownership are just moorage, cleaning, regular maintenance, insurance, etc and are probably 1-3% years. For a while, you will seem to be way ahead of the game. I sure though I was. But when you sell the boat, I think it's all likely to catch up to you. Your last year will be a 20% or much more year with 10% for sales commission, and whatever difference between your purchase price and the sale price.
So the 10% isn't an annual cash-flow number, but I think it's a reasonable budget for life-time cost of ownership.
The other thing that I think is particularly important is to be sure your budget can handle surprises, because you are likely to get one or two along the way. This is why even in the low-cost years, you still need to be planning on 10% annually, and perhaps even bankrolling whatever you have not spent. A major repair can be required at pretty much any time creating a 10% to 30% year in the blink of an eye. If you are not prepared to deal with that, then you can quickly find yourself in trouble.
I think we all hope to operate at well under 10%, and should celebrate when we do. But I'd rather be celebrating being under budget, than be in a pickle because I need to replace a transmission or HVAC system or engine and have that destroy my finances. And I think this is especially important for new boaters who are likely unaccustomed to the costs that can crop up.
And back to what I think was one of your points... does the cost really track to boat value? It's imperfect, for sure. Insurance, moorage, and some portions of maintenance will track boat size/value. But others won't. I also think it's generally true that the more someone spends on a boat, the more likely they are to be paying other people to work on the boat rather than do it themselves. From what I've seen this is where you can spend a lot, or not very much at all depending on your preferences. At $100/hr you can spend a lot of money very fast on repairs and maintenance. If I were to hire out all the work on my boat, it would easily cost 5%-7% per year. Thankfully I don't do that, so expect it will cost 2%-3% per year, maybe less.
Just for kicks I sketched out the numbers for my Grand Banks which recently sold. Over my ownership, the boat cost me the equivalent of 8% of it's value, per year. So I came out ahead of my benchmark, probably because I did nearly all the work on it myself.