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Hello C&C Owners,
I've been daysailing on other people's Martin 242s out of the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club for several years now and am now trying to figure out how much it would cost to own a boat. From my research thus far, I've found information about the costs of purchasing a boat, mooring it and insuring it, but very little in the way of the costs of operating and maintaining it. At present, I'm not very handy, but willing to try to do simple DIY and the lower-skill grunt work.
So my questions for the forum: if I were to purchase a C&C 27 and sail it out of Vancouver, what's a reasonable amount to budget for maintenance and upgrades for a boat that will be primarily a cruiser? I have about $15000 to put into the cost of acquiring and getting it shipshape, if that helps with the answers - I know that it will be somewhat difficult to get a precise estimate, but ball park is good enough for me.
Lastly, if there is anyone sailing out of Vancouver looking for crew and someone who is looking to learn boat maintenance by helping out with someone else's, let me know.
Stephen
stephen.dv.price@gmail.com
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A very general rule of thumb is to be prepared, over a decade, for an annual average of 10% of the initial cost of the boat. But of course that varies depending on local mooring, hauling and storage fees. I will be interested in what others say.
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1974 C&C 27 Mk II in PEI
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1974 Mark II C&C 27
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fall decommissioning-
hauling for winter storage
covering for winter storage
winterizing the motor
other winter storage costs (unstepping the mast?,draining tanks?)
washing and repairing sails
spring commmisioning-
sanding the bottom
new bottom paint
cleaning up brightwork then varnishing or oiling
re-stepping mast (if you unstepped in the fall) and retuning
launching
how much are you willing to do? some yards require that they alone do some of the above
10% of purchase I think is probably at the low end if you are buying a 27 in the price ranges I have seen on this sitecopasetic
You specify maintenance and upgrades as your target interest and say that your DIY skills are minimal, but you're willing to learn (a description that fit most of us at the outset). Your offer to help someone else in exchange for learning is a good one. You'll find that much of the first year's maintenance consists of cleaning things that the previous owner ignored, painting the bottom and buffing the hull, neither of which are terribly demanding of knowledge or cash ($20 for wax, $100-$120 for anti-fouling paint - a figure that admittedly is a guess as I use fresh-water paint and you'll want salt-water paint).
After that, the upgrade question depends on how well suited the boat was to your purpose (for instance, does it have the right kind of anchors for your intended destination, or was it a racing boat with a minimum-weight anchor?).
There is also the question of your tolerance for shortfalls. As I've already noted in Buying a C&C 27, we thought we could live with our cushions, but they turned out to be too deeply mouldy for us to sleep on, so that took care of an Xmas present to the boat. Ditto the rope clutches - we could have lived with them for a while longer, but using them was a struggle, so we ditched them. 'Nother couple of hundred.
On the other hand, all the lines were green and stiff with mould and I thought they'd have to go. Almost ten years later, we're still using the main halyard and the rest only went because they were ridiculously oversized and all white (we like colour-coded for racing). But we used the old lines for about five years and they looked fine after I ran them through the wash machine (I told this story to a fellow I know recently and he said that chance remark saved him $400 - pad the hardware and bundle the lines with twine so they don't get so tangled, then do them in a laundromat that has spin washers; "Bleach For Unbleachables" is okay and kills mould, but real bleach will ruin the lines).
So, a lot depends on you. And of course, if you're willing to learn, which means asking questions, that's what this site is for.
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
David Weatherston
Towser, Toronto
C&C 27 Mk IV
Offline
This will vary greatly. On an annual basis I figure we spend (US Dollars):
$1,000 Mooring and yacht club dues (this is cheap compared to most)
$1,300 Hauling, winter storage and launching (this is average to a little high, but the boat yard is worth the extra expense)
$200 - $500 Winterizing and engine tune up (depends on a given year's needs)
I also anticipate approximately another $2,000 annually for upgrades, may it be a new sail, legalizing the head system or the fact that I know I will need to replace my A4 exhast system this year. I try to do a major upgrade every year.
All and all, my wife tells me (she is the one in our family that does our finances) that the boat costs us about $5,000 of well spent money on an annual basis.
That said, we spent perhaps $10 on gas all last season.
Greg Reese
Billerina, Hull #33
[That gas cost may go up (beyond what it has or will do in the now-normal way) for those of us who don't motor much. We're still trying to unravel all the implications of this as part of our look at aluminum tank issues, but it would seem that ethanol-tinged gas and biodiesel don't keep as well as the old stuff. I've been told that a year's life is really pushing it, even with stablizer - use it up or pump it out and dispose of it. - Admin]
Last edited by (2008-08-13 00:33:56)
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