The real costs of owning a trailerable boat

But as the cost of living starts to bite, the costs of owning a boat can start to add up. It’s important, then, to know exactly how much boat ownership is likely to cost.

These can be split between the immediate cost, such as the large one-off payment to buy the boat in the first place, and ongoing costs such as fuel and insurance.

What can you expect then, as a hip pocket hit to add boating to your lifestyle?

The biggest cost of boat ownership is buying the thing. In contrast to a car, motorbike or caravan, with a boat you’re buying three separate things bundled together – the boat itself, the engine that pushes it along and the trailer it sits on.

The price you pay for a boat reflects all these three things, and more so when you’re buying a used boat where the hull, trailer and engine may all be of different age and state of serviceability. 

If you’re buying new, trailer costs are usually fixed, so the only variables are the price of the hull as you add optional extras, and the price of the engine, which increases in line with the horsepower it produces.

You can go from having a low-powered boat with all the basics up to a range-topping flyer with all the fruit, with the costs varying accordingly. For example, jumping from a 40hp to a 60hp outboard engine alone can vary the price you pay by around $5000.

Suppose you’re buying a boat less than 5.0 metres in length. In that case, chances are it's either a tinny made from pressed aluminium alloy, or a rigid inflatable boat, or RIB, featuring an inflatable tube around a rigid hull. More than 5.0 metres in length, you’ll generally be looking at aluminium – either pressed or harder-wearing plate alloy – or fibreglass. All have their pros and cons.

Bigger boats tend to be made from thicker material, so as the size goes up, so does the cost at a higher rate than you’d expect.

Note that used boats are unlikely to have warranties, so the used boat you buy will have no real protection if, say, the engine seizes on the first trip out. It may be cheaper initially, but could throw up some nasty surprises later on.

You may also like to think about finance costs and resale value. A loan will cost money over time, yet buying a less desirable boat may boomerang and bite the owner come resale time.

Of course, the best place to research a new or used boat is right here on boatsales.

Buying a boat is not like buying a car. That’s because while a car comes with all the safety gear such as seatbelts and airbags, a boat is very much a bring-your-own package.

The most important thing is life jackets. It’s surprising how many boat buyers don’t mind spending the equivalent of a house deposit on buying a boat, yet cheap out on buying the life jackets that they may one day need to rely on to save their bacon.

So you will need a life jacket per person on the boat (say four people by $300 to give $1200, with a plan to change them as soon as they show signs of wear), a floating torch with batteries ($20), a set of flares that need to be replaced every three years ($90 if you want to hang around in bays, $160 if you want to go out in the ocean), and say $200 a year to keep your boat’s electronic navigation system up to date because no one uses paper charts anymore.

Depending on your boat, you may also need to get appropriate clothing. A decent waterproof jacket will cost you $400 at a pinch, and if your boat happens to be a wet one, a set of salopettes to protect your lower body is another $350-ish.

Then there is the aftermarket gear you can add to the boat, such as fishing rods and tackle, ski ropes and sea biscuits, biminis and covers and more. It can quickly add up.

To help buyers, boat-makers will often bundle the most common options into a package that includes all the gear you will need at a discount to buying all the optional items separately.

Boats are generally much cheaper to register than a car or motorbike. What you’re charged varies from state to territory – NT residents don’t even need to register their boat – and largely depends on the length of the boat and the size of the engine that pushes it along.

But you also need to separately pay a registration fee for the trailer on which the boat sits.

In most cases – once again, the exception is the NT – you will need to have a marine licence to skipper a boat. This can involve sitting a pre-licence course and maybe even gaining some practical experience in basic boating skills before you’re given the magic ticket.

There is no learner’s permit, so once you have your recreational marine licence you can hit the water.

Holding a recreational marine licence is no different to holding a car, truck or motorcycle licence. That means you will need to keep paying to renew it.

Insurance will be an immediate and ongoing cost of boat ownership. Think you don’t need it? Your engine can suck in a plastic bag and overheat, a whale could jump out of the water and hit your boat, or you could unexpectedly hit a rogue wave and sink. If you’re sinking a bucketload of money into a boat, it makes sense to protect it from accidental damage – either to yourself or someone else.

It also protects you from theft. Boats are highly desirable and can be easy to unhitch and hook up to another vehicle and disappear – we’ve learned this lesson firsthand.

When you apply for insurance you’re going to be asked about your age and boating experience, claim record, location, make and length of boat, what powers it, what it is made from, its value, and whether or not you want to save money for laying it up for part of the year.

Depending on the age or condition of the boat, you may be asked to have it assessed at an authorised insurance agent.

Remember how we said earlier that boats are made up of three bits – the engine, the hull and the trailer?

It’s important to have a regular maintenance regime for your engine. That usually means a tune-up and a checkover before the start of each new boating season, with servicing carried out every 100 hours of running time. That 100 hours is a pretty hard target to hit for most casual boaters who are only likely to spend two hours moving on the water once a fortnight in peak season. Boat owners who want to run 50km offshore twice a week chasing tuna or kingfish will clock up more hours much faster.

Servicing an outboard engine isn’t cheap, so be prepared for a bit of bill shock if you’re thinking it’s going to cost less than servicing the car.

When you get the boat engine serviced, it’s usually a good time to give the trailer a once-over. This will include checking a trailer’s mortal enemies – rust and corrosion – as well as ensuring the hubs and bearings are properly greased, the winch strap is serviceable, the brakes are operating and the electrics are in top shape. It’s also a good time to check the tyres, including the spare, to ensure they are in good health.

It’s also worthwhile spending time on the hull. Keeping it clean improves fuel efficiency, and there are always the inevitable bumps and scrapes that need fixing.

Ouch. This is by far the one bit of boat ownership that will constantly cause you hip-pocket pain.

A car has many challenges. Roads can be flat, uphill or downhill, with the vehicle saving fuel on downhill runs and using the most heading uphill.

In contrast, a boat is constantly climbing uphill to stay on top of the water. Therefore it is constantly using the engine to push hard, usually at high revs, as the water passing under it grabs on and tries to slow it down. Imagine running a car up a mountain road at close to maximum revs for hours at a time and you'll get an idea of what a boat engine has to endure.

Generally speaking, a mid-size trailerable boat will use around a litre of fuel per nautical mile. On the road, that would be the automotive equivalent of around 50 litres per 100 kilometres.

There are things you can do to save fuel, such as trimming the engine to help the boat plane efficiently and even decreasing the speed to ensure the engine is operating at its optimum revs.

Some engines, too, require a diet of premium unleaded fuel, adding to the cost at the pump.

The most effective way to cut fuel costs is to remove weight from the boat, so don’t carry anything you don’t need to enjoy the day on the water.

There’s also the cost of the fuel for your car transporting the boat to and from the boat ramp. A 200-litre onboard fuel tank on the boat can add a lot of weight to a trailer, so fill near the ramp you’ll launch from rather than burn fuel dragging a heavy boat there.