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Mr. Luddite Mr. Luddite is offline
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First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Aug 2013
Posts: 6,972
Default I Am No Longer Boatless

On 8/17/2015 2:08 AM, wrote:
On Sun, 16 Aug 2015 14:17:08 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sun, 16 Aug 2015 12:12:35 -0500, Califbill billnews wrote:

Those are 350 GMs?
That is a solid engine, particularly in fresh water but they can be
thirsty. The good news is gas is getting cheaper. Enjoy your boat.

Talking to a guy in the marina at Ganges, BC, Canada. His comment, rings
true, fuel is one of the cheaper parts of boating. And he owned an older
wooden hall trawler.


===

That's very true in my experience, and the less you use your boat, the
more true it is. Even when diesel was at $4/gallon I figured it was
about 40% of expenses while running about 500 hours per year.


Fuel is my biggest expense but my boat is fully amortized years ago,
insurance is cheap, dockage is free and the amortized cost of my last
motor ended up being about $650 a year including maintenance. (over 10
years) I spent closer to $900 on fuel last year.
The Yamaha I have cost about a grand more but I am not sure how long
it will last and what it will be worth on the back end. I paid $5600
for the Merc 60 and sold it for $1500. The big ticket maintenance
bills were $250 for a HP fuel pump and $300 for 2 seal jobs on the
lower unit. The rest was just routine oil changes and a few cheap
parts. ($50)




I wonder how many people have true marine insurance on their boats that
will cover the cost of a major oil or fuel spill clean up. The home
insurance policies "riders" don't. It may not be a high risk on a boat
like yours since you don't have a "bilge" but on a larger hulled boat
with fuel tanks (gas or diesel) and inboard engines with oil pans that
can rot it is an issue. Imagine a large fuel tank full of diesel
letting go or an engine oil pan that rots out and dumps 7 gallons (more
if diesel engine) of oil and the bilge pump dutifully pumps it overboard
without your knowledge.

I had a $2 million liability marine insurance on the last three boats I
had that would pay out something like $500K for oil/gas/fuel spill clean
up costs.