In article ,
Peter Hendra wrote:

After reading about Flying Pig and having heard other American
yachtees mention over the years that they bought their yachts on
mortgage, how many cruising yachtees are sailing on a boat they are
paying off?

This concept is generally foreign to most of the other nationality
cruisers I have met. Are there tax breaks or is there another reason
why older people would do this?

In the US, most cruising boats can be considered second (or first)
homes, so can fall under a mortgage agreement, which has substantially
better rates and can have some tax advantage.

We could have financed Xan's initial purchase and substantial (for her)
refit by selling stocks and such, but thought we'd do better by dipping
into a home equity line of credit we kept active 'just in case'.

Personally, given the choice of taking money out of the market or paying
less than 8% on a loan, I'll take the loan. In the 80s, when loan rates
were so abysmal, we paid cash.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's NEW Pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/