On Wed, 28 Nov 2007 19:52:27 GMT, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote:

On Wed, 28 Nov 2007 08:47:44 -0800 (PST), Tim
wrote:

I was wondering if there are any stats on how long people actually
keep their boat. Like if they buy a new runabout or cuddie etc. how
long do they actually keep it, before selling it or trading it in for
a new model.

Good question.

For me, I average about, roughly off the top of my head, 6 years on a
boat. The longest I've owned one is my Ranger CC - that's going on 8
years this Spring and will probably be the one that I will keep until
I don't need a boat anymore.

The Princecraft I had for two and a half years before I sold it to Don
is the shortest.

I suspect that Chuck is right on this one - for folks under 30 feet,
it's often a case of two foot bigger disease. Over that, it's a
different ball game - if they trade up, it's usually for something 10
or more feet bigger, but they tend to stay in their boats longer than
10 years at a time.

I was reading a while back that folks in the mega yacht world usually
have them for a purpose - as in to travel around the world or use them
as a floating condiminium for a specific purpose, then sell them. Once
they have achieved their purpose, that's it - sold.

Ya'll are forgetting the 3 or 4 feet smaller crowd!
--
John H

On Wed, 28 Nov 07, John H wrote:
Ya'll are forgetting the 3 or 4 feet smaller crowd!

Good point!
Over the years, I've been up and down and in between.
42' is the largest boat I've owned, for about 15 years. Normal
maintenance was time consuming enough but hurricane season is a real
bitch. It takes 6 hours to motor a sailboat around back to my
hurricane hole (and that much again to bring it back later). One year
we had 5 hurricane scares. That's a bit too much time to take off for
someone who has to work for a living. And you can't schedule that time
off ahead of time either. You just drop everything and go. So I sold
the boat and decided trailerable boats would be the way to go for now.
Once I retire and have time to burn, I'll be shopping for my ol'
Creekmore 42' again or one similar to it ;-)

Rick