On Wed, 28 Nov 2007 09:15:23 -0800 (PST), Chuck Gould
wrote:

On Nov 28, 8:47?am, 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.

some people keep cars a year then trade for new, others buy new and
run the wheels off it.

I've never bought a brand new boat in my life and really don't plan on
it. My two boats are 1983 and 1977. Both in very good shape and will
be keeping them for quite a while.

Does anyone know what is the average trade off or ?average length of
ownership is for boats?

I can only give the experience of my family:

Dad:
1. Bought a 16 ft aluminium boat in early 1960s with an evinrude
electric shift outboard.

2. Replaced that in 1972 with a Glastron 18 ft. tri-hull with 6 cyl.
Mercruiser IO. (10 to 12 years?)

3. Sold Glastron to my brother and bought a Crown 20 ft bowrider with
8 Cyl. Mercruiser in about 1983. (11 years)

4. Somewhere in there while not getting rid of the above he also owned
a small cabin cruiser for a few years - probably around 1976 to about
1980. (3 to 4 years?)

5. He also owned a pontoon boat with a 75 HP outboard from about 1980
to 1988. (7 to 8 years)

6. He gave the Crown to my sister when he became to ill to use it in
1993. (10 years)

Brother:
1. Bought the 1972 Glastron from dad in 1982. Sold it last year.
Hasn't replaced it yet. (24 years. In the family for 34 years)

Sister 1:
1. Was given the Crown in 1993. Still owns it and it is still very
pretty and runs well and she wouldn't part with it. (14 years. In the
family for 24 years)

Sister 2:
1. Bought a small Glastron bowrider with outboard in late 1980s to
early 1990s.

2. Sold Glastron and bought a 18 foot Crownline bowrider with 6 cyl.
Mercruiser IO in 2000. (10 years or so for the Glastron) (7 years so
far for the Crownline)

Me:
1. Bought a 18 ft. 1990 cuddy cabin with an OMC IO in August 2004. It
was washed down the Allegheny and Ohio river in September of that
year. I had used it 3 short times. It was totaled after fining its
way about 80 miles and over 4 locks before being washed up on some
wooded shore just up from Wheeling WV. (1.5 months ;-0)

2. Bought a 1995 Sea Pro Citation 1900 cuddy cabin with a small
Mercruiser IO in the fall of 2004 and still have it. (3 years so far)

All in all not a lot of buying and selling or trading up in my family
and in my local experience that is the norm around here. Might be
different in coastal areas or in areas where a lot of the local
economy is water recreation based (i.e. big lake areas, etc.).

Dave Hall
(Forgot that I bought a 12 ft jonboat with 5 hp Wards outboard in 1969
and still own it - 38 years)

Small boats probably turn over pretty quickly. Two-foot-itis is more
prevalent in boats under 30 feet or so than with larger models.

That said, I've had my boat since the early 90's and among our circle
of friends we are the only couple who haven't traded boats at least
once and more commonly twice during that same time frame- and most of
the people we know from the club,etc, have 30-50 foot boats. So they
do turn over, but nowhere nearly as rapidly as people churn through a
succession of cars or trucks.

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

JimH wrote:
"Tim" wrote in message
...
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.

some people keep cars a year then trade for new, others buy new and
run the wheels off it.

I've never bought a brand new boat in my life and really don't plan on
it. My two boats are 1983 and 1977. Both in very good shape and will
be keeping them for quite a while.

Does anyone know what is the average trade off or average length of
ownership is for boats?

I would guess I change boats every 5-7 years. I have only purchased 1 new
boat and that was only because the dealership was going out of business and
I got a great deal on it.

My 20 foot runabout is being gifted to my son when he is actually able to
take ownership and advantage of using it. I received a call from the marina
today that the outdrive maintenance has been completed and the boat is ready
to be picked up. They found some additional problems with the OD.....which
they repaired. We are picking it up over the weekend to be shrink wrapped
and winter stored at another site (cheaper).




Having never owned a boat with an I/O, my info is obtained vicariously.
From what I have read here and elsewhere over the years, it seems to be
that these drives are nothing but continuing maintenance and trouble.
Yet the technology in them, really, is many decades old. Do you think
they'd be less problematical if their manufacturers concentrated on
improving the quality of the parts they contain and worried less about
new and sometimes dubious features?

On Wed, 28 Nov 07, HK wrote:
Do you think
they'd be less problematical if their manufacturers concentrated on
improving the quality of the parts they contain and worried less about
new and sometimes dubious features?

I've owned both OMC and Mercruiser sterndrives and I think parts
quality is fine in both. And I think the general idea of sterndrive is
good. But whoever came up with the original design just wasn't
thinking. For instance, why pump water up through the outdrive and
through the transom? An inboard pumps it up through the bottom, a
sterndrive could do the same. There's a couple of other design problem
too but basically they made the whole thing to complex when it didn't
really have to be.

Rick

HK wrote:
JimH wrote:
"Tim" wrote in message
...
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.

some people keep cars a year then trade for new, others buy new and
run the wheels off it.

I've never bought a brand new boat in my life and really don't plan on
it. My two boats are 1983 and 1977. Both in very good shape and will
be keeping them for quite a while.

Does anyone know what is the average trade off or average length of
ownership is for boats?

I would guess I change boats every 5-7 years. I have only purchased 1
new boat and that was only because the dealership was going out of
business and I got a great deal on it.

My 20 foot runabout is being gifted to my son when he is actually able
to take ownership and advantage of using it. I received a call from
the marina today that the outdrive maintenance has been completed and
the boat is ready to be picked up. They found some additional
problems with the OD.....which they repaired. We are picking it up
over the weekend to be shrink wrapped and winter stored at another
site (cheaper).



Having never owned a boat with an I/O, my info is obtained vicariously.
From what I have read here and elsewhere over the years, it seems to be
that these drives are nothing but continuing maintenance and trouble.
Yet the technology in them, really, is many decades old. Do you think
they'd be less problematical if their manufacturers concentrated on
improving the quality of the parts they contain and worried less about
new and sometimes dubious features?


Those who keep their boat in salt water have more problems with I/O.

I have never had any problem with any of the drives on my boats, either
O/B or I/O.

JimH wrote:
"HK" wrote in message
. ..
JimH wrote:
"Tim" wrote in message
...
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.

some people keep cars a year then trade for new, others buy new and
run the wheels off it.

I've never bought a brand new boat in my life and really don't plan on
it. My two boats are 1983 and 1977. Both in very good shape and will
be keeping them for quite a while.

Does anyone know what is the average trade off or average length of
ownership is for boats?
I would guess I change boats every 5-7 years. I have only purchased 1
new boat and that was only because the dealership was going out of
business and I got a great deal on it.

My 20 foot runabout is being gifted to my son when he is actually able to
take ownership and advantage of using it. I received a call from the
marina today that the outdrive maintenance has been completed and the
boat is ready to be picked up. They found some additional problems with
the OD.....which they repaired. We are picking it up over the weekend
to be shrink wrapped and winter stored at another site (cheaper).

Having never owned a boat with an I/O, my info is obtained vicariously.
From what I have read here and elsewhere over the years, it seems to be
that these drives are nothing but continuing maintenance and trouble. Yet
the technology in them, really, is many decades old. Do you think they'd
be less problematical if their manufacturers concentrated on improving the
quality of the parts they contain and worried less about new and sometimes
dubious features?



Regarding mechanical problems, I have not had any significant problems with
the outdrives on my boats.

Having said that...........I will never purchase another boat with an
outdrive as the upkeep is more demanding than an outboard.




Except for the boot on the OD, what additional upkeep do you have?

Reginald P. Smithers III wrote:
HK wrote:
JimH wrote:
"Tim" wrote in message
...

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.

some people keep cars a year then trade for new, others buy new and
run the wheels off it.

I've never bought a brand new boat in my life and really don't plan on
it. My two boats are 1983 and 1977. Both in very good shape and will
be keeping them for quite a while.

Does anyone know what is the average trade off or average length of
ownership is for boats?

I would guess I change boats every 5-7 years. I have only purchased
1 new boat and that was only because the dealership was going out of
business and I got a great deal on it.

My 20 foot runabout is being gifted to my son when he is actually
able to take ownership and advantage of using it. I received a call
from the marina today that the outdrive maintenance has been
completed and the boat is ready to be picked up. They found some
additional problems with the OD.....which they repaired. We are
picking it up over the weekend to be shrink wrapped and winter stored
at another site (cheaper).



Having never owned a boat with an I/O, my info is obtained
vicariously. From what I have read here and elsewhere over the years,
it seems to be that these drives are nothing but continuing
maintenance and trouble. Yet the technology in them, really, is many
decades old. Do you think they'd be less problematical if their
manufacturers concentrated on improving the quality of the parts they
contain and worried less about new and sometimes dubious features?


Those who keep their boat in salt water have more problems with I/O.

I have never had any problem with any of the drives on my boats, either
O/B or I/O.



*snicker*

Yeah, well, since the only boats you have are bathtub toys...

HK wrote:

I have never had any problem with any of the drives on my boats,
either O/B or I/O.



*snicker*

Yeah, well, since the only boats you have are bathtub toys...

Harry,
You better get your act together and stop these personal attacks or JimH
will get all over you.

Reginald P. Smithers III wrote:
HK wrote:

I have never had any problem with any of the drives on my boats,
either O/B or I/O.



*snicker*

Yeah, well, since the only boats you have are bathtub toys...

Harry,
You better get your act together and stop these personal attacks or JimH
will get all over you.


(Putting on my best Herring-Smithers suit of false innocence...)

What attacks?

HK wrote:
Reginald P. Smithers III wrote:
HK wrote:

I have never had any problem with any of the drives on my boats,
either O/B or I/O.



*snicker*

Yeah, well, since the only boats you have are bathtub toys...

Harry,
You better get your act together and stop these personal attacks or
JimH will get all over you.


(Putting on my best Herring-Smithers suit of false innocence...)

What attacks?


Oh, so you really aren't innocent and have been stirring up trouble all
day. Good, the first step is to admit your problem.