The Average Price of a New Ski Boat (With 15 Examples)

One of the most important factors when deciding to buy a new ski boat is the price. But with so many shops and dealers out there is hard to get an idea of the average price. So I decided to make this article discussing the average price of a ski boat, where I also included the price for 15 of the most popular ski boats on the market.

The average price of a new ski boat is between $80,000 and $120,000. The price is influenced by the size of the boat, the power of the motor and the features of the boat. For a 22 feet ski boat with a 350 HP motor, on average you will pay $100,000.

Now let’s take a look at the price and features of some of the most popular ski boat models. After that I will tell you a few ways in which you can drastically reduce the price of any ski boat, without removing any feature from it.

List of 15 Ski Boats and Their Price

So here are the prices for 15 new ski boats.

Extra Costs You Can Expect

Most models will come with the basic fishing accessories, but sometimes you might want to add a little more, so here are some possible extras that you might want for your boat, and the average price that you will have to pay:

• Bimi: $800
• Full Boat cover: $2,000
• Fishing Livewell: between $200 and $800
• Sky tow bar: between $100 and $500
• A wireless motorguide trolling motor with batteries, wiring, battery boxes, and onboard charger: $2,000
• Sound system: between $500 and $2,000

How to Get Better Prices

Now let’s talk about one of the most essential parts of this article, how to get a better price.

The first thing that you should do is talk to a dealer and negotiate, never go for the standard price that you see on the websites. Even if you are the worst negotiator in the world, like I am, you will still be able to knock off at least a few hundred dollars from the price. And if you are good at this you might even get a few thousand dollars discount.

The next thing that you can do is to buy from a small local shop instead of a huge dealership. A lot of local shops and even smaller dealerships will need a way to compete with the big dealerships, so they will usually have slightly better prices.

Another great place where you can look for great deals are repair shops. Most of those places buy damaged ski boats, repair them and then sell them back. So if you don’t mind that your boat has been hit and then repaired, you will find great deals here.

Something else to keep in mind when buying a ski boat is that the name of the brand can sometimes be worth more than the boat itself. A lot of dealers will try to tell you that this brand has the most qualitative boats, and this brand has the best this and that. But in truth all ski boats are quite similar.

So don’t get fooled by their speeches, there is no bad brand out there, just like there is no superior brand. So don’t make your choice based on this, instead look for the specifications that you want and need. If you go for a brand which isn’t as well known you will easily save at least a few thousand dollars.

How the Motor Influences the Price

Another extremely important factor that influences the price of a ski boat is the engine. In some cases the engine can actually be half of the entire price. Here is a list of the average prices for a motor (for this list I looked at well known manufacturers like:  Evinrude, Honda, Mercury, Suzuki and Yamaha):

40 HP – $6,700

50 HP – $7,900

60 HP – $8,500

75 HP – $9,600

90 HP – $10,200

115 HP – $11,500

135 HP – $13,500

150 HP – $14,800

175 HP – $15,900

200 HP – $19,200

225 HP – $20,900

250 HP – $21,800

Considering the price of a motor it’s not surprising to see a standard model with a 75 HP motor go for $20,000, and a sports model with a 115 HP go for  $27,000.

So in case you were wondering why the huge increase in price between the sport and classic models, when there are no extra accessories, now you know.

The Taxes

I don’t think that anybody really likes to talk about paying taxes, but unfortunately it’s something that we have to do.

The amount of taxes that you will have to pay will greatly depend on the state where you live.

Some states like Delaware and Rhode Island have no tax for boats.

In some states the tax is only applied up to a certain amount of the boat’s purchase price. In New York, for example, they tax only the first $230,000 of a purchase price.

In other states the tax is a fixed procent, here are a few examples:

• North Carolin: 3%
• New Jersey: 3.3125%
• Florida: 6%
• Texas: 6.25%

But in some states the tax it’s capped at a certain amount. In North Carolina for example the tax is 3%, but it’s capped at $1500.

The Cost of a Ski Boat Trailer

Another possible cost is that of a trailer. If you don’t already own a ski boat trailer you can expect to pay between $2,000 and $4,000 for one.

Sometimes ski boats come with their own trailer, but this is not always the case. So before you buy your boat ask if it comes with it’s own trailer, if it doesn’t you can easily add another $2,000 to the total cost.

Maintenance Cost

There are a lot of factors that can influence the maintenance cost, this is why I decided to write an entire article about it, using real numbers from my own personal experience, here is a short conclusion of the article:

The average cost of maintaining a ski boat is around $4,500 per year, that means $375 per month, here is what contributes to the cost:

• General Maintenance: $40 per month / $480 per year
• Insurance: $25 per month / $300 per year
• Fuel: $160 per month / $1920 per year
• Storage: $50 per month /  $600 per year
• Taxes: $100 per month /  $1200 per year

If you want to know how I ended up with those numbers and how much you will have to pay to maintain your boat check out the article: The Cost of Maintaining a Ski Boat (With Real Numbers).

Final Thoughts

As you can see there are a lot of factors that influence the total price of a ski boat, but on average you can expect to pay between $80,000 and $120,000.

A few thing to keep in mind are:

• Inspect the boat very careful, if you find something wrong you can ask for a discount
• Don’t let yourself influenced by the brand name, most ski boats are more or less the same
• Accessories can add significantly to the total price, if you don’t have the money for them now, most of them can be added later.
• Always negotiate with the boat dealer, no matter how good or bad you are at negotiating you will get a better price.
• Check local boat shops and dealerships, you can usually find better prices locally.
• If the ski boat doesn’t come with a trailer you can add at least an extra $2,000 to the total price.
• The motor can sometimes be more expensive than the boat itself.