The idea of owning your own boat can be quite pleasant, but what keeps most people from getting one is the ownership cost.
When I was getting ready to purchase my own boat I was doing research on every possible aspect. But the ones to which I paid the most attention to were the maintenance, insurance and taxes, so the overall ownership cost. During my research I read forum after forum and website after website and in the end I made a table with all the average numbers and I was sure that I had quite an accurate number. But after a few years I realized that I couldn’t have been more wrong. So now I decided to make this article with real numbers from my own experience so people will know at what the real boat ownership cost is.
The average cost of boat ownership is around $4,980 per year, that means $415 per month, here is what contributes to the cost:
- Insurance: $25 per month / $300 per year
- Storage: $50 per month / $600 per year
- Fuel: $160 per month / $1920 per year
- Maintenance: $80 per month / $960 per year
- Taxes: $100 per month / $1,200 per year
As you can imagine this is not the exact number that you will end up paying, but it’s the average that I paid in the last few years. Every factor on the list above is influenced by its own factors, so let’s take a look at them, so that you can have an even more exact idea of what you will end up paying as a boat owner.
Table of Contents
Insurance
On average you can expect to pay around $300 on boat insurance. But the cost can go up or down depending on the insurance type. The most basic insurance can have a cost as low as $200, while more complex insurances can be around $500.
Insurance cost can be influenced by a multitude of factors, here are some of them:
- Use of the Boat
- Boating Experience
- Motor Vehicle Driving Record
- Other Drivers Experience
- Boat Insurance Records
- Horsepower
- Specs of the Boat
- Credit Score
- Multi-policies
- First Owner
- Multiple Boats
- Association Member
- Safety Course
If you want to know more details about boat insurance you can check out my article: Average Boat Insurance Cost (With 15 Examples), where you will find 15 real life examples.
Average Monthly Total: $25
Storage
Another important aspect that influences ownership cost is storage, there are multiple ways of storing your boat.
Option 1
For most small sized and medium sized boats you can use a trailer, which will mean an upfront cost of around $2,500. But after this you don’t have to pay anything since you can store in your yard.
In this case I would say that the average total is $100, while there is a considerable upfront cost, there is nothing else to pay after. And you will definitely use the trailer for at least 4 or 5 years, but let’s say that you will only be using it for 2 years, that is 24 months, 2,500 divided by 24 is almost 100.
Average Monthly Total: $100
Option 2
If you go for a storage unit, things will be a little different. In a lot of cases they are close to the lake or ocean and they will provide a trailer for you to move the boat, sometimes for a cost, sometimes for free and sometimes they won’t provide one at all. But let’s say that you don’t have one and you want to rent one, then this will cost you around $100.
The storage unit cost will differ based on the location, if it’s outdoors you can expect to pay around $40.
If to the $40 per month we add the extra $100 upfront for the trailer we get around $50.
Average Monthly Total: $50
Option 3
If the storage is indoors the cost will go up. And depending on the length of the boat, the cost will further increase. But for the average 18-20 ft. boat, the cost should be around $130 per month.
If we add up the upfront trailer rental cost, you should expect to pay around $140 per month.
Average Monthly Total: $140
Option 4
The final option that you have is to keep your boat in the water at a port, this is also known as a wet slip.
This option will cost you around $300 per month
Average Monthly Total: $300
Storage Total
So as you can see there are a lot of options, and they start as low as $50 per month, and they can go as high as $300 per month. But to give an average total we’ll add all them up, divide them by 4 (the number of options), and we will round the number so we will say that the average is $150 per month. But you won’t have to pay this amount every month, you will only have to pay it for 4 to 5 months, depending on the area where you live. So 7 or 8 months the average will be 0. So the monthly average, considering that you will not pay anything for two thirds of the year is around $50.
Average Monthly Total: $50
Fuel
As you can imagine this is very hard to estimate since there are so many variables. And the most important and hard to use is how much are you going to use your boat. Then there comes the question of what engine do you have.
I personally have paid $1,000 a year per gas, as well as $6,000. But when I paid $6,000 I had a really powerful engine and spent most of my time on the lake. So this is not the average example. But looking back at all the recipes I’ve kept over the years I can say that you can expect to pay around $2,500 per year. If you set $2,000 aside just for fuel you can go and spend every weekend on water and not have to worry that you will be out of fuel money. Assuming that you have a medium engine, and you are not planning to go at full speed all the time.
So if we divide 2000 by 12, we get 166, and we will round that up to 160.
Average Monthly Total: $160
Maintenance
Maintenance, another hard to estimate cost. This one is hard to estimate because this includes not only the general maintenance like the oil change, but also the replacement of broken parts.
But let’s assume that like me, you will be very careful with your boat so you won’t have to change the engine, or anything major, but still you will have to replace a few things here and there.
For most of my boats, which were small or medium sized, I paid between $500 and $2000 per year. But when I paid $2000 it was because something major broke. And in the 15 years that I’ve owned a boat, this only happened twice. So let’s say that a good yearly average would be $1000. That would make the monthly average around $80.
Average Monthly Total: $80
Taxes
Probably the most annoying thing to estimate, since there are different taxes for every state.
Rhode Island and Delaware are the only states that 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.
But depending on the state where you live, you can expect to pay an extra 1% or 2% due to some other taxes.
If we consider the average boat price $30,000, then the total average would be $1,250.
If you were to divide that by 12, for every month of the year, then you will get around $100.
Overall I would say that taxes are the hardest part to estimate since they are so different , based on the location you are in, and they change quite often.
Average Total: $100
Final Thoughts
It’s hard to give an exact amount that you will have to pay for owning a boat. There are so many variables, things that can happen, and taxes that can change. But looking back at the money that I’ve spent on my boats, I can say that you can expect to pay about the same amount.
The thing that will influence the cost the most I would have to say it will be the type of boat. From my experience pontoon boats are the cheapest, while powerful jet boats can be quite expensive. I’ve never owned a yacht so I can’t tell you how expensive that is. But if I ever get to own one I will update the article.