Selecting a boat or a yacht, part 1: Use cases and general considerations

Use cases

To select a suitable boat, it is important to first define the use cases for the boat.

I wanted a boat for the following uses

• Doing short, maximum of a few days trips with the family, overnighting on the boat
• Going safely out to the sea with a group of friends (5-10 people)
• Spending time on the boat while at harbor
• Cooking food on the boat
• Swimming from the boat on harbor and on anchor
• Visiting guest harbors in archipelago

It is also good to note what you don’t need from the boat

• Not going into rough weather if not absolutely necessary (and trying to get out as fast as I can)
• No need to drive from a place to another on a regular bases
• No need for frequent fishing trips

Budget

You’ll have to define your budget. However, the purchase price is not the only thing you should budget for. In addition to normal maintenance costs, you should reserve 5-10% of the purchase price for fixes and upgrades that you need or want to do in the next few months after the purchase. Depending on what the equipment and accessories the boat already has and what you have from your previous boat (if any), you may be able to get away with 5%, but most likely, the sum will be higher.

Shared boat

I understood pretty early on in my analysis, that the use cases I have, require more budget than what I could allocate to this investment. Also, considering the annual service and maintenance costs, I realized that a shared ownership would work much better for me. I got two of my friends interested and together we could come up with a more meaningful budget to buy a boat that can satisfy the use cases outlined above. I will write more about the tools I have created to manage the shared boat and allocate the costs, later in this blog.