Sailboat Ownership on the Cheap

For those of you considering buying a boat in the near future, there is the big question of: cost of ownership. What will it cost on a monthly basis to own a sailboat? From my experience over the last seven years, it can be a very expensive experience or it can be inexpensive (how does $3 a day for a 30 foot sailboat sound to you?). Let's take for example, our 25 year old sailboat on the San Francisco Bay. Our boat happens to be a 30' Newport designed by Gary Mull for Capital Yachts. We purchased her for $16k about 7 years ago. At the time, we had three partners so a little over $5k each. Not bad. She was in great shape and sail ready. Fast forward to today and we have 5 partners and we each pay $100 per month. Our slip fees are about $280 per month so that leaves us plenty of money that can go towards insurance, bottom cleaning, haulouts, repairs, etc. If you are interested in reading further and learning how to set up a partnership, please see this article I wrote for Latitude 38. Please contact me if you have any questions or would like to see our partnership agreement. If you have ever wanted to own a boat, now is the time to move forward!!