Results from the Costs of Small Boats Survey: Part 2

Examining the survey data on restoration, yearly upkeep and storage costs.

Article by Sean Grealish

Recap of Part 1

The first examination of our survey results contained some fascinating information about small boat prices, and the boat ownership trends of the Small Craft Advisor readership. If you’d like to re-read Part 1 it can be found here. Before we jump into Part 2, I’d like to briefly summarize some of the most interesting findings from Part 1 since they add some valuable context to the results in this article.

● 48% of the boats surveyed were 14.5-18.5ft in length

● 73% of the small boats in the dataset weighed less than 1,000lbs

● 60% were fiberglass boats (of which 84% were built by large scale producers)

● 27% were wooden boats (of which 77% were homebuilt)

● 90% were sailboats, 53% use electric/combustion motors and only 45% use some form of human power (most commonly oars at 35%)

● Adjusted for inflation a majority (53%) of the small boats cost less than $5,000

● 69% of the small boats were purchased in Used condition and the average price of Used boats has been holding steady over the last 25 years

● Lastly, sailors using their small boats boats for overnight trips (60% of total) were also using their boats more days each year, and first time small boat owners are using and overnighting on their boats at the same rate as their experienced counterparts (if not slightly more)

This is the final article related to the costs of small boats survey that we put out in October. Before we continue, I’d like to restate the caveats that were included in part 1 of this survey:

While a sample size of 126 boats is wonderful, subsetting by price range, year of purchase, build material or propulsion type can make the sample sizes pretty small quite quickly. Additionally, the data from this survey should be viewed as a reflection of the Small Craft Advisor readership, NOT as a representative dataset of all small boat users. I don’t think it’s a stretch to state that SCA readers are more likely to use their boats frequently, tackle more complex maintenance and restoration themselves, and spend more money overall since this is likely to be their primary hobby. As such, this data is representative of a community that is very “tuned in” to small boats (especially sailboats), and would not align with a survey of your average city launch ramp (except perhaps in Port Townsend, Washington). Finally before we get into the fun parts, I’d highly recommend viewing these graphs on a laptop or tablet since they’re going to be painfully small on mobile.

Immediate Restoration Costs

Whenever the purchase of a specific small boat is being considered, an obvious first question is whether or not any immediate restoration will have to take place before joyful sailing can commence. The good news is that a majority (60%) of the dataset were boats that required no additional money to make them ready for launch. Within this “no restoration” group, 27% were new boats and 72% were used, showing that plenty of folks are managing to buy used boats and not spend money on immediate restoration. The graph below is colored by restoration cost divided by purchase price (ex: 10% of vessels in the survey had a restoration costs that was between 1-10% of their purchase price). Notably, half of the vessels that needed restoration required less than 25% of the purchase price to be restored. Thus, these findings suggest that it is entirely reasonable to search for a used small boat that will not require any restoration, but first time small boat buyers would benefit from factoring restoration spending up to 25% (of purchase price) into their budget calculations.