How Much Boat? – Marina Fees vs Length

 

Part 1 (of 4) of  How Much Boat? Boat Fees vs Length

 

Captains’ Log

Stardate: 201195

Far worse than I feared. My First Mate, Can Opener, persists in obdurate lunatic ravings against the draft of my three-storey starcruiser yacht design.

How long can this continue? I may soon be forced to admit that for him there is no hope and no antidote… has he really gone off the planetary deep end this time?

Cost effective? One-storey? Monohull? What mad science is this?

Here below, a sad excerpt from the Can Opener’s notes and calculations found only last night while I was searching for an informative book to snooze upon:

‘What is a cost effective length of boat?

Is there a ‘most cost effective length of boat’ when considering ongoing ‘running costs’, for example, marina costs? Obviously costs increase in general as boats get longer.

But I wonder –

is this a straight-line increase?

Or are there a step change increases around boat ‘length categories’ that mean a slightly longer boat at a marina could have the same approximate cost as a shorter boat?

If so, where (in what regions) is this true?

How was the sample done?

This is not intended to be a definitive last word analysis of worldwide marina fees. It was done relatively quickly with enough data to look for tendencies only.

I collected daily and annual marina base rates from a sample of 26 marinas across 5 popular cruising regions: England, the Mediterranean, the Bahamas, the US and Fiji. (I aimed for the cheaper Med countries: Portugal, Croatia, Greece. Also included Malta.)

Costs were estimated for boats of every length from approx. 8.5m to 14.5m (from 28 ft to 50 ft). Sales taxes were included in prices; electric, water charges etc were not.

Annual marina rates were also recorded – since the corollary to the above question is: what region would be most cost effective to do a year’s refitting in? Marina rates will be an important part of this answer as well.

This sampling covers relatively few marinas and regions and is only intended to identify a significant trend in pricing ‘step changes’, if any.

I only sampled marinas that have websites and that also post their rates online (not a given). Some good bargains at smaller marinas without websites were probably missed.  


I completely skipped the superyacht websites too. Of course.

Results

Only the Mediterranean marinas seemed to often price by length categories. These categories were usually: <10m (<33ft), 10-12m (33-39ft), 12-14m (40-45ft), 14-16m (46-52ft)… So a boat that is just under 12m (39 ft) would be charged the same as a boat just over 10m long (33 ft).

Some marinas in England and US have price/length categories, but most just offer a flat per metre (per foot) rate. In England if there were length categories, they tended to be ‘under 10m (30 ft)’ and ‘over 15m (50 ft)’ – but this was not consistently seen.

In the US if there were length categories, they tended to be ‘under 35 feet (10.5m)’ and ‘over 50 feet (15m)’ – this didn’t have too much impact on the daily rates, but showed up more in the annual marina fees (of this decidedly small sampling).

The Bahamas and Fiji seemed to consistently price a flat per length increment rate.

Is there a magical length of boat to optimise costs?

Maybe. I guess if we planned to just cruise in the Med, it might make sense to pick a boat just under 10m (eg. 32ft), just under 12m (eg. 39ft) or just under 14m (eg. 45ft) versus something slightly longer.

If we planned to primarily cruising along the US coasts, a 34ft (or 10m) or 49ft (or 15m) yacht might enjoy some relative gains that are greater than the joy of having one extra foot of length.

But we are heading for ‘destination anywhere and everywhere’.

Although the relative cost per metre/foot goes down as the boat gets longer, the total cost to stay at a marina dock per night keeps going up and up…  QED.

Note to self – further research?

Are there online databases or guidebooks with more comprehensive marina rate listings all in one place?

It was surprisingly difficult to find this information online… ‘

What further evidence of the Can Opener’s ongoing ravings will I find? Such is my concern for my dear First Mate that I have booked a vet appointment for him tomorrow.

He thinks he is taking me for a check up (heh heh), but once there I will perform a hasty switcheroo and have him spread-eagled on the stainless steel table for a quick once over before he knows what’s up.

Will a few good swigs of the vet’s fail-safe cod liver oil wonder drink end this madness? Only time will tell…

–Captain Cat

(relayed per Skype and transcribed by the best Vet in the galaxy)


Next up: How Much Boat? – Daily Marina Fees vs Length, Part 2 (of 4)