All money aside, I would also ask the non-diving part of the family about how they intend to spend your time underwater. I suspect that your diving might decrease over time if they aren’t real keen with being anchored in one place for a while. You may have folks good with that, but I’d talk about it ahead of time.
Diving from your own boat vs. a charter
- Thread starter Jeff Dykes
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
A family recreational boat and a dive boat are polar opposites. You will destroy a recreational boat diving from it....
CuzzA
Wetwork for Hire
Big heavy metal tanks have a tendency to beat up gel coat... it's why mine current dive boat build has a commercial feel to it.
My 3 children have grown up spending the summers on our boat. It’s not a dive boat, but a wakeboard boat where we wakeboard, ski, wake-surf, tube, ride and float around. It keeps the family together instead of everybody sitting around the house staring at their phones. When they were old enough, they each learned to drive the boat and could go out with their friends. We’re fortunate to have a large lake where we live. The only diving we’ve done is when my wife dropped her prescription sunglasses one day while we were floating around. My son and I recovered them the next day.
I say go for it and make it work. It’s hard to put a price on all that family time.
I say go for it and make it work. It’s hard to put a price on all that family time.
I dove off my own boat for years. Gas, time, wear & tear, etc. make me never do it anymore. Well worth charter fees....
My boats have always been multi purpose...dive, fish, cruise etc.
If you only need a boat for diving...pay the dang charter fees
If you only need a boat for diving...pay the dang charter fees
2airishuman
Contributor
Welcome.
I bought a sailboat last spring and hope to use it as a dive platform occasionally. It is at present on a stretch of the Mississippi that has poor dive possibilities due to 1-2 foot viz. It is trailerable so we will move it next year.
A fact to consider is that you will want a fully qualified person aboard while diving if offshore.
My kids dive and are learning how to operate the boat.
It is my observation that you really want to be pretty good at both diving and boating when you start combining the two activities.
Ana
.
There's not one answer to this question. It depends on so many things, there's probably a couple dozen answers.
Wookie gave you one very true side of what is having a boat for diving, but there's many other sides.
My side is very different, purchased a boat for my husband on our anniversary over a decade ago. The boat of his dreams for over 20 years. Got it brand new and within a month between both of us set things up to be a dive boat, we do some cruising, picnics and other non-diving activities but is all secondary to diving.
Besides one battery change (one set) and services every so many hours which my husband does every other one, there's been zero issues. The boat is about to be 12 years old and I can't imagine my life without it.
We use it a minimum of once a week and no less than 2 o3 times a month we go at night. The more you use it the faster you catch issues before they become problems.
Last year we did a once over where found screws starting to rust and window hinges looking crappy, speaker covers also half rusted and just too many little places making it look less than great. Took us a good week or two of mayor scrubbing, soaking, replacing and polishing. Of course that included a few trips to Sailorman and WestMarine but there were no mayor purchases, granted a 2" stainless steel screw is about $3.50 or so, but it was no where close to thousands, was mainly time and effort but also satisfaction. Husband and I enjoyed the fact that it was getting done our way.
Now because of our location we can make 7 to 8 dive trips every 100 gallons of fuel, usually get an average of 5 to 6 because we go to different places some farther than others, but if money was to get tight we'd go to the closest locations and keep diving.
We don't deal with marinas or boat ramps, have the boat secured in our backyard on a lift.
Being in south Florida we get nailed with insurance, about 800 a year but is by choice, the vessel is paid and could reduce the policy to just liability for a small fraction of that.
12 years ago we paid a bunch of money and for the last 8 years the out of pocket hasn't been that much.
There are many ways to own a boat, not all will will make you wish for the day you put it up for sale.
Wookie gave you one very true side of what is having a boat for diving, but there's many other sides.
My side is very different, purchased a boat for my husband on our anniversary over a decade ago. The boat of his dreams for over 20 years. Got it brand new and within a month between both of us set things up to be a dive boat, we do some cruising, picnics and other non-diving activities but is all secondary to diving.
Besides one battery change (one set) and services every so many hours which my husband does every other one, there's been zero issues. The boat is about to be 12 years old and I can't imagine my life without it.
We use it a minimum of once a week and no less than 2 o3 times a month we go at night. The more you use it the faster you catch issues before they become problems.
Last year we did a once over where found screws starting to rust and window hinges looking crappy, speaker covers also half rusted and just too many little places making it look less than great. Took us a good week or two of mayor scrubbing, soaking, replacing and polishing. Of course that included a few trips to Sailorman and WestMarine but there were no mayor purchases, granted a 2" stainless steel screw is about $3.50 or so, but it was no where close to thousands, was mainly time and effort but also satisfaction. Husband and I enjoyed the fact that it was getting done our way.
Now because of our location we can make 7 to 8 dive trips every 100 gallons of fuel, usually get an average of 5 to 6 because we go to different places some farther than others, but if money was to get tight we'd go to the closest locations and keep diving.
We don't deal with marinas or boat ramps, have the boat secured in our backyard on a lift.
Being in south Florida we get nailed with insurance, about 800 a year but is by choice, the vessel is paid and could reduce the policy to just liability for a small fraction of that.
12 years ago we paid a bunch of money and for the last 8 years the out of pocket hasn't been that much.
There are many ways to own a boat, not all will will make you wish for the day you put it up for sale.
@MaxBottomtime, nailed it. What you get out of owning your own boat is getting to dive where you want, when you want. My old buddy had a boat and we'd split gas for up to four of us. He certainly wasn't even close to breaking even compared to jumping on a dive charter, but what we gained was our own schedule.
caruso
Banned
Similar threads
