Diving from your own boat vs. a charter

[txgoose]

This one ain’t cheap. But I’d cross the ocean in it....

Cleaning up nice!

 

[toddster541]

Better than either buying or chartering: Talk a buddy into buying a boat! They'll have to invite you along at least once a month to help pay for the fuel. You get the best of both worlds. I played that one all through the 90's. Went on charter boats about a third of the time and Other People's Boats the other two thirds.

Sorry if repetitive, I read the first and last pages...

Now... I've got my own boat. But between my home marina and decent diving is at least a week of sailing through "The Graveyard of the Pacific." Naturally, I needed another boat for trailering and rapid deployment. And so it goes...

Of course, once you've got a boat, you'll need a compressor, unless you're going back to town every night. And who wants to do that? And so it goes...

 

[EastEndDiver]

Wookie is that a refurbished steel hulled Crew Boat?

 

[toddster541]

A couple of other points:
Trailer boats - in some areas, the lines to launch a boat on Saturday morning take pretty much the whole day. And then there's no place to park the trailer.

Bare-boat charters - some of my friends fell for this gag. "Buy a new boat and the charter company will rent it out on the weekends that you're not using it. Boat will pay for itself!" Turns out that yahoos did so much damage to the boat that it was always in the yard waiting for repairs, not earning any money. They still had to make the payments. Of course, if you are such a yahoo, this may be an attractive possibility. I'm not sure how many boats are set up for diving though.

 

[grantwiscour]

Nice boat and set up MaxBT.

I feel extremely fortunate to own a boat that runs well. We've had it for eight years and do most of the work on it ourselves. We recently hauled it out and had a mechanic go over everything for a 900 hour service on the motors, bottom paint, custom dive ladder and a new hydraulic steering pump. That cost a lot, but with insurance, slip fees, fuel costs and maintenance we average about $200 per trip. We don't save much money versus diving from a commercial boat but we can dive when we want and where we want. Our gear stays on the boat so the only hauling we do is to fill tanks at the shop a block from the marina and our cameras.

Owning a dive boat is much more expensive than a car but the rewards have been worth it. I have seen animals I would have never seen on a beach dive and am able to reach wrecks and reefs that commercial boats wouldn't go to for various reasons. Some of the reefs are too small to support more than a few divers at a time.

The initial cost of a boat varies depending on how comfortable you want to be while out on the water and how long you want it to last. We didn't want a yacht with wine racks and air conditioned salons but we also wanted to be out of the elements. A pilot house is perfect for diving, as is the catamaran hull. We don't get rocked around while gearing up in rough seas. Sitting in the sun and wind takes a lot out of you, as does shivering on a windy boat on cold days. Merry insisted on a marine head rather than a port-o-potty. We also have a small refrigerator, stove/heater, queen size V-berth and hot fresh water shower. Those few luxuries make a day of diving much more enjoyable. I added tank racks, dive ladder, stainless anchor which can be seen quite a distance underwater and over 400 feet of chain so I don't have to re-splice the rode every six months. It also holds the boat closer to the dive sites so we don't have to swim as we drop. Other expenses include GPS/Sonar/RADAR and two VHS radios, one handheld. We also carry flares, life jackets, O2 and a first aid kit.

My last boat cost about 20% of the price of our current boat but repair costs were much higher. Buying as nice a boat as we could afford saved us money in the long run.

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I added chain markers every twenty-five feet so I know how much I have played out.

 

[Wookie]

Wookie is that a refurbished steel hulled Crew Boat?

Funny story. It was the 101st coastal patrol craft built for Iran in 1978, then the Shah was deposed. You can see remnants of the gun tubs which were removed when it was turned into whatever you want to call it. Crewboat is close enough. Then they took it to Palmer Johnson and finished it out. It’s stupid inside with mahogany and teak. They removed the 955 Cummins and stuck high horsepower MANs in. The first 100 were delivered, BTW. Aluminum.

 

[EastEndDiver]

You can't beat MANs Most of the bigger boats up here have MANs only complaint is the cost of maintenance BUT everything up here is expensive Diesel Mechanics get from $125. to $175. an hour....why go to school to be a doctor.

 

[Wookie]

We don’t run them over about 1800 rpm. Usually 1200. Should last the rest of my life.

 

[Jeff Dykes]

Owning a boat that lives in a rental spot at a marina and needs dry docked, etc etc, vs a boat that you park in your yard 400 yards from the boat ramp....
I do most work, like lower unit oil change, installing fishfinder, lubricating, etc.
I don’t spend much other than fuel and maybe $2000 on maintenance per year.

Well, if I got a boat, it's definitely going to stay in my driveway. I don't want to pay marina fees if I don' have to.

Also, I know you can always specialize with anything, boats included. But what if you want to do more than just dive with a boat? What if you want to ski, also? Do you get a dive boat you can ski from, or a ski boat you can dive from? Considering that my kids are still years away from being old enough to dive with me, I'd rather get a boat made for skiing and get a ladder that can be attached to the side for climbing in/out for diving - if people do that kind of thing.

 

[Hank49]

Tried to post a pic of our boat ramp. It’s only crowded on Sunday. Sometimes there might be as many as three other boats. ).