Maintenance cost vs length

An Aluminum yacht such as a Burger or Broward will have considerably higher maintanence costs versus a fiberglass Hatteras that's 15' shorter, if you want to properly maintain the yacht. 16v92's also have considerably higher repair costs such as injectors, major overhauls, turbo's etc. (not necessarily higher maintanence costs) over a 12v71. Also 8 out of 10 of the older Browards in that size range that I've come across have $100,000's of neglected repairs that need to be done in order to have the vessel seaworthy. It seems a much higher percentage have been neglected versus the slightly smaller Hatteras' in the size range you're looking at. The Burger's OTO seem to have a higher percentage that are still well taken care of.

12v71's usually go 5000-6000 hours between overhauls. 12v92's I've seen a lot of them needing overhaul at 1000 hours in a sportfish and have seen them go as long as 5000 hours (which I consider a miracle considering it was an overpropped 63' Ocean SF that towed a 35' Marlago behind it routinely), but would say 2-2500 hours in a motoryacht.

The CAT 3412 is a great motor and will go usually a minimum of 5,000 hours and as much as 10,000 hours between overhauls. I would also say it's better technology (no oil leaks, 4 stroke) and monitoring systems (unless you're comparing to a DDEC) than the Detroits.

Generators Westerbekes/older Onans will usually go 2500 hours before rebuilding the electrical end sometimes as much as 5,000 hours, the engines 5,000 hours sometimes 10,000. A northern lights more like 20,000 hours before rebuilding.

Watermaker: that's a tough one, depending on maintanence. Membranes usually go 2500 hours if taken care of. However, if they dry out, aren't pickled, or aren't flushed and dry out they could be shot at 100 hours. The high pressure pumps usually last a good while, the low pressure pumps depending on make go a few years or so but they're relatively cheap oberdorfer types.

Mainly with Aluminum it's staying on top of blistering, but many would repaint every 5 years, otherwise you end up with a bunch of obvious patches that don't match. You also have to keep up with electrolysis on the hull, and get into replacing plates as necessary. You also have to be extremely careful not to drop any tools into the hull or pennies or other types of metal.

Besides the type of equipment to be serviced, it is very wise to consider how the equipment is installed and laid out. If there is very tight working room and hard access to equipment, it will take longer to preform the maintenance and repairs. Larger ER's with good access can allow jobs to get done much faster which saves money$ when the work is being billed by time like most yards and contractors do.

Don't forget interior and exterior looks. The amount of varnish, new canvas and "soft" windows, wax, paint, wash time, carpets, cleaning etc all increase greatly as size and volume increase. My normal cosmetic costs approach normal systems costs on a yearly basis.

One thing to keep in mind is that maintaining an aluminum yacht is going to be more costly than maintaining a fiberglass yacht, all other things being equal.

I've always found that many times, you get exactly what you pay for when it comes to repairing things, having canvas and cushions done. I've found the people that give the cheapest estimate *usually* use sub standard materials and workmanship.

The biggest variable by a factor of several times for boats this size and vintage is what the prior owners did or did not do to them. To me it introduces such a wide range of results as to make generalizations almost meaningless. A beautifully maintained and properly upgraded aluminum boat with Detroits will be much less needy than a glass boat with Cats that has been ignored and/or abused (abused such as "upgrades" of horrible quality). I suppose if you are merely looking for a floating condo to live on at the dock, the equation tightens a bit, but I think we are all responding based on the assumption you want to go to sea in the thing.

Hi,

This might be the boat.

Your Boat Photos - Olympus at Watchet