Saving Money at the Boat Show

Ya right. The only way to save money at the boat show, is to stay the hell home. I have long been a believer that you cannot save money when you purchase something, unless it was free. If it cost anything to get it, you spent something on it. You may have spent less than you might have otherwise, but it is still money spent, not saved. Sorry, I feel better now.

The prices at the boat show weren't anything to write home about. I didn't really get any deals. However, what I did get was a lot of things that I wanted, all in the same place, at the same time, at the very least, saving me time.

Here is a list of everything, somewhere around the $3k mark. Proving again that "a boat is a hole in the water that you throw money into.

10 – 6 1/2" x 23" Fenders – These are going to be used to put a flotation collar around our Walker Bay rigid dinghy. A lot cheaper than the $1300.00 that the company wants for the blow up collar. We'll see if its just as effective.

3 – Hella Turbo fans – Apparently these are the fans that everyone uses. So, one for each bunk, and one for the galley. On low speed, they are designed to be silent, and I can sleep to that.

2 – 10lb Composite propane tanks. I am not sure where I was going with this. They were $139.00 each. I was going to just use steel tanks from Canadian Tire at $60 a piece, but this just seemed like a better idea. No corrosion, 15 year usage, light weight, and already primed. They are also cheaper than aluminum tanks. These tanks come with the vent screw so they are legal in the US, and can be gravity filled from any other propane tank. I could have bought one 20 lb tank for the same price, but if I ever have to walk a couple of kilometers to get propane, I will curse that tank to hell, pay for a cab, and have the money into it anyway. Plus, these tanks are a nice size to put away on a tiny boat.

Stereo and 4 speakers. Two for the cabin, and two for the cockpit. This was cheap, at least in comparison. And perhaps I'll pay for that later with the quality or longevity. This stereo has no moving parts, no tape, no cd. AM/FM with lots of inputs. Aux, SD card, USB, etc. They call it a mechless stereo, due to the lack of mechanisms. Perfect for us and the new computerized era.

Foot pump for the galley. Fresh water.

Hand pump for the vanity. Fresh water.

12V 15" LED TV. I am still choking on this one. However it is designed for a rougher environment than the house, has inputs up the wazoo, and uses so little power that I doubt we'll ever need to turn it off. Okay, not that little power, but by comparison to a 19" regular 120V LED TV, about 1/10 of the power. I don't know how, but I saw the power usage first hand at the boat show. Also, the TV was the one thing that was going to cause us to have a larger, much more expensive inverter, and now we only need a small inverter to run the netbook computer and charge the cell phone etc...

Glomex 10" TV antenna and mount. It would be cheaper to get satellite. Hope it ends up worth it.

VHF with DSC capability. We bought a hand held last year, but we needed a new 25W base model VHF radio to replace our very old one.

36" VHF antenna. Someone at our yacht club was nice enough to wreck our antenna this fall. I hadn't removed it from the mast, because the mast was only supposed to be there temporarily, but it must have ticked someone off, because they grabbed it an bent it straight down towards the ground. No doubt they thought it rude of me to leave it on the masthead. Is the irony of that lost on anyone else? On examination, the old antenna base was a little rough, so for the sake of $35, what the hell. You can't take it with you, right?

Deck/Steaming light. Ours is trashed, and needed to be replaced.

Mast head Trilight. I didn't care one way or the other about this. If I am not mistaken, I don't think your allowed to use it in Canada. However, outside of here, everyone uses them, I am told. And as a safety thing, Serena said get it.

Magma 10 piece stainless steal, nesting pot set. Its a woman thing. Mind you I like to cook, and I like to eat, so this one didn't take a whole lot of arm twisting. Besides that, if it makes Serena happy, and I am all for that. Thank god she is normally really cheap! Truth be told, I am usually the expensive one.

A couple of water proof storage boxes, for tools, and parts.

A 3" bilge blower. I have one now, but I want one blowing in, and one blowing out. Keeping that diesel cool is very important, and recommend by the surveyor.

My new head. I mentioned it before, its a Lavac. I picked it up at the boat show. It was supposed to be at the store, but alas, when I got to the store on Tuesday morning, it was not there. Missscommunniccationn, can you say it, I know you can. I have unpacked it and it is so simple, it is almost a shame. A toilet, with one connection to bring water in, and one connection to take the nasty stuff away. That's it. Included is a separate Henderson Mark V pump to do the work. It is unfortunate that they are so expensive. But the truth is that it is one of those things that just has to work when you want it too.

There were a few odds and sods as well, but this is the bulk of it. All tallied up now, we have $40k in a boat that is worth about $25k. Someone is going to get really lucky if this whole cruising thing doesn't work out. Just think of the money they'll save buying a boat that is already completely riffited. Or would they just be spending the money.... The gentleman across the dock from me (Jack), has an abosulutely gorgeous 31' Corvette, built by C&C. One of Jacks favorite sayings is that he is the only one in the club that has $100,000.00 into a $25,000.00 boat. But were trying to catch up. So much for simplicity. In our defence though, this will be our home, and by the time we are done, it will be a brand new boat, comparible to a $140k new boat. Your right, it didn't make me feel any better.

Interesting though. We looked at boats at the boat show, around the 30 – 36' range. Some were very nice, and their price tags where not really all that bad for a new boat, ready to sail. But what I started to realize was that ready to sail had nothing to do with ready to live on. By the time you finished upgrading all the systems on these brand new boats in order to make them comfortable to live on, it would cost an additional $30k, and the need to modify them rather extensively. Makes me think that $50k for a small cruisable, liveable boat, is not so bad after all. Hey, its still alot cheaper than a house. Mind you, not many houses cost double of what they are worth.

Talk soon.

Rob:-)