New Horizons

Our Born Again Boater tells us all about his new toy

- Nick Burnham

Do we need to justify our spending? Must we account for every chunk of money? Sadly, for those of us of limited means, the answer has to be yes. It’s a responsible attitude to finances that helps put us in a position to buy boats in the first place after all. But of course, there’s always room for a little man-maths in the spreadsheet.

For me, several reasons came into play to justify this move to a (much) larger and more expensive boat. On a practical level, after three very successful years with my Skibsplast 660D, a 21-year-old 21ft cuddy cabin boat fitted with a single TAMD 22P 106hp diesel engine, we were just starting to butt up against its limitations a little too often. Something bigger, faster and newer would broaden our horizons, metaphorically and literally, giving us the ability to cruise further faster, and stay on board when we got there.

On a financial level, due to the coarse jumps between berth sizes in my marina, I’m already paying for an 8m berth. A larger single diesel shouldn’t cost much more to service, and it’ll require a bit more antifoul. We’re not talking quantum leaps in costs here. I figured that an 8m diesel cruiser would only cost 10-15% more to run yet offer 100% more ability. There may be some man-maths at play here… The final push was the drop in the interest base rate to 0.25%, swiftly followed by a drop in savings rates. Suddenly I was getting 0.35% interest on my ISA. £40,000 (my potential new boat fund) was earning me a frankly insulting £140 a year. What’s the point?