re: Owning a boat vs charter

quote:

---

In the Pacific NW they would look at you as if you had shite in the punch bowl if you didn't do this...it is a requirement and green jeans monitors ramps and will write citations if you do not do it. They also inspect your boat when you cross a state line and will pressure wash your boat....they are NUTS up here....I have a 13 foot Gheenoe and a Beavertail Final Attack duck boat that I hunt out of an the states of Oregon, Idaho and Washington have pressure washed them both several times while they were in the bed of my truck LOL...and there is NO "bilge" in either boat....they are concerned with invasive species. It is a site to see a state employee standing in your truck pressure washing a 8 foot long plastic lay out blind that floats....they are, as I said, nuts up here.

---

I've never once seen this.

It's never mentioned on any fishing pages.

I cross into Idaho and launch. Of course I'm off the interstate before the inspection station but I go back and forth from OR and WA. Most of my fishing is done in WA and I pay a simple fee....my boat is registered in Oregon.

Still though, in Oregon and Washington it's just an invasive species tax they charge on boats. It isn't like Tahoe where you have to get pressure washed/inspected before/after launching.

Eta....I fish the biggest fisheries too.

A boat is never a good financial decision. But neither is a hunting lease, season tickets, a motor bike, or any others from a list of expensive hobbies. The value isn’t financial, it’s personal enjoyment and memories.


That being said, if you shop and buy the right boat and keep it up, you can continuously upgrade with a little extra each time.

ETA: if you do buy right and you hate it/never use it, you’ll only be out a little money when you sell it. Which is actually better than a lease or tickets.

quote:

---

Also factor you’ll get (at least some) money back when (If) you sell the boat

---

also factor in that guides usually stay "on the fish" better than the average weekend angler

quote:

---

this might be comparing apples to potato salad.. but i lived on sailboats off and on over the years.. a rough rule of them is ~10% of the value each year on "boat" expenses...that includes random projects ..that does does not include labor (assumption is you do the work yourself) at anchor/harbor i'd spend every day before 12...working on the boat. i'm guessing i've spend a good half of my lifetime disposable funds on buying boats and upgrading boats and keep boats in great shape....well, sailboats and the chicas you meet along the way(different story) ...the other half of those monies i wasted.

---

Sailboats are another can of worms altogether. I once thought I wanted to buy a sail boat and sail around the world as a way of life...and I had the means to do so at a VERY low standard of living LOL....but I came to my senses. Sailing is fantastic when the weather is right, it is even great when the weather is a little snotty...having been in the gulf stream more times than I like to remember, alone, in a well maintained power boat, when the weather was what some would call terrifying but sailors would call satisfying, I realized that living 365 days a year in what is comparable to a VERY small RV intent on ending its own as well as my existence was not my cup of tea. I did live on a houseboat for 3 years in college...nothing like a boat to get women interested in even a mildly handsome, slightly pudgy dude like me! I live vicariously now through a good friend who has logged more than 35K miles on his sail boat alone....who is currently in Suriname. I send him stuff that he can't get abroad and he sends me tales of adventure and debaucheries unimagined....it is amazing, if he is telling 1/3 the truth, what a 16 inch Snook and a 6 pack of beer will buy in some parts of the Caribbean and Central America! Alas I like air-conditioning and creature comforts like a bed that allows me to stretch out at least 75% of my body length to dream of actually living on a sailboat any longer....

quote:

---

also factor in that guides usually stay "on the fish" better than the average weekend angler

---

There is NO doubt this is true if the weekend angler has little or no local knowledge....but I have been on many charters where the only thing I didn't have more of was local knowledge. If I am fishing an area I am familiar with I don't know that I have ever been with a guide or on a charter where the guide was better at catching fish than me....I have learned things from guides but I have also taught guides, captains and mates things they didn't know or didn't know well.

I do a good bit of Panga chartering in Mexico and other parts of the Caribbean and Pacific coasts and if you don't know how to catch fish doing this no one does because the man who owns the Panga is all about catching fish to sell. If you want to use their boat and motor to catch billfish it is all on you for the most part because they don't give a tinkers damn for catching anything that can't be sold when they get back to the hill and they for sure ain't going to spend several hours a day waiting on a couple of fish to be raised. Most of them think sportfishing consists of dragging a dead bait behind the boat with little or nor regard as to what type of bait or how it is rigged....but with some friendly suggestion most will become convinced that making bait and fishing it live may be a good alternative and if a dead bait appears to be swimming instead of spinning through the water a fish is much more likely to eat it....they have the local knowledge but they don't have the desire to catch the fish that most people consider sport fish...dolphin, roosters, billfish, kings, Tuna etc.....their idea of permit fishing is catching them by the hundreds off reefs by chumming!!! They can't imagine using a fly rod but if the crazy bastard with the money wants to pay them to be on the boat and slinging a wad of hair on a hook who are they to judge???

Yeah ok, not hard to do. I’m close to twice that on a bad month but do work shift work.

Finchboy gets it. I enjoy maintaining and fixing my boat to the extent that I can. I enjoy being on the water. I enjoy navigating, but I must admit that I have a GPS and have stopped using maps and a compass. I have a 19ft. Nautic Star with a Yamaha 115. I have never had to fix anything on the boat itself in ten years. I did pay to have new springs put on the trailer. I had a power pack issue with the engine and I have paid to have the impeller changed. I really have not spent that much money on the boat. In fact, I am looking at buying a new one in the future.