www.iFourWinns.com

i am looking at purchasing my first boat this week. can anyone give me an idea of year maintence? What do I need to do yearly and such to keep my boat in top shape? what kind of money am i looking at spending yearly to keep everything in good shape. I will be trailering my boat so it won't be in the water at some dock. i do alot of my own vehicle stuff like oil changes and etc so are there things that I could do myself to save cash?

Well, as far as predictable yearly expenses you'll need to figure out wether you need to pay to get the boat winterized, shrinked and stored for the winter, already you may have close to 800$ a year right there for a 19.5'. Then you need to add another 500$ or so for insurance. Then depending on many hours you run it you need to budget 2 oil and filter changes for the first year and at least an annual tune-up /oil change and miscelaneaous boat/trailer stuff after that so add another 500$ there.
Then one day your warantee will expire and then depending on how hard you run the boat you'll have stuff breaking on you and then things get very interesting and much less predictable. Lets just say that you need to plan for the worst and hope for the best and that if getting hit with a 2,000$ repair bill could jeopardize your financial independance maybe a boat is not such a great idea after all.

Another major expense not to be forgotten...GAS...if you use it often, it adds up.

That said, it's worth every penny.

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-Rob.


Current boat: 2011 Yamaha AR210
Previous boat: 1998 Horizon RX 4.3GL SX

If you are mechanically inclined there are ways you can save money by doing your own maintenance...but on a smaller boat with an I/O access to the engine can be difficult...you want to see if you can get at the oil filter...spark plugs...distributor cap etc because those items have to be replaced each year. Also doing the oil change on the outdrive is another place you can save some money and it's a pretty easy job. I do all the maintenance on my boat and that includes winterizing it in the fall (takes about 3hrs because I also change the engine oil, filter, drive oil at the same time). Then I remove the sterndrive and check the bellows for water and lube the gimble bearing and ujoints. In the spring I reinstall the sterndrive and do a tune up on the engine. I'd estimate in this area having both those services done costs about 600-800 or so. Here we are in salt water so if you keep the boat in the water you have to add bottom paint (550 or so). You also have to figure storage if you can't keep it at home and any maintenance needed on the trailer (probably not much when it's still new). Insurance is another expense but it's not bad for boats. If you plan on doing your own maintenance as I said take a good look at how much room there is around the engine. One thing I noticed about the newer Four Winns bowriders is that there is a lot of molded in fiberglass around the back of the engine that restricts access to things. My much older 200 Horizon does not have this and it's easy to get at most everything. This lack of access can make changing a starter (which eventually has to be done) a really difficult job. So look that over and if you do plan to do your own work get a factory shop manual for whichever engine you get Merc or Volvo...

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II