Ben, I spend almost all my "free time" tinkering on the boat . . . but for me, the circumscribed, finite world contained within these 36 feet is liberating. I find the business of living in the land-based world so amorphous and treacly and never-ending. My boat only has so many systems. I know them all and maintain them all, and I am in charge of my own world and destiny, and thus, free.

Also, I remember that I used to have a brand-new boat, a Seasport 2700 Pilothouse built rugged tough in the Puget Sound, and it was at least as much work maintaining and improving that boat as my 1984 C36. No difference.

I do think that working on your boat is a very integral part of boating, and if you don't enjoy it, that would create problems. I was chatting with one of the veteran yacht maintenance guys here last week, and lamenting all the beautiful boats that sit unused (which he maintains for their owners), and he pointed out that most of those people don't really _like_ boats. They have them for the status symbol, but they are not comfortable on them, a little scared at sea, a little seasick, their women find them dirty and cramped (~!) etc etc. Everyone I've ever known who loved their boat and boating also spent lots of time working on the boat.

That said, there are also people who just polish their boat at the dock and don't actually go anywhere with it. There's a Pacific Seacraft 27 near me that is so Bristol it's like a caricature. But I never see them actually go anywhere. You have to find a balance. But one thing I love about my new C36 is that it's big enough to hold all my tools comfortably so I can take them with and be fixing it up when I am at the islands :)

- nick

Ben,
That happens to be a really tough question for me, for I am one who enjoys "tinkering" on boats almost as much as I like sailing them. Some chores are painful drudgery, such as washing and waxing the hull, but fixing (little) things that break and thinking of new improvements are actually fun. Other than the few weekends in the spring spent doing the drudgery, I'd guess that I spend about an hour a day, while I'm on the boat, doing some type of maintenance. And I would also guess there is not THAT much difference between fresh and salt.

I retired 21 years ago at age 54 because my job was interfering with my sailing. Now everyday is Saturday. I moved from Connecticut to Florida so I can sail all year long and get things done on the boat which is at my dock behind my house. Life is good.

My Dad retired at 54 as an exec at IBM UK. But then, his last assignment was to create the early retirement program for the company!

[SIZE="6"]As much time as possible. It is the only part of my life where I look for something more to do and am happy when I find it. :)[/SIZE]

We do everything we can on the boat. The first year we had a sailboat I contracted out a lot of work. Almost all of it was badly done, some dangerously so, and almost all of it I had to do over. I decided that it was unlikely that a mechanic in a marina is going to have a better knowledge of a particular boat than a well informed owner, so I tried to become that. This forum has gone a long way towards that goal.

Aside from that, I'm a DIY guy with just about everything I do no matter if it's the boat, the cars, the house, our land, I do it. I enjoy doing upgrades, I find it extremely satisfying to plan something out, research all the options and then do it. So far that's paid off, I can't imagine how much money we would have parted with to hire someone to do all the things we did to this boat. My wife being able to sew a new top for the boat saved us at least $6K alone.

I truly was a slave to the boat the last two years, but this year I have little to do, put the new upgraded chainplate covers on, change the transmission shift lever seal, wash and wax. Being in fresh water I'm sure helps a lot.

But I have found that, around here at least, if you want something done right, you're best to do it yourself.

Gosh, where do I start? It's kinda funny, I do not consider most jobs aboard to be work; actually they are therapeutic for me. For those of you who own or have owned a home think about how many jobs that we have had to do over the years. Even simple maintenance like changing a finger zinc on the heat exchanger, though it isn't exactly easy to get to, is a task that I don’t mind. Which reminds me, when I was shopping at West last week I ran into a friend of mine. He asked me what I looking for; I told him that I was in the process of changing the zinc on my heat exchanger. Much to my surprise, he told me that he has never changed his zinc on his engine. I thought to myself, he will probably pay for that somewhere along the line.

I am, like many of you, a DIY type of guy. Whenever I have had to hire someone to work on my boat I not only watch what they do, but I take notes on what they do and in what order that they were accomplished. I hired a local diesel mechanic, who BTW is 80 years old, and he shared with me how to do most of the common maintenance. What a wealth of knowledge he was (is). I have also hired an electronic technician who has answered a lot of my questions. Time spent with just those two individuals has proven to be invaluable.

The "grunt" maintenance on the boat (washing, waxing, varnishing) is all contracted out as is the maintenance of the engine. My boat maintenance guy and engine mechanic have been with me for the past 12 years and worked on the boat for the PO before that. I do all the plumbing, electrical, replacements of items and upgrades. I organize everything into separate projects and attack them as I have time. Example, this winter I need to replace the water heater, lifelines and macerator pump. I would love to take over the varnishing, I've always enjoyed doing that. In a few years I'll be retired and then I'll have the time to do more. Until then, my time is worth much more than the boat washer/waxer's time.

Mike

I definitely want to weigh in here at some point, but I was pretty busy since this post was made with boat upgrades and holiday parties (in a ratio of about 4:1), and now I am at work so I will have to attempt a reply when I get a chance.

This is a great thread topic, IMHO!

ANY day fixing things on my boat beats a day at the office!

I love to work with my hands and fix things, so I do not mind working on the boat.

Washing and waxing always seems a bit of a chore, but see sentence one above!

At one point, I looked forward to retiring to have more time to sail and tinker, but in this economy I may have to work till I hit 80! :(

From memory, I estimate that I expend time as follows below. Adjusting for the time per task times the number of repetitions per year (bottom painting only every other year, for example) yields:

Hauling/bottom sand, prep, paint, hull wax – 20 hrs/1x/2 yrs = 10 hrs/yr
Hull clean/wax – 6 hrs/1x/1 yrs = 6 hrs/yr
Deck clean/wax – 4 hrs/3x/1 yrs = 12 hrs/yr
Boat wash – 2 hrs/12x/1 yrs = 24 hrs/yr
Stainless polish – 4 hrs/3x/1 yrs = 12 hrs/yr
Scrub (diving) running gear/bottom/prop zinc – 1 hrs/8x/1 yrs = 8 hrs/yr
Engine service, oil, filter, coolant, etc. – 2 hrs/2x/1 yrs = 4 hrs/yr
Misc electrical repairs – 10 hrs/yr
Rebed chainplates – 6 hrs/1x/3 yrs = 2 hrs/yr
Check sails, running and standing rigging – 2 hrs/2x/1 yrs = 4 hrs/yr
Check, re-splice anchor rode – 2 hrs/1x/1 yrs = 2 hrs/yr

Above totals to 94 hrs/yr. For upgrades, I am guessing perhaps 30-40 hrs per year. My total might be close to 130 hours per year on average, which is three weeks of solid work with a little overtime.

Now, I have said before I do not particularly enjoy having to work on my boat. If I never had to wax, clean, or polish again in my life I would be a happier man. I do enjoy upgrades and the satisfaction of effecting my own repairs. It is my belief that you are much more self-reliant when you are used to working on your boat. For much of the cruising we have done and plan to continue, that is a great skill to have.

It never ceases to amaze me how dirty our boat gets, and the barnacles that grow on our unprotected prop and rudder need frequent attention. I like diving, but scrubbing and scraping is not a fun dive, to be sure. One area where I admit a severe deficiency is varnishing and all the prep work that goes with it. Much of the interior of our boat nearest the companionway has seen way too much sun and water over the past 7 years and the varnish is pretty bad, I am sorry to say.

Bottom line, I just like to do things myself. Paying BIG bucks to have things done by someone who is likely no more capable than me just goes against my grain.

[QUOTE=deising;11176]
Bottom line, I just like to do things myself. Paying BIG bucks to have things done by someone who is likely no more capable than me just goes against my grain.[/QUOTE]

I agree. I believe it is actually a safety issue. In 2004, while on a cruise, our engine wouldn't start. Nothin', nada, no sound, no nothing.

I got out our electrical kit, removed the 20 year old fuseholder that was underneath the starter and alternator, installed a new one and were off in less than 30 minutes.

If you don't know how stuff works, and depend on your "mechanic," he simply will not be there when it hits the fan.

Besides, you learn something new, feel safer, and can come here and help other skippers.

As far as the original question is concerned, my friend Dave once told me: "The reason we use the boat so much is to figure out what we have to fix next!" :)

I've found, like with most mechanical things, especially outboard motors, the more use they get, the much better they work. And if you're using the boat, maintenance isn't a dirty word, it's just part of the overall experience.

And, with the last post that totaled up time spent, it would be interesting to compare that to hours being sailed, including being on the boat when anchored out, unless it was there and I missed it.

[QUOTE=stu jackson c34;11181]And, with the last post that totaled up time spent, it would be interesting to compare that to hours being sailed, including being on the boat when anchored out, unless it was there and I missed it.[/QUOTE]

Stu's comment about boats being better when you use them is absolutely true, IMHO!

As for the usage part of the equation, here is my estimate:

Day/evening sails 24 x 2 hrs = 48 hrs/yr
3-day cruises 3 x 60 hrs = 180 hrs/yr
5-days cruises 2 x 100 hrs = 200 hrs/yr
Sabbatical cruises 1 every 3 years x 100 days x 24 hrs = 800 hrs/yr

Total = 1,228 hrs on average per year using the boat. With my previous post, that means approximately 10 hours usage for every maintenance/upgrade hour. That doesn’t seem so bad.

How much time to I spend on maintenance, the short answer.

Too much but, never enough.

There is an old saying from wind and the willows

There is nothing absolutely nothing half as much worth doing as simply messing about in boats! That being said working on them or sailing them is one in the same. You gotta love it or leave it.

How much time? All of it.

Somebody else changes the oil, does the bottom paint, waxes the topsides, repairs the canvas, and lots of other things. It's very expensive.

I'll do most everything after I retire, but right now there are several factors that dominate the situation and keep the work at the marina:
[LIST=1]
[*]I live 2 hours from the dock. It's a long drive.
[*]I really like my day job. It's a lot of fun. My day job is far more fun than working on the boat, but sailing is more fun than my day job.
[*]I get paid for my day job more per hour than the marina gets paid for working on the boat.
[*]While time spend sailing does not subtract from our alloted time on earth, time spent doing boat work DOES subtract from our alloted sailing time
[/LIST]

Given the natural laws of economics and capitalism, everyone is better off if I let the marina take care of the boat while I take care of my company. At least for now.

Ha! I love your answer.

Like I said before, I am retired so every day is Saturday for me. My sailboat is 32 feet from my back door so I can work on it almost anytime I whish. However, many days when I go outside to do some small job on the boat I say "I'll get to it tomorrow and go sailing now for a few hours instead."

It seems tomorrow never comes and the small jobs pile up until all the little jobs become an all day event.

Ben you have an 84'. I have an 87'. I think you have to consider the condition of your boat and if you need a major refit or not.

I have spent hundreds of hours this year on a major refit. It all started after I retired and bought a moisture meter as a birthday present. Ha!

I decided as long as I was replacing a side deck core and a bulkhead I would go ahead and replace all of the lines, the lifelines, the sails and check all of the rigging for integrity. Redid the chainplate holes with epoxy casing and new covers, also doing the cosmetic repairs of small cracks and chips as long as I am getting in the gelcoat mode. I am also considering spraying a topcoat of new gelcoat on my non-skid (if my experiments work out). I replaced the cabin sole, refinished the interior varnish, new sink drains, replaced the charger, both battery banks, redid the wiring and am building new light fixtures. Repacked the stuffing box (worst job IMHO).
Stuff I still need to do but haven't committed to: new cushion covers, rebuilding the fiberglass exhaust lift box, replacing the air conditioner.

I actually like to sail but sometimes you just have to bite the bullet.