The Bill Nobody Budgets: Your First 90 Days of Ownership
The purchase price is the deposit on the hobby. Here is what lands in the ninety days after.
By Boatmere Brokerage Desk · Updated · 7 min read
Closing costs on a boat are not the closing costs. The real number arrives across the following twelve weeks, in about nine separate invoices, and almost nobody plans for it.
A working rule: set aside 5 to 10 percent of the purchase price for the first ninety days on anything under 40 feet. On older or larger boats, ten is closer to the truth than five.
What does it cost after buying a used boat?
Here is a realistic ninety-day ledger for a 34-foot cruiser bought at $95,000. Numbers are 2026 US, and they will swing by region.
| Item | Typical | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sales or use tax | $0 to $6,650 | Wildly state-dependent; several states cap it |
| Registration and titling | $150 to $600 | More if you are documenting federally |
| Documentation filing | $150 to $500 | If lender requires it |
| Survey recommendations | $1,500 to $6,000 | The list you already paid to receive |
| Haul-out and bottom paint | $2,000 to $4,500 | Two coats, anodes, pressure wash |
| Safety equipment | $400 to $1,500 | Jackets, extinguishers, signals |
| Canvas and covers | $0 to $5,000 | The item people forget entirely |
| First service | $800 to $2,500 | Oils, filters, impellers, belts |
| Insurance first premium | $900 to $3,000 | Annual, usually due at binding |
Add it up and the mid-case lands around $8,000 to $12,000. On a $95,000 boat that is roughly ten percent.
The survey list is the big one
You paid a surveyor to find problems and they found some. That report now has a life of its own, because your insurer has read it too.
Most reports split findings into safety items and recommendations. Carriers routinely make the safety items a condition of binding, with a deadline, and they will ask for photographs or a yard invoice as proof. So the practical question is not whether to do them but how fast.
Common ones, with real numbers: replacing perished fuel hose to current standard, $600 to $2,000. Re-bedding leaking deck hardware, $400 to $1,500. Replacing out-of-date extinguishers and flares, $250 to $600. Rewiring a bilge pump that was joined with twist connectors, $200 to $500 and a genuine fire risk, which is why it appears so often.
What people forget
Canvas. Bimini, enclosure, covers. It is invisible in a listing photograph and it is $3,000 to $5,000 to replace on a mid-size boat. Check the stitching and the zips at the viewing, because sun-perished canvas fails all at once rather than gradually.
The second haul-out. If you surveyed in April and buy in June, you have paid for two lifts, because you will want the bottom done before the season.
Getting it home. A delivery captain runs $400 to $700 a day plus expenses and fuel. Three days from Charleston to Fort Lauderdale is not unusual, and that is before the fuel bill on a boat burning 25 gallons an hour.
The mild opinion
Do the bottom, the anodes, the seacocks and the cutless bearing in one lift, even if only two of them are due.
Yard time is the expensive part, not the parts. Splitting the work across two haul-outs to save $600 of materials this year reliably costs more than doing it once, and you spend a second week without the boat. If you are going to own it for five years, front-load the yard work and then leave it alone.
Frequently asked questions
- What does it cost after buying a used boat?
- Budget 5 to 10 percent of the purchase price for the first ninety days on a boat under 40 feet. That covers registration and tax, safety equipment, the survey recommendations, a haul-out and bottom work, and whatever the yard finds once the boat is out of the water.
- What are survey recommendations and do I have to do them?
- They are the surveyor's list of defects, usually split into safety items and advisory items. You are not legally obliged to fix them, but your insurer often is not obliged to bind coverage until the safety items are done, which makes them effectively mandatory.
- How much is safety equipment for a new boat owner?
- Between $400 and $1,500 depending on length and where you cruise. Life jackets, throwable, fire extinguishers within date, visual distress signals, horn, and a properly registered EPIRB if you are going offshore, which alone is $400 to $900.
- Should I haul the boat immediately after buying it?
- If the survey haul-out was more than a few weeks earlier, or if you are changing home ports, yes. It is the cheapest time to do bottom paint, anodes, cutless bearings and seacocks together, because you are only paying for one lift.
