I have had my new boat for over a year, and checked the hour meter for the main motor. For the first year I put 46 hours on the main. My T8 has at least 5 times that, as most of my fishing is done on the kicker. Was wondering what you guys feel is a legit hour/per year use of a boat. I'm sure others have put a lot more hours/per year. I constantly see used boats for sale with lest than 50 hours on them.

I have thought about it, and on the average day of river fishing around here, you only run the big motor maybe 1-2 hr tops. When we salmon fish I would say the big motor runs for maybe 20 minutes the entire day.

If you are a weekend warrior 46 hours on the main would equate to 30-40 days on the water the way we fish. Pretty legit considering there are 52 weeks in a year, but there aren't 52 weeks of fishing per year.

I read once that 50 hours per year was average in Wash. A lot more in places like Fl,Ca, warm weather states.

I mainly fish Southworth (20 minutes if that round trip) and Sekiu (5-10 minutes) I fished a ton last year atleast twice a week June through September only aquired 21 hours on main...I'm sure my kicker has over 100...

The point is, depends on where you live and what you use the boat for...50 sounds like a good average if you take in consideration of yachts, cruisers etc...

My Seahawk is an '06. I've got about 98 hours on the 150 and about 125 on the T8. Until recently,I didn't troll at all. Drift mooching was how we fished. I could fish all weekend and only put an hour or two on the engines.

Now that we troll some,the kicker gets 3-4 hours per trip.

I can launch at Everett and run to Possesion,PnP,or Jeffhead and back and only put an hour on the 150.

Total time the boat has been in the water fishing is probably in the thousands.

i'd guess the average on some of the boats over this way would be around 300-500 hours

My 2004 Sea Ranger has just shy of 400 hours. Sitting here at work it seems like I don't spend nearly enough time on the water, but I do feel that I use it enough to justify the investment.

rip lips,
MB

I don't have an hour meter on my '72 Evenrude, so I've wondered how much I use it. I've sorta' guessed that I average 1 to 1.5 hours per trip. For salmon fishing I can see how the kicker hours would add up a lot faster. As for what is a good yearly use, I figure I use my boat enough when the ammortized annual use exceeds the cost of renting or goiing with a guide or charter to fish. Since boat rentals are expensive, I'm still money ahead if I only use mine a half dozen times a year. But then my boat wasn't expensive.

Sg

Tyee,

You use your boat enough to justify having it.Anything less then 20-25 hours a year and you may want to think about going more or selling it.These numbers are for weekend warriors.Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

How many nautical miles so far this year?????.I'm up to around 500 and that's for the salt only.

It depends on several factors, how do you fish, where do you fish, do you use a kicker moter when trolling and the list could go on. My insurance agent showed me some stats from Wash. that said the average number of hrs. a boat is used per year was around 130. I've had my boat since July of 03 and I have about 825 hrs. That averages out to 137 hrs per year for me, pretty close to what the insurance agent told me.

Im a weekend warrior, (no not a reservist) and I put 20-30 hours on main, and at least the same on the kicker.

I believe that my Yamaha manual's service recommendations equate 500 hours to a year's use in the same way that cars average 12,000-15,000 miles per year.

I've put 700 hours on my main (only) in the last 4 or 5 years, all in the salt, although there are plenty of times where it is just idling. I was trying to calculate all the time I'm out there without it running and figured I must be living alright.

I know of at least 4-spots down here where I don't even have to start the main to start fishing... simply fire off the kicker.

If I wanted to fish Manchester it would be a whole lot easy for me to drive 15-miles than to run the boat that far.

In Gig Harbor I could pretty much be at any ramp in the South Sound within 20-minutes and fish anywhere within a few miles of the ramp in minutes.

When I bought my boat last year, she had a total of 213-hours on the main. It now has 228-hours after some 70-trips. The kicker... now that's another story. She's pushing 330-hours this year.

I've spent more time flushing it out than running salt through it!

Running mainly in rivers my '05 yami 115 pump has 230 hrs. Kicker must have atleast 4x that much at around 1000 hrs. Mainly backtrolling and free drifting. Funny part is the dealer say my F8 STILL isn't broke in. Its smokes all year round and always has even when brand new.

I'd bet I'm pushing 1300-1500hours on my big motor, it's a 2002.... She's holding up well but one of these days, she'll go KABOOM!

Keith

My 2005 sportjet had about 250 hrs on it when It went KABOOM in May. new motor is sitting at shop with boat just itching to get installed. It's killing me. Been 6 weeks now just waiting inline to be fixed. I've had to pay guides to take me out to get my fix.


Kris

The Fishtale 2 runs twin diesels with trolling valves. Usually run just one engine at a time while trolling. Average is 320 hours per year (on each engine) over the past three years. Definately putting in my time on the water...

Spud
Fishtale 2

I don't run an hour meter but I think the real criterion is number of trips, not number of hours per year. Some trips I don't even have to start the main engine, and some trips I run ten minutes and then anchor up for the whole day. Others I run for hours up and down the river looking for fish.

My goal is 60-80 trips per year and for the past five years or so I've been sticking with that thanks to a work schedule with Fridays and weekends off plus careful use of vacation.

Case in point.

Did a 3-day trip to B-10 last year without ever firing up the main motor... only because it wouldn't.

Ended up with 15 for 25 and burning a total of only 7 gallons of fuel over three days with the T-8 kicker! That's the most bang for the buck I've ever gotten out the black barge in terms of CPG (chrome per gallon).

Doc, you rock.