What do you consider a good yearly use of a boat ?

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.

before we just got our new kicker we ran the main motor almost all the time...we have over 2000 hours on the main and bought it in 2005...we just got the kicker, and have over 100 on it already...just got it July 1st...

i think most people that use this site put a lot more hours than the every once in a while joe...

all i know is that Mercury made a mistake by sending me a extended waranty...i dont usually buy waranties, but i did this time and it has already paid for itself...still under waranty for 2 more years!!...last time i paid 25 bucks on a 500+ job...nice

Dont tell the wife. Oh, you dont use it enough, SELL IT!

I've had single days of fun,that paid back the expense of a boat.

Always reckoned it as being free,after that.

2016 registered 60 hrs on the main.

2015 registered 89 hrs on the main

2013 and 2014 saw a combined 133 hrs with most of that logged in 2014. I know because the "new" boat was put in service at B-10 in August 23, 2013 and GH got shut down on Sept 22. Let's just say it was a SHORT year.

...

Not liking this trend of less opportunity over 3 consecutive seasons. Glad to have fished the modern-day PNW chinook glory years of 2013, 2014, and 2015. That 3 yr block will probably NEVER be topped for as long as I live.

...

In terms of CPG (chrome per gallon) I have this feeling that 2014 will reign supreme for Team eyeFISH until my dying day.

I thought getting divorced was supposed to increase fishing hours/year not decrease them

I probably average around 75-100 annually on the main, but we make long runs in the salt.... running out of Everett alone is 30 min both ways idling out of the jetty....

Kicker hours? Who the Eff knows. In the summer we'll put on 12 hours in a day easy starting at 4-5am.

yeah the wknd saltwater warrior for us out of area 10, but on days we launch out of armeni then make a run down to clay banks or up to no point, and strictly mooch pretty much puts us about the avge. of what the rest of everybody else does and we love to fish so yes it is good use. course could be a boat ho! =)

As many of you know, I have a custom made boat....17', 6 foot bottom, ordered it with a ETech 90/65, ran it for about 6 months....sold it to a person that wanted to have more HP, then bought the ETech 130 and ran that for about 4 years......sold that to the same person that bought the 90/65.......point in all this, I thought I put a lot of hours on both the 90/65 and the 130......but I never knew unless you went to a dealer.

2016---Etech now has 4 motors that come from the factory with the jet pump.......I bought the 150/105 but this time when I had it installed on the boat....I HAD A HOUR METER INSTALLED SO I CAN SEE EXACTLY how many hours I have on the new motor. During the salmon season I fish every day, except at high water period......I don't have to run far to fish and I use my T-8 quite a bit....

The 150/105.....which I got in April, now has 31 hours on it......I would have guessed much more than that.