In article ,
writes:

I truly want to know the reason for this and the only way I am going to
find out is to listen to more pilots.


Beats me. I co-own a plane. Couldn't possibly afford to operate a large
(i.e. cabin cruiser class or above) powerboat. Fuel bills are staggering.
Large sailboat? Maintenance bills that make the annual on our Arrow look
like chump change.


This thread got me thinking so I went back 5 years and calculated the cost of
each. I have an 1988 sailboat, Catalina 36, and a 1979 Piper Archer. I spent
$ 47356 (Wow, I didn't think it was that much) on the Archer and $26906 on the
Catalina. These are pretty good total numbers and include operating and fixed
costs. There is about $10k of upgrades in the plane and no upgrades to the
boat. I flew 615 hours in the plane ($77/hr), and sailed for 260 hours
(($104/hr). This doesn't tell the whole story, however. I spent little time
(maybe 5 hours a year) at the plane otherwise. Re the boat, we spend purhaps
15 weekends a year there. Social action at the yacht club, cook, eat, sleep,
party, etc. all are part of the boat besides sailing.

Really, the boat and plane are not that similar. The boat is better compared
to a second vacation home. Don't know what to compare the boat to except the
dream of a lifetime and a money pit.G I can see keeping the boat much longer
into ageing when the safe edge of flying has begin to dull.

Chuck