How much does it cost to own a boat in Cornwall, UK, in 2026

I originally sat down to write a blog post about whether it makes more financial sense to charter a boat or own one. But once I started properly adding up the numbers, it quickly became obvious that the real cost of boat ownership deserved a post of its own.

So that’s what this is. And to be honest, it's also an opportunity for me to test out the WIX website builder Blog functionality as I haven't "blogged" before and just want to see if it's worth doing....

What follows is a breakdown of the actual costs I incurred in 2025 to keep my 2019 Galia 700SD on the water here on the south coast of the UK, based near Falmouth in Cornwall. These aren’t best-case estimates or figures pulled from a brochure — they’re real numbers that have left my bank account.

If you’re looking at buying a RIB, speedboat, Merry Fisher or similar boat around the 6.5–8m mark, this should give you a fairly realistic idea of what you’re getting yourself into.

I’ll come back to the whole charter versus ownership debate in the next post, because that comparison is about far more than just money.

The clichés about boat ownership (and why some of them exist)

If you’ve spent any time Googling boat ownership, you’ll already have come across comments like:

“BOAT stands for Bust Out Another Thousand.”“The best two days of boat ownership are the day you buy it and the day you sell it.”

For some people, those sayings are absolutely spot on. For others, buying a boat turns out to be one of the best decisions they ever make.

I’m firmly in that second camp — but that doesn’t mean the clichés come from nowhere. Boats are expensive, occasionally stressful, and they have an annoying habit of breaking at the worst possible time. The difference is usually whether you go into it with your eyes open.

A bit of background (so you know where I’m coming from)

Around twelve years ago, I bought my first boat to live on in Cornwall with almost no boating knowledge at all. It was very much a case of learning as I went — sometimes quickly, sometimes the hard way.

Over time, that led to becoming an RYA sailing and powerboat instructor, working on a wide range of vessels and meeting a lot of other boat owners along the way. I’ve seen people absolutely love ownership, and I’ve seen people quietly fall out of love with it after one too many stressful moments coming alongside in a crosswind with an audience.

In 2021, I bought my current boat — a 2019 Galia 700SD with a 200hp Suzuki outboard — with the intention of running private skippered speedboat tours around Falmouth Bay. The idea was to spend my days doing something I genuinely enjoy, while showing other people just how good this stretch of coastline looks from the water.

Was it a flawless plan? No.Have I learned a huge amount along the way? Definitely.

What sort of boat are these costs based on?

Boat ownership costs vary wildly, so it’s important to be clear about what I’m talking about.

Everything in this post is based on:

• A 6.5–8m motorboat

• Single outboard engine

• Purchase price somewhere around £50,000–£100,000

• Based on the south coast of England

• Kept afloat for the season, not trailered every time

You can buy a cheap speedboat and get a lot of use out of it. You can also spend an absolute fortune on something you’re too nervous to use. Most people sit somewhere in the middle — and that’s who this is aimed at.

Where you keep your boat (this matters more than people think)

One of the biggest — and least exciting — factors in the cost of boat ownership in the UK is simply where the boat lives.

Do you trailer it from home and launch it every time you want to go out? Do you want the convenience of stepping aboard and going whenever the weather looks half decent? Are you happy working around tides, or do you need deep water at all states?

These questions aren’t glamorous, but they have a massive impact on cost, convenience, and how often you actually use the boat.

Marina berth, swing mooring, or trailering?

Here in Mylor, near Falmouth, I’m lucky to have plenty of options. Boats locally can be kept on drying creek moorings, deep-water swing moorings, council pontoons, marina berths, dry storage, or stored ashore and trailered to one of several public slipways.

In reality, I need reliable access throughout the season, often at odd hours, but I don’t have unlimited funds. So I keep my boat on a deep-water swing mooring during the summer, and ashore over the winter.

I’d love the convenience of my own marina berth. I just can’t justify the cost.

How much does a mooring cost for a 7m boat in Cornwall?

My boat is based at Mylor Yacht Harbour, which has excellent facilities and is very well run. It’s not the cheapest option in the area, but it works for me.

My annual swing mooring fee for 2025 was £2,265. This runs from April to March and includes winter storage ashore, which is important because most insurance policies require boats to be ashore or in a marina over winter anyway.

The extra costs people often forget about

That mooring fee doesn’t include lifting the boat in and out of the water. Because I don’t own a trailer, I pay £233 to lift out and £233 to relaunch in spring.

Owning a trailer isn’t automatically cheaper either. On-site trailer storage at Mylor would cost £565 for the season, plus maintenance, towing, and the general faff that comes with it. Personally, I’m quite happy not to have one.

At the end of the season, the hull also needs to be pressure washed before antifouling. Mylor do this themselves for environmental reasons, which costs £75. There’s also £80 to remove, clean and store the mooring strop ready for the next season.

Once everything’s added up, my total mooring and storage costs for the year came to £2,886.

That does include a few nice extras — parking, facilities, fuel discounts, cheaper overnight marina stays, and use of the marina water taxi, which is a big plus locally.

What about marina berths?

For comparison, keeping the same boat on a full marina berth year-round at Mylor would cost £5,348 per year, before lift-outs and maintenance.

The convenience is fantastic. The price is equally impressive.

Boat maintenance: the unglamorous but essential bit

Just like a car, your engine needs servicing if you want it to last. And with a 200hp outboard costing around £20,000, it’s not something you want to skimp on.

Most UK boat owners will do 50–100 engine hours a year, which usually means one annual service.

A main dealer service will typically cost £600–£800. Bigger milestone services (like my upcoming 1,000-hour service) can be closer to £1,000, but they don’t happen every year.

If you’re confident doing the basics yourself, a service kit and oil will cost around £300 — though if the engine is still under warranty, it’s often worth sticking with an approved engineer.

On top of that there’s antifouling (around £100 in materials if you do it yourself), plus the endless cleaning, polishing and small jobs that come with owning a boat. Nothing difficult — just time-consuming.

All told, £1,200 a year is a realistic maintenance figure for a boat like mine, assuming nothing unexpected goes wrong. And sooner or later, something usually does.

Fuel costs: it depends how you drive

Fuel is one of those things people either massively overestimate or completely ignore.

Over roughly 1,000 engine hours, my Suzuki DF200 has used just under 10,000 litres of fuel — an average of 10 litres per hour. That’s because I spend a lot of time pottering along at displacement speeds.

Once you’re on the plane, fuel burn jumps to around 35 litres per hour, and flat out it’s closer to 70 litres per hour.

For a typical owner doing 100 hours a year, that’s roughly 1,000 litres of fuel, which works out at about £1,950 if you’re buying it at marina prices.

Boat insurance in the UK

Boat insurance isn’t legally required, but you’d be brave not to have it — and most marinas insist on at least third-party cover.

My insurance includes commercial use and costs £860 per year. Private cover for a similar-value boat is often in the same general range, depending on experience and qualifications.

Depreciation: the cost nobody likes to think about

Boats don’t hold their value particularly well. A commonly quoted figure is 5–10% depreciation per year, depending on age and condition.

I bought my boat in 2021 for £70,000. Realistically, it’s now worth around £50,000, which works out at roughly £5,000 per year in depreciation.

That money isn’t leaving your account each year — but it’s still a very real cost.

So what does it actually cost per year?

When you put everything together, my approximate annual running costs look like this:

• Mooring and storage: £2,886

• Maintenance: £1,200

• Fuel: £1,950

• Insurance: £860

• Depreciation: £5,000

That gives a total of £11,896 per year.

You could spend less by trailering or using a cheaper mooring. You could spend far more with a marina berth and professional maintenance. But this is a fairly honest, real-world example. My costs are considerable higher than this as I do a lot more than 100 hours a year and so my fuel and servicing costs are more, plus I have to pay for licenses, commercial harbour fees, life raft hire, lots of additional safety kit, plus marketing etc. But these are meant to be approximate costs for a recreational user.

Is owning a boat worth it?

That depends on far more than money.

Owning a boat also means:

• Coming alongside in a strong crosswind with everyone watching

• Cleaning seagull mess off the deck again

• Scrubbing the bottom

• Fixing things that worked perfectly last time

• The quiet embarrassment of getting it wrong on the pub pontoon

Chartering avoids most of that. Ownership gives you freedom, familiarity, and the ability to go whenever you want — if you’re prepared to accept the responsibilities that come with it.

If you’re not sure, chartering is often a very sensible way to dip a toe in the water before committing.

And if you’re in Cornwall and fancy seeing all that this stunning area has to offer, feel free to get in touch. I’m always happy to talk boats — especially once we’re clear of the pontoon.

In the next post, I’ll look properly at ownership versus chartering, not just in terms of money, but in terms of stress, responsibility, and enjoyment — which is where the real difference lies.