Boat EconomicsKeep, Upgrade, or Exit
How Did This Boating Season Actually Go?
Compare planned use and cost against what actually happened, see the single biggest driver of the difference, and set next season's reserve accordingly.
This review only compares numbers you enter here, planned against actual, and never scores or grades your season. Your saved My Boat Plan is read and updated only when you choose, never automatically, and nothing here is sent anywhere off this device.
A season review is only useful if it points somewhere
A generic year-end report that just restates numbers back to you does not help. This review exists to answer one question: what changed enough this season to be worth acting on, whether that is a maintenance reserve that ran short, use days that came in well below plan, or a total cost that quietly drifted from the budget.
How this is calculated
Each category, insurance, storage, maintenance and repairs, and fuel, is compared actual against planned, and the category with the largest dollar swing is called out as the biggest driver. Total cost variance is actual total minus planned total, and the maintenance and repair reserve is checked separately: whatever you actually spent on maintenance and repairs against what you had planned to reserve for it, which sets next season's recommended reserve target.
Worked example
A planned $1,200 maintenance and repair reserve against $2,100 actually spent leaves the reserve $900 short and becomes the season's biggest cost driver. Total cost lands at roughly $4,990 actual against $4,000 planned, and next season's reserve target is set to the full $2,100 actually spent, not the original $1,200 plan.
Common mistakes
Treating a single season's variance as a permanent trend overreacts to one unusual repair or an unusually light or heavy use year. The other mistake is leaving the maintenance reserve at last year's planned figure after it proved too low, which just repeats the same shortfall next season.
Frequently asked questions
Where does the "planned" side come from?
It loads from your saved My Boat Plan if you have one (use days, insurance, storage, and maintenance reserve). You can edit any of it, and if no saved plan exists yet, this review becomes your starting baseline instead of a variance check.
Does this send my numbers anywhere?
No. Everything here runs in your browser. Saving to My Boat Plan writes to local storage on this device only, and only when you click the save button, never automatically.
What counts as "maintenance and repairs" together?
Routine maintenance and unplanned repairs are combined into one actual figure and compared against your planned maintenance and repair reserve, since both draw from the same reserve in practice.
Is this a score or grade on my season?
No. It reports variance and the single biggest driver, then routes you to the next relevant decision. It never scores or ranks your ownership.