Boat EconomicsKeep, Repair, Upgrade, Resale, and Review
What Repair Quote Would Actually Tip the Scale?
Solve the repair cost at which keeping and replacing your boat cost the same over your horizon, then check a real quote against that threshold.
Waiting for a repair quote to make the decision skips a step
Most owners wait for a mechanic's quote before deciding whether a repair is "worth it," but the actual threshold, the dollar amount at which replacing becomes the cheaper modeled path, can be solved before that quote ever arrives. Knowing it in advance turns a surprise number into a data point you can immediately place on a scale.
How this is calculated
This reuses the same cost model as Repair vs Replace Boat: a full replace-path total (candidate acquisition minus net sale proceeds, plus any condition reserve, plus ongoing candidate costs over the horizon, minus its resale value) and solves backward for the repair cost that would make the repair-and-keep path equal to it. If you enter an actual quote, the tool shows exactly how far it sits from that threshold.
Worked example
With identical annual recurring costs and resale values on both sides, and a candidate price fully offset by the current boat's net sale proceeds, the threshold lands at zero, any nonzero repair quote would tip the comparison toward replacing. Raise the candidate price relative to the current boat's sale value, and the threshold rises accordingly, giving more room for a real repair quote to still favor keeping the current boat.
Common mistakes
Treating the threshold as a hard rule rather than a scenario result is the most common mistake; change the horizon, the candidate, or the resale assumptions and the number moves. The other is skipping a mechanical or safety assessment entirely because the economics favor repair; this tool never evaluates seaworthiness.
Frequently asked questions
Is this threshold a universal rule for when to replace a boat?
No. It is a scenario result built from your own entered numbers, current sale value, a specific candidate boat, recurring costs, and a horizon. Change any of those and the threshold changes; there is no single dollar figure that applies to every situation.
What if there is no reasonable replacement candidate?
This engine only solves a threshold when a coherent candidate alternative is supplied. Without a real candidate boat and its price, the comparison has nothing to solve against; use Repair vs Replace Boat instead if you just want to compare a specific quote to a specific candidate.
Does a repair quote above the threshold mean I should replace?
It means replacing is the lower modeled economic cost at these numbers, not that repairing is unreasonable. Seaworthiness, safety, sentimental value, and reliability are real factors this cost comparison does not weigh.
How is this different from Repair vs Replace Boat?
That engine takes a known repair quote and tells you which path is cheaper. This one solves backward from the same cost model to find the quote at which the two paths tie, useful before you have an actual quote in hand, or to sanity-check one you already do.