Boat EconomicsStorage, Maintenance, and Reserve
Repower the Current Boat, or Replace It?
Compare the full repower path against the full replace path, purchase, trade-in, rigging, resale, and financing all included, not just an engine quote against a boat price.
A propulsion professional must validate compatibility and condition before any repower decision. This is a cost comparison only, not engine selection advice or a seaworthiness assessment.
An engine quote and a boat price are not the same kind of number
It's tempting to size up a repower quote against a candidate boat's sticker price and call it a comparison. It isn't: the replace path also involves what your current boat is actually worth as a trade-in, transaction costs, and two different resale values at the end of the horizon. Only the full cash picture on both sides makes this a fair comparison.
How this is calculated
The repower path totals the package, rigging, and any known deferred work, financed or cash, plus any fuel cost difference across the horizon, minus the repowered boat's resale at the end. The replace path totals the candidate boat's price net of your current boat's trade-in value, plus transaction costs, minus the candidate's own resale at the horizon.
Worked example
A $15,000 repower package with no rigging and $10,000 resale at horizon nets to $5,000. A $35,000 candidate boat against a $20,000 trade-in, no transaction costs, and $10,000 resale also nets to $5,000, a financial tie, even though the sticker prices looked very different at first glance.
Common mistakes
Comparing the repower quote directly against the candidate boat's full price, ignoring the trade-in value of the current boat, makes replacing look far more expensive than it actually is. The other mistake is treating resale projections on either side as promised returns rather than your own scenario numbers.
Frequently asked questions
Is this comparing an engine quote to a boat price?
No, and that's a common mistake it's built to avoid. It compares the full repower path, package plus rigging plus any known deferred work, against the full replace path, candidate price net of your trade-in, transaction costs, and resale on both sides.
Does this tell me if my hull can even be repowered?
No. A propulsion professional must validate compatibility and condition before any repower decision. This only compares the cash paths once you already have real quotes for both.
What if the candidate boat solves a problem repowering can't?
That's explicitly outside the dollar comparison. If the candidate boat fixes a mission or condition issue your current hull has, that non-financial fit may outweigh a smaller cost gap either way.