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Electric Blue: Part 4
Converting our yacht from diesel to electric
Was it worth it?
In the previous three parts I covered the Why? and the How? of converting our little yacht Echo from diesel to electric propulsion, back in 2013.
Now it’s time to ask the hardest question, and try to find some honest answers.
A depreciating asset, massively overcapitalised
Echo may be a neat little yacht, but she is still, at the end of the day, an Endeavour 26 from 1979, a boat which the second-hand market now considers worth no more than A$10k. In fact, I saw one advertised on Facebook today for $5k. That’s less than our annual marina fee.
The electric conversion cost $21k all up, which coincidentally was the original purchase price of our yacht in 2003.
Pardon the inevitable pun, but the sunk cost probably prevents me from making a rational assessment as far as Echo is concerned. Anyway the purchase of a yacht is seldom a rational investment.
At least we bought a small, old, cheap boat in good condition, giving us a lot more financial space to manoeuvre than the biggest-newest-yacht-we-can-afford. Our marina is full of those: magnificent big boats, many of which rarely get used. Maybe they have…
