2026 Captain’s Edition
Annual Running Cost Model PDF
Your Invoices, the Cost per Hour & the Cost per Mile
- 22 Pages / 168 Register Lines A4 and US Letter included.
- 862 Live Fields Interactive and 100% offline.
- 6 Reduction Models C1 through C6.
- Instant Digital Access Download links the moment you pay.
Most owners can tell you the berth fee to the pound. Almost none can tell you what an hour costs.
Not because the sum is hard. Because the invoices live in six places, and the largest cost of all never arrives as an invoice at all.
This is a structure for your own paperwork and the arithmetic that turns it into figures nobody has about their own boat: cost per engine hour, cost per nautical mile, and cost per night aboard.
What you receive
A 22-page interactive running cost register and model
- A 20-line fixed ledger — berth, insurance, registration, finance, winter storage, subscriptions — the costs that land whether or not the boat leaves the berth
- A 20-line variable ledger — fuel, harbour dues, consumables, servicing, replacements, and four lines at the foot for the thing that went wrong this year
- An 18-line capital register for the major items whose life is being consumed right now, each with a replacement cost and the name of whoever gave you that life
- A 12-entry usage record — engine hours, miles logged, days used and nights aboard: the denominator every model divides by
- A 14-category, five-year trend table, and a 16-line reconciliation of the three terms against last year
- 6 calculation models, and two files — A4 and US Letter, both fillable, both print-ready
Why there is no percentage rule in it
You will not find “budget a percentage of hull value per year” anywhere in these pages. That rule is the most quoted and least useful figure in boat ownership: it is indifferent to where the boat lies, what she is made of, how old her systems are, who does the work and how much she is used.
Two identical hulls in two countries do not cost the same to own. There are no average costs in this register either, for the same reason. Every figure in it is one you copied from a document you can produce.
The cost everybody omits
A rig that will need replacing, sails halfway through their life and an engine ageing towards an overhaul are all costs you are incurring this year, whether or not an invoice arrives this year. Part III records them; model C2 annualises them into the term that makes the total honest.
It is also the term that is always missing when an owner quotes a running cost — which is why quoted running costs are always cheerful.
The three figures that change the conversation
Cost per engine hour. A boat used thirty hours a year and a boat used three hundred can carry identical invoices and be two entirely different propositions.
Cost per nautical mile. Logged from the instrument, not from the plan — because the gap between miles intended and miles sailed is itself worth knowing.
Cost per night aboard. The most uncomfortable number in boat ownership, and the most clarifying. It is not an argument against owning a boat. It is the figure that tells you whether the problem is the cost or the use, and those two have completely different solutions.
And one comparison, using a rate you look up
Model C6 divides the true annual cost by the daily rate to charter a comparable boat in your waters — a rate you look up and record with its source and date, because we publish none. The result is how many days of chartering your year costs. The honest answer for most owners is that the boat is worth keeping for reasons the model does not measure. It is still worth knowing the number.
Who it is for
- Owners who have just bought and want a baseline from year one
- Anyone weighing a larger boat, a different berth, or a different country
- Owners preparing for a berth negotiation, an insurance renewal or a sale
- Buyers who have used the Boat Purchase Budget Worksheet and want the running-cost side
Technical specification
| Product ID | AML-OWN-2026-01 |
| Extent | 22 pages · 7 parts · 6 reduction models |
| Register lines | 168 across basis, fixed, variable, capital, usage, trend and models |
| Interactivity | 862 live PDF form fields — 58 tick boxes and 804 entry fields |
| Formats included | A4 and US Letter, both fillable and print-ready, 22 pages each |
| Vessels | Sail or power, any country — currency and financial year are yours to set |
| Reusable | One register per financial year; the trend table carries five of them |
| Offline | No app, no account, no connection required once downloaded |
What it is not
This document publishes no cost, rate, average or percentage, and contains no rule of thumb for what a vessel should cost to own. Every amount in it is one you transcribed from a document you hold.
The models perform arithmetic on figures you supply. They are not a valuation, a budget, a forecast, or financial, tax or accounting advice, and nothing in them determines whether any vessel is affordable or worth owning.
Instant download. Your links appear on screen the moment payment clears, and arrive by email within a minute. They do not expire.
2026 Edition · Revision 1.0 · AML-OWN-2026-01. Apex Marine Labs designs the organisational process behind good seamanship. Our documents record and organise; they are not financial, tax or accounting advice.