How much does it cost to own a boat? (part deux)

Here's more info on why the answer is "More than you think!"

This entry is a post-script to the first post on the costs of owning a boat. See that earlier post here.

We got the bill from Raffles Marina this week and saw additional charges included; aside from the usual costs of monthly berthing (S$476) and cleaning (S$300) were other charges related to the trip to Puteri Cove (see the blog post on that here).

One charge was the port clearance fee levied by Raffles Marina, for the sum of S$42.80 (S$21.40 each for the outbound and inbound trips).

Another charge, MPA port dues, came to S$489 for that trip. We had registered Little Wanderer with the Singapore Registry of Ships to be exempted from paying 7% GST for having imported the boat from the US. (That's 7% of the S$123,300 cost of the boat, not small potatoes!) Eric explained today that an SRS-registered boat is essentially regarded as a foreign vessel until that first trip to Malaysia is made. The S$489 were port dues payable for that trip.

From now on, MPA port dues are payable annually. For Little Wanderer, S$30 covers us until Sept 30, 2016 - cheap compared to the above charge.

I mentioned in the Puteri Cove post that we paid S$150 each way for immigration services, meaning it cost us $300 to engage our personal immigration officer to do the passport thing before and after the trip. But the bill today had an additional "administration charge" of S$180 on top of that S$300. Go figure.

Conclusion: Going to Puteri Cove (or anywhere in Malaysia) isn't going to be cheap. Neither is owning a boat, come to think of it.

Oh, but then we knew that already.