How do we define the cost of a VolksCruiser…

So, here’s a question. How do we define the cost of a VolksCruiser?

Since most people think of boats in terms of length, we might want to try using that. At first thought, this seems to make sense as longer boats tend to be more expensive than shorter boats. Simple, right?

Then again, how do you factor in a CAL 20 which you can buy for $1K, and a Pacific Seacraft Flicka that you’s spend $29K for? You might say it’s higher-math complicated.

I’ve always leaned toward the old builders’ standby of pricing a boat by the weight that goes into it or displacement, which makes a lot more sense.

Of course, there’s always the litmus test of how much you can spend which seems to be the standard for most things of a cruising boat nature. I’ll admit that, for me at least, when shopping for a boat I have to have a bottom line of what I can afford. That, of course, is also problematic because it’s something of a sliding variable scale.

We could always just pick a number out of the ozone and go with it because it’s easy, albeit wrong. But hey, it’s 2023 and doing stuff ass-backward is still very much in fashion, so why not? Maybe because it would really impact your finances as well as how you live, and it would be some kind of stupid.

So, what’s a poor boy gonna do?

Right now the best approximation I can come up with is Potter Stewart’s infamous sentence regarding pornography…

“I know it when I see it”

Right now it’s safe to say that you can buy a great boat for $1K a foot. That’s for a boat in great shape that’s turnkey and ready to go wherever you want to. So let’s say the highest one should spend for a VolksCruiser is $1k per foot. Spend any more and you’re not VolksCruising.

I still think that’s way too expensive but it does give us an outer limit to the VolksCruiser envelope. Tomorrow I’ll try to refine it using displacement and see if that can narrow things down a bit.