Marina Haul-Out and Storage Pricing Calculator

How this calculator works

Haul-out and on-land storage is a major secondary revenue line for marinas operating a travel-lift or marine railway. The calculator models the per-boat haul-out package cost as a stack of per-foot fees plus flat charges: a one-time haul-out fee per foot, a flat blocking and cradling fee, on-land storage at a per-foot per-month rate over a stated duration, and a one-time splash (relaunch) fee. The calculator also projects annual haul-out revenue across the operation's full haul-out volume and computes a travel-lift equipment ROI as years-to-payback against the capital cost, benchmarked against the typical 20-year travel-lift useful life.

Inputs cover the boat length and the four fee inputs (haul per foot, blocking flat, storage per foot per month, splash flat), the storage duration in months, the annual haul-out volume the operation handles, and the travel-lift capital cost (equipment plus haul-out slip dredging, bulkhead, wash-down pad, and dock infrastructure). Outputs cover the total per-boat package cost (the visible quote a customer would see), the line-item breakdown, the monthly storage revenue per boat, the annual revenue projection, and the ROI metrics.

This is an operating diagnostic. It is not professional advice. For consequential decisions on rate-card changes, travel-lift capital investment, or marina acquisition underwriting, consult a marina-industry consultant or licensed CPA familiar with marina operator economics.

The per-foot fee convention

US marina haul-out operations have converged on per-foot pricing for the haul fee and for on-land storage, with flat fees for blocking and (sometimes) splash. The per-foot convention captures the materially higher cost-to-serve on larger boats — heavier travel-lift capacity, longer slings, longer haul-out slip occupancy, larger blocking footprint, and more substantial on-land storage area — without requiring the operator to maintain a complex rate card by boat configuration.

The five components of the standard haul-out package:

Haul-out fee per foot. The one-time fee charged when the boat comes out of the water on the travel-lift. Typical US marina haul fees run $10-$25 per foot, with destination boatyards and large-boat operations clearing the high end. The fee covers the travel-lift operator, the haul-out crew (typically 2-3 people), the wash-down on the pad immediately after haul, and the placement on blocks or in a cradle. Boatyards with limited travel-lift capacity often price haul aggressively to manage demand; boatyards with newer high-capacity equipment can price at a premium.

Blocking and cradling fee. A flat per-boat fee for the blocks, jack stands, or custom cradle used to support the boat on land. Some boatyards include standard blocking in the haul fee and charge separately only for custom cradles; others charge a flat blocking fee on every haul to recover the cradle-inventory cost and crew time. Typical flat blocking fees run $50-$150 for sailboats and small powerboats, $200-$400 for mid-size cruisers and sportfish, and $500+ for large yachts with custom cradles. The calculator models blocking as a flat per-boat fee; enter zero if your operation bundles blocking into the haul fee.

Storage rate per foot per month. The recurring fee for on-land storage while the boat is out of the water. Typical US storage rates run $8-$25 per foot per month, with regional, seasonal, and storage-type variation. The low end is typical for outdoor on-the-hard storage in lower-cost southern markets and the upper Midwest; the high end is typical for indoor-heated storage, hurricane-rated facilities, and high-density urban marinas. Heated indoor storage typically runs 2-3x the outdoor rate because of the facility cost and the limited inventory of indoor positions.

Storage duration. The number of months the boat is on land. Typical northern winter-storage durations run 5-7 months (October haul through April or May splash). Shorter durations (1-3 months) cover maintenance or repair windows; annual long-term dry storage runs 12 months. The calculator multiplies the storage rate by the duration to compute the total storage cost line item.

Splash fee. The one-time fee charged to relaunch the boat from on-land storage back to the water. The splash fee is typically the same as the haul fee or 10-20% below it. Some boatyards bundle haul and splash into a single round-trip fee; this calculator models them separately so the operator can match either convention.

The sum of the four line items is the per-boat package cost — the customer-visible quote for the full haul-out cycle. For a 35-foot boat at $15/ft haul, $150 blocking, $12/ft/month storage for 6 months, and a $525 splash, the package totals $3,720: $525 haul + $150 blocking + $2,520 storage + $525 splash.

Annual revenue projection

The calculator projects annual haul-out revenue by multiplying the per-boat package cost by the operation's annual haul-out volume. AMI member-survey benchmarks show typical single-travel-lift operations clearing 200-500 haul-outs per year:

• A small marina with a 35-ton travel-lift and a primarily seasonal operation may handle 150-250 haul-outs per year (concentrated in the spring-splash and fall-haul windows for northern markets).
• A mid-size marina with mixed seasonal and maintenance haul-outs handles 250-400 haul-outs per year.
• A destination boatyard with a steady year-round demand for maintenance haul-outs and a strong winter-storage book runs 400-600+ haul-outs per year.
• A large commercial boatyard with multiple travel-lifts (often a 35-ton plus a 165-ton) can handle 700+ haul-outs per year.

The annual revenue projection captures the operation-wide haul-out revenue but does not capture (a) ancillary service revenue (bottom paint, mast-stepping, engine service, gel-coat repair, rigging service) which often exceeds the haul-and-storage revenue at full-service boatyards, (b) chandlery and parts sales associated with on-land work, or (c) the impact of haul-out timing on slip rental revenue (boats in winter storage may relinquish slip during the storage period; boats hauled mid-season for repair retain slip).

For acquisition or pricing-decision purposes, the per-boat package cost is the cleanest customer-facing diagnostic, and the annual revenue projection is the cleanest operator-side benchmark. Cross-check both against your prior-year actuals or against an industry comparable before committing to a rate-card change.

Travel-lift equipment ROI

A travel-lift is a substantial capital investment. A new 35-ton travel-lift from Marine Travelift Inc. or Wise Travelift runs roughly $300K-$500K, plus the haul-out slip dredging, bulkhead, wash-down pad, and dock infrastructure (commonly another $100K-$300K) for a total turnkey cost of $400K-$800K. A 75-ton runs $500K-$900K plus infrastructure ($700K-$1.2M turnkey). A 165-ton commercial unit runs $1.5M+ plus infrastructure (often $2M+ turnkey). Used travel-lifts are widely available and can come in at 30-60% of new pricing, but with higher ongoing maintenance burden.

The calculator computes a simple years-to-payback metric by dividing the capital cost by the annual haul-out revenue. The convention is direct: if the travel-lift recovers its capital cost in fewer years than its useful life, the investment is supported on a stand-alone basis. The calculator uses a 20-year useful-life benchmark, which is the standard convention in marina accounting practice and matches the typical depreciation schedule used by marina CFOs and acquisition underwriters.

The years-to-payback metric is a simplification. It does not capture (a) the time value of money (a discount rate would lower the present value of future revenue and push the effective payback further out), (b) maintenance cost on the travel-lift (slings, brake systems, hydraulics, paint typically require major refurbishment every 7-10 years at a cost of $50K-$200K), (c) the haul-out crew labor cost (which the calculator does not separately model), or (d) the dredging and bulkhead replacement reserve on the haul-out slip. For a full DCF analysis of a travel-lift acquisition, the operator should build a separate model that captures the maintenance schedule, the crew labor, and the discount rate appropriate for marina capital decisions. The simple years-to-payback figure is a first-cut screen — if the payback is comfortably inside 20 years on simple math, the investment is likely supportable; if the payback exceeds 20 years, the investment is unlikely to be supportable without ancillary revenue from non-haul-out lines.

For a representative example: a 250-haul-per-year operation generating $3,720 per haul ($930K annual revenue) recovers a $500K travel-lift capital cost in 0.54 years — well inside any reasonable useful-life benchmark. A 100-haul-per-year operation at the same per-haul revenue recovers the same capital cost in 1.34 years. A 50-haul-per-year operation recovers it in 2.69 years. A 20-haul-per-year operation at the same revenue per haul takes 6.7 years. Below roughly 20 haul-outs per year at typical per-haul revenue, the travel-lift becomes difficult to justify on stand-alone economics; below 10, the capital investment is likely supportable only as a service amenity for an integrated marina with materially larger slip-rental and fuel-revenue lines.

ABYC marine handling standards

The American Boat & Yacht Council (ABYC) publishes consensus marine industry standards governing boat-handling and storage operations. ABYC TH-23 (haul-out and launch operations) covers travel-lift operating procedures, sling placement requirements, and crew responsibilities. The ABYC standards on blocking and cradling specify minimum block and stand placement by boat type, weight, and configuration, and the ABYC standards on on-land tie-down govern hurricane-prep and wind-event securing for stored boats.

ABYC standards are not federal regulations and do not impose direct fee structure or pricing requirements. They are referenced by marine insurance underwriters and marina liability carriers as the US industry consensus, and a boatyard operating outside ABYC standards faces materially higher liability exposure in the event of a haul-out incident or storage-related boat damage. The calculator does not directly model the cost of ABYC compliance, but the operator should expect ABYC practices to be reflected in haul-out crew training, equipment selection, and the blocking-and-cradling inventory the boatyard maintains. For the per-foot fee structure, ABYC compliance does not impose a separately identifiable cost; for the underlying operations, it is a baseline expectation.

What the calculator does not cover

This calculator covers haul-out and on-land storage pricing for the standard travel-lift operation. Several related lines are out of scope or covered in companion calculators:

• Wet-slip rental pricing is covered in the marina-slip-rental-pricing-calculator.
• Fuel-dock margin and SPCC compliance are covered in the marina-fuel-margin-calculator.
• Annual environmental compliance cost (Clean Marina, stormwater, pump-out) is covered in the marina-environmental-compliance-cost-calculator.
• Service revenue (bottom paint, gel-coat repair, mast-stepping, engine service, rigging service, electronics installation) is not modeled. These are typically a separate marine-service P&L that runs alongside the haul-and-store operation.
• Dry stack and rack storage are not modeled. Dry stack pricing is typically per-foot per-month for storage plus a per-launch fee for forklift retrieval; the cost stack is dominated by the building and the forklift rather than the travel-lift.
• Marine railway operations (an older alternative to a travel-lift for hauling larger or deeper-draft boats) are not modeled. The pricing structure is similar but the capital cost and crew profile differ.
• Hurricane and storm-prep services (extra tie-downs, mast-removal, on-the-hard storage with hurricane tie-downs) are not modeled and are typically priced as a separate line item.
• Bottom paint and gel-coat work is not modeled as part of the haul-out package; it is typically a separate service-revenue line.
• Owner-do-it-yourself (DIY) work fees charged to owners who work on their own boats during storage are not modeled.