I'm surprised so many people finance older boats. It makes me think more people finance than I assumed.
I financed my '02 Hydra-Sports for $16k for 10 years. Bought it the end of '15. It had very low hours on the motor. Payment is under $200 a month. Was it the smartest most frugal thing we could do? No, but really neither is owning a boat at all. We'd been fighting engine problems with the old boat for 2 years and were tired of dealing with it and also wanted a larger deeper hull to better handle the large wakes on our lake. Saltwater boats such as mine hold their value pretty well and with the age mine is at further depreciation will be gradual. I should be able to sell it at any point for at least what I owe on it. The worst case scenario would be if my motor blew. However that would be just about as terrible if the boat was paid for as well. We are committed to boating so we'd be fixing it regardless. With such a low payment repairs on top of the payment wouldn't be unmanageable. My mother died when she was in her 50's from cancer. She never got to retire. That made a big impression on how I live my life. I'm not going to be reckless but I'm also aware that saving everything for a time that may never come isn't how I want to live. We have a seasonal camp site at a lake and we spent nearly every weekend there for half the year. The whole family loves the "new" boat so I consider the low payment well worth it. Now our camper is paid for and although we'd like to have a newer, bigger one, I have no intention of having a boat and camper payment at the same time.
I usually finance but my amounts are way way below the OP's amount needed. Kinda like boatman's deal, I keep the payment around the amount that I goof off in a month, then try to frugalize my way through for a few years. For the "down payment" I get the value the CU will loan then work on the buyer until their price is below the CU loan amount, then work in titling and registration and first year's insurance (req'd when financed) into the loan. Another factor is keeping the purchase price close to what the next buyer would pay in a fire sale situation if it goes south.
i am working on getting everything paid off but had to get the boat first. i have a pretty good income (work in cyber security) but i have my student loans that i owe 4 more years on (graduated at 41 years old) and had to sign parent plus loans for my kids that they started paying on last year. they pay for them but they are in my name (which kills my income to debt ratio). once my student loans are paid for in 4 years we will have quite a bit of disposable income and me still being pretty new to the cyber security sector i should be able to double my income in the next 5 years. this was another reason i decided to jump in now knowing my income will continue to increase the rest of my career. i worked in a mill for 10 years and was injured to the point i could no longer do that job, which is why i went back to school and why i am 48 and financing (went into debt finishing school and burned my savings paying bills during that time. so it was now or never for me
I get loans for boats whenever I have bought one. It's just a personal preference and we are high wage earners with large portfolios.
The specific terms are dependent on many factors which including your existing credit and financial situation so there is really no fair way to compare what one person gets compared to another.