Once you have sailed a variety of boats and gotten a general idea of what you want in a boat it is time to put it all down on paper and begin your search.
Once I have my list made up I generally go online (a list of online sites can be found at the end of this article) and start looking for boats that fit my search parameters. Good online sites will allow you to input some to all of your criteria that will help limit your search to vessels close to what you are looking for. If you just input a price range and don’t specify what type of sailboat you are looking for you will get thousands of hits on powerboats, workboats, sailboats of all stripes starting with the largest boats in the sites inventory. So, use the advanced search option on each site and enter as much information as they allow.
Online I don’t like to limit myself to searching for one particular boat unless I have already narrowed my search to that brand, designer or model. When first starting your search do so with an open mind, you might find something completely unexpected, something you never heard of that fits your search criteria to a “T”.
Also, don’t limit your search to your immediate geographical region as some places like South Florida are “used boat” rich with lower prices and more gear than found on used boats in places like New England. The reason being many cruisers from around the country get as far as Florida and either quit when they arrive or hang out in the Tropics for a few years and decide they don’t like the heat or they had a set plan for their cruise in mind, reached their goal and then decide to sell the boat in Florida and drive home. Many Florida boats are well equipped because they have made the journey from up North somewhere (though just because the included equipment list is long doesn’t mean it is all serviceable!). The prices are a little lower or more negotiable because there are a lot of boats around, the old supply and demand. Prices are also a little lower because the tropic sun can be hard on a boat that isn’t maintained and a lot of boats in Florida have had the crew just walk away.
Another source of “Used Boats” is in the Classified Section of the various sailing magazines. Over the years Soundings Magazine’s Classified Section has been my favorite. Before computers and the internet, it had the largest used boat classified section of any sailing magazine. Even today with the internet you will still find a lot of boats for sale in Soundings Magazine, they are still easy search by size and sail or power as everything isn’t all jumbled together.
The Classified Section of magazines is also a good place to locate Brokers. While I am not any more a fan of Yacht Brokers than I am of Real Estate Brokers or Car Salesmen they are a necessary evil that can make the work of negotiating a price and then closing the deal a lot smoother. It is easier to offer a lower price through a Broker (who by law has to present your offer regardless of how ridiculous) than it is to meet face to face with a seller and negotiate. Once a price is accepted a Broker can also insure that all the “T’s” are crossed and all the “I’s” dotted on all the required paperwork. A Brokers fee is paid by the seller unless you hired them to specifically find you a boat, in which case their fee should have been discussed up front.
Once you have done your search online or thru the classifieds and have a list (see I told you in the post I wrote on “The List” you would get infected by “the list virus”) of boats you would like to know more about contact the listing broker or owner. Again, I prefer to deal with a broker and not just for negotiating reasons. A good broker will have helped the seller set a realistic price for their boat. Working in the Marine Trades I have seen owners come to the shop wanting to sell their boat with a crazy out of line price. Everyone thinks their boat, regardless of condition should sell for what they paid or close to what their dock mate sold his boat for. Many times, owners are just dreaming and can be hard to deal with directly, thus I like to buy through a broker.
A case in point. One day an owner walked into our brokerage office (this was in the 1990’s) and wanted to sell his boat, a late 1970’s model 25’ Ericson. When asked what he wanted his price was so far out of line with book value the broker asked him where he got his price from. He had kept track of every penny he had spent owning that boat for the last 5 years and wanted it all back. Wasn’t going to happen but the broker couldn’t convince him of that and refused to accept the boat as a listing. Eventually the owner sold or I should say the bank sold his boat as he went bust in his business dealings and lost everything. The lesson here is while this guy was way over the top in his desire to recoup what he had spent he is not all that far off from a lot of other folks selling privately.
If you find a boat that is going to require travel to see it can pay to hire someone who is close to the boat to go and check it out, take pictures and report to you what they find. Brokers tend to take and post pictures avoiding glaring problems, or use pictures from when the boat was new or even pictures of a sister ship! While this option will cost you some money it will always be cheaper than flying from Boston to Miami, renting a car, getting a room for a night or two and paying for meals only to find out the boat you came to see is a wreak. It happens, buyer beware!
The tablets can return the canada sildenafil lost fun and wellbeing back to normal. But he can do it even with erectile problems if he is willing to get cialis properien samples? It’s simple really. The viagra ordination first phase was designed to give managers a theoretical understanding of the new concepts. 2. But before you buy buying cialis in spain it online, you need to be careful of is that it is not taken by patients who are on heart related medication. When travel is required it can pay to make any inquiries about a particular boat to another broker in the area other than the listing broker. I have called brokers recommended by friends, called marinas and boat yards or gone online looking for broker recommendations near the boat I am interested in. I find that non-listing brokers tend to know all the boats in their region that are for sale, chances are they have shown the boat in question to someone else already, and are more willing to tell you about any problems a boat may have than the listing broker. Using a non-listing broker won’t cost you anymore, the seller still pays the listing broker who divides the fee with his brokerage house and your broker and his brokerage house, just like Real Estate brokers do.
While you may get lucky and find your Dream Boat right off the starting line, I recommend you look at as many boats as possible before making your choice. When I went looking for my present boat I didn’t have any particular brand, model or year in mind. I had my list of design criteria which I sent to brokers in regions I was willing to travel to and let them come up with boats to show. They would e-mail me listings and pictures and I then decided if I wanted to see what they had to offer. I ended up traveling from South Carolina to New England looking at boats on long weekends. As it only takes a few hours to see several boats I would use the rest of my travel time to be a sightseer, seeing parts of the country and coast I might otherwise have never traveled to. In the end, I looked at over a dozen boats before seeing Malaya which I knew almost immediately was what I was were looking for.
It can be intimidating buying your first boat or upgrading to a larger one, there are thousands of new and used boat designs to choose from. Only by getting out and kicking the tires so to speak can you know what you are really looking for. As I have said before, no one can really tell you what boat is perfect for you, what you may like in a boat is another person’s nightmare. I will say this though, “when you finally see and step aboard the boat you are going to buy, you will know she is the one.” I can’t explain it but that has been my experience each time I have bought a boat and it is what many owners tell me happened when they found their Dream Boat.
As promised here are some links to online boat sales, good luck!
Next: You have found a boat, what needs to be done to close the deal
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