Buying a boat is something most people will never experience. Some days I wish I could be one of those people. While it may sound like the coolest thing ever, I found the boat shopping experience frustrating, and at many times angering. Some of this may be a result of my own expectations, but most of the frustration comes from misrepresentation and lack of assistance from the sellers (boat brokers). If one were to pick a price range and look at boats within that price range on Yachtworld.com they would likely find several boats that fit the bill, and looked exciting. Chances are if one goes to look at those boats in person about half of them will still be exciting. However, to find out what the boat is really about, IE: turn on any system, you must place and offer and 10% deposit. Then you have to hire a marine surveyor at prices around $18 per foot, and go look at the boat. In our price range you just spent $500-1000 just to even see if the engine turns on. And this is where boat shopping becomes a joke. So your dream boat has some deck leaks, it has $10,000 worth of navigation electronics which dont work, and sails that are worn out. The owner is already frustrated with the low offer he just accepted, and as a buyer I expect to jew him down another $10,000 to make the deal work...obviously it doesnt work and I just wasted a week of my time and a bunch of money looking at a half shiny pile of junk. The part that sucks is that unless dealing with a seller directly, no broker, you wont get a real inspection of the boat until that survey.
Also when you hire a marine surveyor you are paying a pile of money for a glorified boat bum who does little more than write down some numbers and tell you a pile of BS...I worked with (3) different yacht and small craft surveyors in this ordeal and only one was half useful. I feel awful typing this because I tried to be a marine surveyor. But finding a person, anyone, who will really represent you when making a boat deal seems truly impossible. They all seem to serve themselves or are trying to cover their butts from someone else, but help you will not get at any cost.
The following are some examples of our not fun boat buying experience:
The first boat we made an offer on was a big catamaran that my dad was helping us pay for. The boat was bank owned (repo'd) and had basically been gutted. Therefore we were trying to buy it for a steal, we were going to have to spend a ton to get it back to working condition. We agreed upon a price that was higher than I wanted. At that point we hired a surveyor for a brief in the water survey. I crawled around the boat for about 6hrs and finally found what I didnt want to find. A crack in the glass below the waterline. It wasnt leaking, and had some red stuff gobbed around it. I mentioned my finding to the broker who at first told me I was silly because my surveyor didnt find it. Then he sent some pictures and an explanation that a few years back a local boat yard had repaired that boat, and that it was done right. Make a long story short the boat had been smashed aground, and instead of repairing it with fiberglass they used BONDO. See pic:
That only wasted a few hundred bucks and 2 weeks worth of negotiations. So we looked at a bunch of other boats, made more offers, wasted more time and money and we were getting a bit desperate and frustrated. This wasnt what we had in mind. Laura accused me of being too picky, I was pissed at all the brokers because the last thing I wanted was to spend every cent I had on something inferior...not at all fun times. So I lowered my standards to increase the odds and ended up looking at a Beneteau....
yeah I stooped way low. However I was excited, the boat had everything we needed for our plans, was cosmetically in acceptable shape, and I negotiated an agreeable price...then we did the survey (where I fork out a bunch of money to an old geezer who tells me the boats fire extinguisher is expired). Nothing on this boat that was powered by electricity worked properly. I assumed the sails were somewhat tired, but the sails were honestly the worst boat sails I had ever seen, and I have seen some pretty sorry sails; a new set of sails for a boat like this cost a least $6000. I was angry and sad at the same time. Angry I wasted my money, and sad we didn't have a damn boat. Laura who was away busting her butt at work was outraged when I told her we wouldn't be buying this boat.
And tha'ts how we ended up with a project boat...now I need to quit blogging and get back to work. Please excuse the grammar and spelling.
