So, You Want to Buy a Boat !

Finding The Right Boat -
All boats are a compromise and some will suit your usage much better than others. A sedan trawler with full 18" walkaround may not look as sleek as one of the newer motoryachts but you will be able to reach the dock without being an acrobat. The express cruiser may have that large cockpit for entertaining but have little space to sit below when the rain falls. A motoryacht may have an electric stove or refrigeration that only works when you are plugged in to shorepower or with the generator running. The sloop may have a slick navigation station but if your cruising comprises of weekend trips to Hanlan's Point with friends and family, wouldn't another quarterberth make more sense? The huge cockpit on the cutter may be great for eight people but that often means you have no aft cabin and a tight saloon. The varieties of equipment and layout are endless but the benefits and downfalls of each will quickly become apparent after spending some time on the vessel. Spend the time before you write a deposit cheque. Buying a boat is an emotional experience and usually the culmination of a dream. This can be an exhilarating time and a lot of fun as the vision of cruising off into the sunset is quite appealing. What we must not forget is that the dream and reality can be significantly different. I often do another marine survey for clients a year (sometimes only months) after the first, because they simply bought a boat unsuited to their needs.

As a buyer you can save time and money by a little forethought. Take a look at the sample surveys you can link to on my home page. These samples are fairly typical and will give you a good idea of what I am going to be looking for and may suggest questions you should be asking. Never, ever, never hire a marine surveyor without seeing a sample of his/her work. I have done up to three surveys for the same buyer when he could have easily dismissed the first two boats if he had just looked a little closer himself.

After you have gotten over the thrill of finding the right boat, put your emotions aside and take a critical look. No one expects you to be a surveyor but you can do your own mini-boat survey and try to look past the Corian counter tops and the spiffy colour coordinated window coverings and start digging. Look for all the obvious and easily found stuff like solid core copper AC wiring, lack of G.F.C.I's , huge battery banks under the settee with no ventilation, Old automatic Halon systems without dated inspection tags, fractured exhaust hoses, corrosion on exhaust manifolds or wiring terminals, separated bulkheads, loose cutless bearings, abnormal corrosion on outdrives, saturated rudders, galled terminals on standing rigging or weeping chainplate knees.

Every boat manufactured or imported into the USA since 1971 should have an HIN/MIC on the upper starboard transom. This requirement was not mandatory in Canada until 1981 but since most Canadian boats were sold into the US they too will sometimes have this code marked on the transom. Some manufacturers were/are a little sloppy about this so it may be on the starboard side or even on the side of the hull near the stern. What is it ? well it's a bit like the VIN on your car. The first three letters of the "Hull Identification Number / Manufacturers Identification Code" identify the manufacturer and the other 9 characters give you the serial number, model year and month & year of manufacture. If you want to know more, go to the Transport Canada link on my home page or read my other article " Whats a HIN". The first three letters of the code will also enable you to do a search on the USCG web site where they keep a Recall Data Base. This database gives limited and sometimes incomplete information about USCG recalls but it is a start. There are some very detailed databases focused on problems with specific models however access is limited to the trade and is not free.

Yeah, I know it can sound a little overwhelming but with patience you can discover a lot, at least check the seacocks ! Take a look at Transport Canada, " TP1332, Construction Standards For Small Vessels". These standards are a bit weak but they are a free download. Unfortunately you cannot download the ABYC or NFPA standards without spending several hundred dollars but TP1332E is a start.

Use a Broker.....or not ! - Choose your broker carefully, there are those professionals who truly love the business of boating and act accordingly and those who just list and sell a "unit" often without even seeing it. Buying a boat can be a time consuming and complex exercise what with offers, counter offers, arranging sea trials, haulouts and surveys let alone lien checks, licensing or registering the boat and making sure that everything listed is there when you take possession. As with surveyors it's a case of caveat emptor. Brokers may also be able to help you reduce taxes and if you are looking at a boat South of the Border a good broker is indispensable as he will know the ins and outs of taxes, duties and how to protect your deposit in the event things don't go as planned. Thoroughly check out a broker, you don't have to call the one that is advertising the boat, you can use any broker that you feel comfortable with just like in a real estate transaction. A good broker is well worth the money that is built into the selling price. I don't believe you save much (if anything) by buying privately because the current owner will also expect to benefit from that difference. Remember this can also be an emotional experience for the seller and it is not unusual for conflicts to develop as negotiations progress. Sometimes it is a good idea to keep some distance between buyers and sellers, this factor alone can be worth the brokers 10%.

Take a look at my companion article How To Choose Your Marine Surveyor

Be Realistic About Your Survey

We owned "Isle of Skye" for thirteen years and in that time installed new shaft, stuffing box, stern tube, shaft log, transmission, fuel injection system undergone a total engine rebuild and replaced or rebuilt virtually every system on the boat from plumbing and electronics to hydraulics….. I still learned something new every time I crawled through the bilge.
Surveys are limited by the physical and visual accessibility to the structural elements and systems. No surveyor can find everything thats wrong with a boat in the few hours allotted to a survey and a lot of the issues he does find are subject to his interpretations. For instance several local surveyors make a big issue of wet balsa core on sailboat decks and consider this a serious issue while I have never seen wet deck core hurt anyone or sink a boat.....so if the price is right.... buy it and go sailing (blue water cruising excepted). A 100% accurate marine survey would require complete disassembly of the vessel, a large number of holes drilled and require the services of several specialists.

The Price - If you call any used car dealer or bank in North America and name any production automobile, they will quote a value of within a few dollars of each other. This is due to the multi-billion dollar, well organized wholesale car auction system. With over 2,200 boat manufacturers (USCG Listings) there is no such market for boats and the older a boat gets the bigger the price discrepancies. There are several value guides for the boat market but they rarely match what is happening in the market because each publication relies on their own group of broker/subscribers for the information they compile and much of this is geographically oriented and may be based on listed rather than actual selling prices. I have seen the most popular of these guides quote both 50% higher and lower than what specific boats were actually selling for. I have seen junk sell for outrageous prices and good boats for a song. Take a good long look at as many similar models as possible and compare their asking prices. Sometimes there are valid reasons for a high price and sometimes not. Unless you are a very experienced boater avoid buying a boat you can "fix up". Take a look around most boat yards and you will see lots of boats that were bought cheap and will never cruise again. Take a look at my article " Whats She Worth ? ".

The Offer - Most yacht brokers will have some type of standard "Offer to Purchase" form and most will include terms offering some protection to both parties. As a purchaser you should ensure that at least the following conditions are in place.......
This offer is conditional on 1. A marine survey report, satisfactory to the purchaser. 2. An engine survey report, satisfactory to the purchaser. 3. A sea trial, satisfactory to the purchaser.

Pre - Survey Inspections -
OK, You have found the right broker, the right surveyor, the right boat and have put in the right offer. Now we are on to the survey........almost.