Free Guide: How To Buy A Sailboat. To give you a taste of what you’ll find in the 35+ page guide, my opening letter excerpt to the reader (below) gives the run down. If you’re going to buy a sailboat soon or the not-so-distant future this guide can help you to save money, avoid buying the wrong sailboat and hopefully provide pointers that you may not have considered.
Excerpt from How to Buy A Sailboat Without Getting Screwed
Before you start, I want to let you know who I am, why I wrote this guide and what my hopes are for you to gain from this guide.
Let me work backwards – this is what I want for you…
I want you to get the right boat for the right value so that you can make your sailboat and sailing dream come true. And I’m hoping that during the course of your sailboat buying journey my family and I can help to entertain, educate, inspire and eventually connect with you at a beautiful tropical anchorage. Note: if your plans are to sail to the Arctic we’ll have to skip the idea of physically meeting. I don’t do cold…
Real quick about me/my family if you haven’t bumped into us before – My family consists of my husband Simon (British), my daughter, Sienna (age 7 at the time of writing) and me – I’m Kim (American). In 2014 my family and I sold all our possessions, purchased our sailboat ‘Britican’ (British and American put together) and headed out to sea.
We’ve been sailing around the world ever since. So far we’ve sailed over 18,500 miles and that includes circumnavigating the Mediterranean, crossing the Atlantic Ocean (took 18 days), enjoying our way up the Caribbean Islands and eventually taking a break from sailing (but not the boat) in Charleston, South Carolina.
Our plan is to head back to sea soon (November 2017) with the intention of sailing to the Pacific via the Panama Canal.
So let me tell you why I wrote this guide for you…
Over the course of our travels we’ve meet hundreds of sailors. And due to our blog, YouTube channel, FaceBook page and other online hangouts we’ve met thousands of sailors (virtually) – new, old and those getting ready to enjoy the sailing lifestyle for the first time.
With all our travels and new friends we’ve not only experienced a massive amount but we’ve also heard story upon story – some good and some not so good.
So, this is my key message – the sailing community is full of great people. The people who work in the sailing industry (boat brokers, sailing service professionals, marina managers, etc.), however, are most often disingenuous, corrupt people.
New and old sailors are getting ripped off all the time. And the place where they get ripped off the most is when they purchase a boat.
But it’s not just the marine industry ‘professionals’ that are to blame. It’s also us sailors. There’s so much information now days that it’s hard to figure out what we need to know to make educated decisions. Buying a sailboat is NOT like buying a house and it’s certainly not like buying a car.
That being stated, the rest of this guide will outline ten steps to buying a boat. With some of the steps I recommend that you upgrade and purchase one of my corresponding non-free guides. Yes, I do run a business and I do need to eat.
This guide is valuable in it’s own right and I’m sure it will help you to avoid being ripped off. If nothing else you’ll gain a clearer perspective about some of the issues involved with buying a boat so to be better prepared.
If you feel that this guide is valuable, please consider getting even more value by purchasing one of my other fifteen guides or buy the full collection (at a discount). Visit my shop now.
Thank you,
Kim, Simon & Sienna
Sailing Britican
Buying, owning, maintaining and sailing/motoring a boat can be immensely rewarding. There’s something so appealing about the thought of heading out into a great blue expanse. The soft breeze against your skin, the smell of the salty sea air and the fundamental absence of ‘normal’ life is so incredibly fulfilling.
With people doing more in less time, technology advancing by the second and the overwhelming amount of information overload abound in today’s society boating is now even more appealing than ever before.
Spending the weekends on a boat helps to recharge batteries. It also helps to reduce stress and provide a reward for all the hard work that’s done during working hours.
And for those fortunate enough to take a sabbatical or sell up and sail away, boating provides an alternative lifestyle that supersedes any lifestyle lived before.
And I speak from experience. After spending eight years of seeking world dominance through my last company, I found myself burnt out, unhappy and approaching some sort of health calamity. The company was very successful but the success came with a price. With our young daughter in tow, my husband and I decided to make a break. As previously mentioned, we sold all our possessions, purchased a boat and started sailing in 2013. We’ve been sailing and living aboard our boat ever since.
Looking back, it was the best decision we could have ever made. Sure, we gave up the promise of financial security, the comfort of owning our own home and the approval of what society deems ‘right,’ but it was well worth it. For several years now we’ve experienced what it means to truly live life. To be alive in all senses of the word.
Back on land we were merely existing, or as a good friend of mine would say, we were, ‘slowly decomposing.’ Out on the boat, we experience incredible sights, meet the most fantastic people, sample incredibly delicious foods and take in the absolute stunning beauty that this world has on offer.
But it hasn’t been easy. Things break all the time. We’ve been caught out in storms. We’ve watched our savings drain down. Things that are easy back on land can prove to be very difficult when living on a boat.
Living full time is not easy but it sure is fulfilling.
And although the sailing community is the best group of people I’ve ever met (sailors will do anything and everything for other sailors), the actual sailing or marine industry houses the most disingenuous, corrupt, evil, backward, greedy group of people I’ve ever come across.
The irony is incredible.
The problem with the boating dream is that ‘you don’t know what you don’t know’. Or, the more positive spin on that saying is, ‘you only know what you know.’
The journey and destination involved in buying a boat can lead to heaven or hell. Some boat buyers get the perfect boat, find service providers that actually give rather than take and grow smoothly into the boating lifestyle.
Others, however, are not so fortunate. Many current disgruntled boat owners have been sold the wrong boat. Perhaps the boat is too big for the owner to ever confidently operate? Or perhaps too complicated? In many cases the boat is in a terrible state and the boat owner finds out too late – after they own the boat.
Several readers responded to an email I wrote regarding experience with boat brokers. I could create a book on the feedback I received. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, I didn’t get any positive emails.
This account below seemed to be the most extreme. Let me share it with you just to give you an idea of how bad boat brokers can really be…
Dealing with boat brokers – reader feedback
I have previously owned a Moody 47 (bought in UK all good experience) and a Leopard 47 catamaran (bought in BVI… actually we flew out to view, arranged meeting for 3pm, confirmed day before, got there and he was out!) so I know a little about buying a boat.
For the past 10 months I have been trying desperately to buy another cruising boat.
I have never in my life met such a shower of lying cheating back stabbing conmen (and women) in my life as the current boat brokers! It would be doing our ‘car salesmen’ a disservice comparing them to boat brokers! I work in what you would call ‘real estate’ and there are a few sharks that I have met in this over the years…. all amateurs compared to your average boat broker!
I have flown to Spain to view a boat that had already been sold! Flown to Italy to see a boat that didn’t exist and then flew to France to view a boat that had NO proof of ownership! I found a boat in Italy that had a lease on it being sold as unencumbered (very common in Italy…beware) flown to Croatia to see such a load of worn out rubbish you would not believe it (photos were given to be of a totally different boat)!
I have gone to view a boat as arranged (specifically a non-chartered/never chartered boat) to be told by the marina (when I couldn’t find it) that it was, yes you guessed, out on charter.
Even the boats we have viewed in southern USA and Britain have in a lot of cases been trashed, the last one being a Beneteau 57 in UK that was so badly maintained I couldn’t believe it actually floated.
So far I have agreed a price (subject to survey and viewing) on FOUR boats only ever to actually proceed to one survey. The one that I did have surveyed had severe osmosis that the broker should have known about.
Many adverts on Yachtworld have photos of ANOTHER BOAT – not the one you are going to look at or photos from several years ago. MOST ads on there are from ‘brokers’ who either are not listing that boat directly (they copy another listing change a few photos) and put a cheaper price or a boat that doesn’t exist, or was sold months ago. It appears that ANYONE can be a broker!
Now after ‘convincing’ my other half to do a circumnavigation, us both getting excited and making plans FOUR times and then flying out and viewing a load of rubbish she has gone off the idea (I don’t blame her) and I am sick of it.
Brokers are paid so highly that they don’t need to try, don’t care if they waste your time, the money comes in from somewhere sometime for that boat anyway, and this attitude is widespread.
I just don’t get it, in sailing over 22,000 miles, I have never met a bad sailor – not one! All have been very helpful, generous, honest and good fun, but brokers are the exact opposite, with a few exceptions.
The gentleman that wrote me the above email wanted to remain anonymous. I wonder if he’ll get a boat or if the dream is done?
And what about boat buyers that manage to get the boat but it’s the wrong (for them) boat?
During our buying process our initial broker in the UK was fantastic. We felt him to be very genuine, helpful and up-front. When the time came to view the boat and do a survey, we were passed to another broker as the boat was located in Majorca, Spain.
Our second broker, from the same company, was terrible. We felt like we were inconveniencing him. When we asked a question we got a generic answer. Upon taking possession of the boat we enquired as to a run down on how the boat worked and the brokers’ response was, ‘Oyster owners tend to want to figure things out themselves…’
Not every broker is bad. The key is to know that there’s a potential for dishonesty in the boat buying industry and act accordingly.
Buying a boat is like doing business back in the days of the Wild West.
My hope is to provide a blueprint of sorts. To help you understand the steps involved in buying a boat. To also decrease the gap between the unknown and known and possibly arm you with the right questions to ask or scenarios to consider.
10 Steps To Getting The Right Boat For The Right Price
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