Purchasing a Moorings-Owned Boat - Thoughts?

[Reality Check]

Damn, I'm also from Florida but can not understand this post?? What is a dog squeeze and the other stuff? You squeeze dogs to determine the quality of a boat???

[captmick39]

IF You Owned a Dog, You would Know that when they're in the yard, doing their "bidness", sometimes there are some quite expressive faces put on as they attempt to
SQUEEZE that "pile" out.

Politely, we call it "dog Squeeze".
I could have just typed dog sh*t & You'd have less to wonder about;
forgive the poetic/literary "license".

Now try to not step in any of that "dog squeeze", fair enough?
-Mick
PS & back to Your posting...I wouldn't recommend EVER picking up a freshly fed mutt of any denomination and "squeezing" them to determine ANY Thing about a boat....odds are You'll need a change of clothes instead of taking advantage of LQQKing at that boat.
Give 'ole Neal Boortz a listen on the radio some time...1 of his favorite expressions. Used locally often to be "polite" throughout florida (& it's boatyards)for at least the last 3 decades. Anybody who "didn't Know" when You asked...was laughing behind Your back after the fact like the "____vs. shinola" comparison.
Probably muttering "yankees, gotta luv 'em" as well.
My apologies (to all) for the distraction of this posting.

[P365Sailor]

If you are looking to purchase a yacht coming out of charter, AVOID Moorings/Sunsail...anything owned by TUI. Recent experience...my client arranged to purchase a large catamaran in the middle of 2015 (and me to assist returning to US and with acceptance checks). After survey there were a number of issues that the Moorings was to have addressed. In October they assured my client that they couldn't get the work done in a timely manner in St. Martin, so they were moving the vessel to Tortola to get work done. In December they assured my client that all work was done and he could come down and close the purchase (this on a Friday phone call). When we arrived Sunday afternoon NOT ONE OF THE ITEMS HAD BEEN ADDRESSED!!! After another week of excuses from the Moorings we flew back to the US. Six weeks later we flew back, having been assured by the Moorings that all work had been completed. Same horrible experience...very little had been done and the quality of work that had been done was pathetic (e.g. rewiring of some components...we opened access panels and found wires wrapped together...no butt connectors, no electrical tape...just raw wires wrapped together!!!!). They said they would clean the boat before we got there...they did; used a (high) pressure washer...you can imagine what that did to the seals on windows and ports. Did they offer to address these issues - no.
I have NEVER seen a corporation take such a callous attitude towards a customer. After he finally took delivery of the vessel (still with additional promises to complete work) it was moved over to another marina there in Tortola. No surprise when we met two other couples who had recently purchased vessels from the Moorings/Sunsail - they had the same pitiful experience. This is not a one-time experience.
So, if you are planning to purchase from a TUI owned organization:
1) Have a through survey
2) Do not close on the purchase until all work has been accomplished and inspected
3) Plan on holding back at least 20% of purchase price until all work has been completed to your satisfaction. Consider asking for a project plan for work to be done and adding a penalty clause associated with work being completed on time and meeting a quality standard.
Better yet...buy from someone else.
　

[edmundsteele]

My wife and I purchased a leopard 47 PC from Moorings Tortola last August. We had no illusions as to the probable condition of a five year old rental boat and we had carefully researched the other options. We would have like to have bought a privately owned “Owner’s version” of the 47PC but even used, they are rare and run anywhere from $150K to $250K more than the “Charter” version. Most of the Mooring’s 47PC’s come off their 5 year charter contract offered in the $360 to $390K range.

As others have recommended, we hired a surveyor and attended the “sea trial”. The condition of the boat as presented was not impressive but the hull and systems were fundamentally sound and the Moorings would repair or replace the 80 plus items that were found defective, some cosmetic and some systems related. During the initial survey my wife had taken over 300 photographs of the vessel in order to obtain guidance for storage and decorating. These photographs turned out to be invaluable as Mooring’s service technicians have an unofficial habit of “borrowing” items from out of service vessels in order to make quick fixes. This means that the vessel you receive after “phase-out” – the Mooring’s term for the after contract repair session - may have completely different upholstery, furniture, rigging etc. from those which were accepted during the purchase inspection 3 months earlier. The repair crews operate in continuous crisis mode to meet charter schedules and as other’s have reported, completion dates of promised work seem to slide unless financial pressure is applied.

Are we happy with our purchase 7 months later? Yes. Would we buy from the Moorings again? Yes, with the caveat that the buyer gets a reliable survey and follow this with a careful and systematic pre-delivery inspection. The Moorings folks did not balk at repairing any defect we presented and made repairs / replacements promptly.
Ed
M/Y DoodleBug

[David Hughes]

I'd like to add to this discussion one more viewpoint.

In June 2015, I bought a company-owned 2009 37 Powercat from the Moorings brokerage base in Ft Lauderdale. This was a boat that spent it's 5 years in Marsh Harbour, Abacos, one of the quieter Moorings bases. This boat had 2600 hours on the engines, with 600 of them being the drive from South Africa. Yes, this power boat was driven 6500nm from Cape Town to Marsh Harbour!!! The logbook was fascinating reading.

So, that was 2000 charter hours in 5 years or 400 hours per year, about 10 weeks per year. Being brought over from Bahamas with duty paid by Moorings made survey by a knowledgeable Ft Lauderdale cat specialist, and necessary pre-purchase fixes much simpler and more reliable, than the spit and bailing wire work done in the Bahamas.

I paid $230,000, about $20K more than similar BVI boats coming off charter at the same time, but I'd wager that my Bahamas boat was much less used, and also had never seen even a 3 foot wave in the Sea of Abaco.

It did cost $25k in all kinds of stuff to get it safe, reliable, and comfortable.

All in all, I'm a happy purchaser from Moorings. I would personally shy away from a BVI boat because they take a pounding and get very heavy use, but as many have said, it's more about the individual boat and how good the exit repair work was.


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[Cheechako]

Mg used to offer their repair and maintenance records on boats for sale. If they still do I strongly suggest you actually read and try to decipher them. many charter boats run aground etc.