Selloff plans for end of trip?

[MacboyCanada]

In our discussions the wife and I have talked about planning to sell the boat off when we are "finished" but doing so at a significant discount and assuming the "loss" as part of the cost of the amazing trip we'll be taking. Of course we won't take a bath on it (if we can avoid it) but we don't want to get stuck with a boat that we have to pay months and months of storage/moorage/upkeep while we hope it sells. I couldn't find anything in the search so I'm posing the question.

Odds are our trip may well involve buying a boat already at our destination and cruising from there and perhaps leaving it there when we're done. Bringing a boat from Canada south or from south to Canada would take almost all of our available time afloat (one year sabbatical trip). And yes, we hope to sail somewhere warm. As much as I'd love to say we're going to shoot across to the South Pacific the reality is we're likely just going to be island hopping the windward islands perhaps from Grenada to...I don't know....the BVIs and back.

Not to say we can't buy a boat in Fiji I guess....but that's a whole other topic and sailing reality.

Is the discount sell off a reasonable plan or no matter what, is selling a boat tough. Obviously we'll do our best to keep it in tip-top resale condition.

[theway]

I had a similar plan... except I wanted to sail around the world in the suggested minimum of 18 months. Here I am 8 years later with the same boat and no plans of selling anytime soon.

As to your plan, I have a small fraction of the knowledge many of the folks on here have, but my guess they will ask more questions and try to get you to lock in some of those variables

What kind of boat?
What year?
What budget?
Where at?
What is your experience (Sailing and selling?
Etc?

With that, I’d simply say that some places are a lot harder than others to sell a boat. I hear it’s an active market in Australia... and if you sailed it here from somewhere else you could even make a profit on it.

austin

[laika]

Here're some general thoughts:
-don't make any major changes to the boat you buy (unless you make good changes)
-buy a boat that's well-reputed, not a one-off or custom build
-plan a cruise with the general idea of ending up in a good market location (like FL)
-don't buy the farm (tho know knows, maybe you wont come back..)

If you do your homework and buy a good practical boat, it will be a good boat to try and sell a year later.

We know a number of Canadian couples doing year-long sabbaticals at the moment. Some good friends started in Key West, down to Havana, then east to Varadero and up thru the Bahamas before planning on either re-selling in FL or taking it up thru the erie canal and back home with them.

Whatever it is, keep the itinerary loose. Time becomes a different game. Give yourself time to deviate and don't bank on covering too much ground. Take into account where you'll be during hurricane season.

Have fun!

[valhalla360]

Get a standard production boat in good condition without strange modifications. One-offs and oddballs are much harder to sell even if they are great boats. Most people won't even bother to come look.

Price it to sell and be prepared to give a discount and it will sell in a reasonable amount of time. Be realistic and keep emotion out of the process as much as possible.

If you can fit it into the trip, ending with the boat at near home has a nice advantage that you can keep an eye on things. If you are in Canada and the boat is sitting in hot humid florida growing mold, that won't help sell it. If you are nearby, you can keep it clean and check & correct any issues in a timely manner.

[MrReedatsea]

I did this exact thing last year. I'm a school teacher, applied for a one-year sabbatical, took a five-day sailing on Christmas break, bought a sailboat on spring break, and left the coast of Florida for the Bahamas on summer break. I sailed for about 10 months and sold my boat on St. Thomas on condition I deliver it to St. Croix. I spent the next couple months tending bar in a little Mexican cantina on St. Croix before flew home.

I had an amazing adventure, almost died a couple times, and I'm now back at my teaching job in Indiana.

I bought a 1989 O'Day 322 on Marco Island, Florida and added a new auto helm and a Raymarine GPS. Everything else was elbow grease. During the trip I did a lot of tightening and fixing and I also sanded and put several coats of varnish on all the teak.

Because of all the aesthetic work, I actually sold the boat for a little more than I had invested.

If you have other questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

Terry

[amiller]

Good plan, we are doing this now. Cheaper to buy than rent for a year, even with getting hosed on the sale. We are from the Pacific NW, and it was much more practical to buy in the Caribbean. We are 2/3 of the way through sailing from Grenada to Florida....

[Suijin]

It's a depreciating asset and no, you'll never get out of it what you put into it unless part of that is sweat equity and you make major improvements.

One strategy that has not been mentioned thus far in the thread is to buy a boat that has been recently refit. You'll benefit from the previous owner's investment, and the boat will hold it's present value better than a boat that needs work or has older equipment.

I don't agree that you want to buy a "standard" boat that has not been modified, if only because that means you have to do the modifications yourself and you'll never get that money back. In other words, you'll become that "previous owner" above that is taking a bath on their improvements.

[LoudMusic]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

Get a standard production boat in good condition without strange modifications.

This is pretty spot on, nearly as I can tell. When shopping for a boat my wife and I were not interested in what the previous owner had done to "improve" the boat. More than likely it was "improved" in a way we didn't want, and weren't willing to pay for. And in some circumstances it was a detriment to the vessel.

I follow similar logic with cars, and proved it out recently selling an 11 year old unmodified sports car for about $4,000 more than KBB because I had kept it stock and well cared for. If I had done any performance mods to it the buyers would have not been as interested, not knowing how well the work had been done or what wear the vehicle had endured because of it.

[Macblaze]

Take a look at Vloggers Monday Never...they bought and sold within a year or so... they also did a podcast on sailloot where they talk about their numbers. I think they did ok.

Also Sailing with Kids. I think they took off from Lake Champlain in a Tartan 41 and sold her a year later.

Other than the costs you put into the boat to outfit her your way and the cost of maintenance, I think middlin'-old production boats will generally hold their value. Three years later the market has my boat at basically the same price I paid for her and they don't seem to last too long on the market.

One of the gotchas though, is boats tend to be priced based on US dollars and as a Canadian this could work either for you or against you as the Cdn $ fluctuates and where its at when you buy/sell.

[alansmith]

Okay, I'm going to throw a different curve ball for you. How about buying a boat that is on a trailer and can out sail the monohull fleet? The Ian Farrier designed boats...now built by Corsair hold their value quite well. You can pick up a F31 in the 70-80 K range all day long. Even a mid sized pickup can haul them cross country.

They are modest boats but have small galley, toilet, and bunks. It is all you really need. They are the best sailing boats you can imagine. When done for the season put her on the trailer and park her on the side of the house or in the local RV storage yard. Want to sail Maine in June...do it? Want to sail the Keyes in December...do it? Want to sail the area around Ontario in July...do it...want to sail the San Juan's off of Vancouver...do it? Want to sail the Bahamas, Exumas, etc etc.....Can not do that with a mono hull...unless trailerable....and a lot more consternation due to height of boat and associated trailering issues with weight and height of boat...

Shallow draft of Corsairs, easy set up, and take down are the key features in Ian's boats. They hold their value quite well. Why try to cram in a years sailing and then sell the boat. Be a life long sailor with a boat that you won't get eaten alive in. So many beautiful venues. Canada is prime in the summer. Buy a boat that you can afford to keep for many years and plan your vacations where you can trailer your boat to. Store it and continue the adventure....many many people do this mind set. Just my way of thinking.

[SVTatia]

Think about registration.
If you buy in the US you wont be able to re-register there unless you are US citizen. You could change flags and register it in Canada and if you do bring it to Canada, you'll have to pay taxes. There is a whole lot more about registration in the forum - do a search but don't overlook this item.

[MacboyCanada]

I've seen the Corsairs - quite the boat without question but fall shy of the few absolute requirements we have. Macblaze (above) is the biggest curveball to date for my plans. He chimed in on the meet & greet post I left and we discovered our lives are near parallels (right down to employment of both ourselves and our spouses). Anyway - they KEPT their boat and he and his wife cruise it on the West Coast each summer (our spouses both have a good two months off each summer). DEFINITELY a consideration for our situation however we DO want to spend our time off in warmer waters, not transiting back home. I have been giving thought and research energy into the costs of a delivery skipper at the end of our trip though. Or crew so said crew and I could bring her home and the family could fly back to life.

I'll likely have a new thread one of these days as I'm still learning about all the options out there so the short list is still rather long but we're researching the catamaran world as well as the three cabin monohull world - the three cabins being the primary must-have. We can get so much boat for our $ in the monohull world, I just hope the wife doesn't add "multihull" to the list of must-haves. I'd love a nice Lagoon, don't get me wrong but to think what we could get for the same $$ in the monohull world......or what we could do with the $$ we save.....

Our beloved MacGregor 26 hauls like a dream and I'd drive it all the way to the Keys or the ICW (and really want to take it down to Lake Powell) in a heartbeat. In fact we'll cruise Desolation Sound next summer in it. For this year leave on-board we'll definitely want something more spacious, with more stowage and with private quarters for mom & dad and a cabin for each of our two girls. They are nine and six now, quite possibly could be 14/15 and 11/12 by the time we set sail. I'm hoping we don't have to wait that long but at the same time aren't rushing things. As mentioned in the meet & greet post, we can't leave without my mother in law and we also can't bring her along. Sadly that means she'll have passed when we do go but she has been such a tremendous part of our family we couldn't bear leaving her behind. And we'd kill her if she came. hahaha

Because Murphy runs my life, we probably won't set sail until the kids are 25......

[hamburking]

If you PLAN to lose money, you should have no trouble achieving that goal!

As a fellow Canadian, I understand your situation...I think.

You remind me of Will and Catherine Marks. They did exactly what you are planning, including selling the boat fast at the end.

Home - Monday Never

They are fully open about the costs and everything in their video series on youtube. Highly entertaining. FWIW, they bought a CS36 with shoal draft sight unseen in the islands, and sold about a year later in florida.

You should definitely go for it! You will have a great time! And I'll just be a year or two behind you....

[Scaramanga F25]

Lots of boats in the islands. Have a great sabatical. I too from Canada.
Best advice I can give you from a 43 year Carribean veteran.

"Sailboats FSBO Caribbean, vBahamas, Florida, Cent.America, Mexico"

You will find your ready to go boat on this site and sell it there or sail it back north and break even. I did.

Otherwise you may never get there.

[MarkusK]

A one-of worked for a guy in our marina.

It was an aluminum sailboat (~35ft) that he spent most of 2016 re-fitting. Added permanent dodger, davits, wind generator, solar arch and went to the Caribbean with his family of 5.

He came back in 2017 and sold it within a month. Said it was too small!