Found the boat! Now what with private seller?

[Bloodhound]

I closed the purchase of our boat last April after travelling both coasts and the Louisiana gulf. I had already decided 90% on a Westsail and saw a dozen of them but I inspected lots of others, too. Seeing others will either convince you your original choice of "brand" is correct or it will open up new options. Photographs are amazingly deceptive and so are verbal descriptions. It was a bit pricy to do a lot of flying, but not nearly as pricy as buying the wrong boat would have been --- I considered it insurance. But the 3 or 4K spent on travel was worth it. I knew the right boat when I saw it (Westsail number 12, seen after 10 months of looking). If anyone seems reluctant to show the boat or provide much information without money down, or they want that last cruise, best to walk away -- they're probably not serious sellers anyway. There are loads of boats for sale, and no doubt many of them better than the one you think you've found. Don't forget the old adage: Decide in haste, repent at leisure. Good luck, enjoy your search, and take your time, it's a great part of the fun.

[Pblais]

Tammy,

Sounds like your boat education is getting along. There are a lot of stories out there and some of them are about boats worth buying. Crawling around on your own may not be what you expected but it is an education about what you can get into. Seeing the bad sooner is better than later. Chasing a few dead ends is pretty standard. You can get better at picking them.

It's always nice to compare similar boats. If you can find sister ships they can be a real eye opener. Seeing one well cared for then one not so well cared starts to make it all work better for your business sense.

In the end, you do make an emotional commitment but it really helps to prolong the affair until just before the wedding. Keeping a clear head also helps. You can see how it goes with a boat close to home that turns out to be a frog so you can understand that going a long way can be just as bad. It really is hard to avoid great expectations when you really do want to find the better boat. Doing a fair amount of looking closer to home is cheaper than going far away. It is possible to go a long way and in 2 seconds know it's not the one if you are objective until after the survey. It's also my experience that you know when it's the one pretty quick too. You just can't be sure until it's all checked out.

Good luck with your search and of course we never close and are always close by.

[outthere09]

Gee, I love all of you guys...and this forum! You've all been there and done that, probably more than once!

I've corresponded with a couple of you who have looked at the boat specs and given me some good things to think about in this purchase. I was initially all about getting a Westsail 32; it is more my size and can't beat the safety of it. But when I read about pointing difficulties, compression post issues; and poor maneuverability and light air performance, I decided to move on. Oh, not to mention the condition of the sprit which is a problem if it hasn't been reworked.

Randall (I think) you just bought one so I'd be interested in how you settled on your Westy.

I went to see a Tartan 37 last week, so in preparation I went on their site and looked at owner's blogs. One just blew me away...they had major failures during their 6-month cruise. I've lived on boats and know that's a part of it all, but there were so many that you've got to wonder...is it the boat? Was it their poor maintenance? Or had the systems just reach the useful end of their cycle. That sort of soured me on Tartans...probably unjustifiably so, so I apologize in advance to all of you.

So, based on the advice of my 'forum gurus' I will keep my perfect boat in my back pocket and spend some time in the next month or two walking the docks here in Florida and hopefully get on lots of boats and answers to lots of questions.

I'm also going to spend some time pricing out things like canvas, davits, major electronics gadgets like SSB, RADAR, GPS etc, heads, so that I can make a good offer on what's there and what needs to be upgraded.

Too bad I have a LIFE in the meantime! But, I'll be baaack.

[outthere09]

Sorry...it was Bloodhound who bought the Westsail. So if you want to share details on your experience, I'd love it.

[theonecalledtom]

Tammy, not a forum guru, am new to all this and here to learn (I intend on putting back what I get in time, right now the balance sheet of advice is stacked against me).

However wanted to add another voice to the "don't put the money down until you've stepped on board the boat". We bought our baby last year and in the search many boats looked great in photos that were far from it in life (amazingly so) others looked better in real life than they did on paper. Our boat was discarded in fact until a broker convinced us otherwise.

One boat looked great on paper, and lovely when you poked your head in but smelt off and then turned out to have water leaking in a load of places behind all that good looking upholstery (broker suggested that all boats leak, ours doesn't, at least not from a bit of rain).

There were so many boats listed in FL (we were looking in Ca) that I was considering flying over to find one, can't believe there are fewer now!

Regards,

-Tom

[Celestialsailor]

Just know that if you use a Broker, they will probably want 10% from the seller and that might hurt the deal. I assume this is your first boat. I will tell you buyers are very hard to come by. Unless it is a Swan for $1000, I would doubt there is a line out the door. I recently purchased my Rawson Pilothouse in N.Y. for 1/3 what they go for on the West Coast. It was on the market for 7 months and when I made the offer, it had it's first dusting of snow on the decks and moorage was $500 a month. With the economy, it's a buyers market.
Good luck on your new boat.

[Pblais]

I went to see a Tartan 37 last week, so in preparation I went on their site and looked at owner's blogs. One just blew me away...they had major failures during their 6-month cruise. I've lived on boats and know that's a part of it all, but there were so many that you've got to wonder...is it the boat?

I have two friends with Tartan 37's. One bought it new a very long time ago and the other has had it about half it's life. They are actually a prettty nice boat as far as performance and build quality. I think you are perhaps falling into a trap where if you hear someone had a problem then the boats must not be that great. If you are looking at older boats then you can expect some problems.

I would walk some more boats and if possible try and find some sister ships of the same boat. It really helps to see the diversity of a single boat in terms of different years of production and different outfitting and maintenance.

If you can check out some of the owners Groups on the internet you can find the details about problems but you also get a sense of why they like them too.They are more honest that you will see them other places too. If you find a boat that may have potential probelm then you can look to see if it has been fixed. If not you may already have found the cure. Curing problems is a lot wasier if you have found how other pople of similar boats have cured them.

I wouldn't be sour on Westsails either.

Too bad I have a LIFE in the meantime!

I find it cuts down on sailing too.

[SeaKing]

We bought our boat in the Bahama's 3 years ago. Be careful of duties and taxes. We never spoke of the sale to any officials, the boat's cruising permit was in the previous owners name. After the survey, we sailed to west Palm cleared in to the U.S. and spent a few days. Then sailed back to Grand Bahama to leave the boat for a few months getting a cruising permit in our name "after" the sale in FL.

[outthere09]

Thanks for that info SeaKing...something I had not thought of. I lived in the BVI's for three years on a boat and became very, very familiar with the local customs agents; not by choice! Basically, big smile...yes you are right, we are wrong (although not actually), and what do we need to do to fix this? We were chartering and our 'work permits' took forever through their system, but of course, it was all OUR fault! I was detained a couple of times in West End on my way back from visits to the U.S. Takes lots of patience and big SMILES!

[Hiracer]

This might help with your search:

Mahina Expedition - Offshore Cruising Instruction

If the correct page doesn't come up, go to 'consultation' and from there to 'boat selection.'