Any interest in boat search tool?

[messias]

Yep!

I'll definitely use it!

[Cap Erict3]

Originally Posted by Ryban

I built myself a web app to aid in my boat search quest and have been considering opening it up to the public.



Description:

Over time I have built a list of boats I would be interested in purchasing if they show up for the right price and in a semi-convenient location. However, I was spending far too much on yachtworld typing in my queries one-by-one.



This app performs the queries for me once a day, collects the data, and displays it clearly and simply along with a map view of where each boat is located. I can see my queries and add/modify/delete them with a few clicks.



Before I do the work of opening it up, I wanted to see if there would be any interest in having this tool available?

Have you found your dream boat?

[KaPitek]

I also would be interested.
Ryban, can You provide link to try it, please.

[cookingguy]

Ryban,

I think that would be awesome and very helpful for someone like me who is getting into sailing and wanting to find the right sail boat for my needs.

thanks

[Ryban]

This generated a lot more interest than I expected.

I have a working prototype, but it's strictly tailored to only be used by myself. I need to at the backend user support, harden the system, and test server load.

YachtWorld does not provide API support to my knowledge, and I am relying on a scraping scheme. I depend on predictable output from YachtWorld. Occasionally they go through a design change and that requires an update on my side. It is not known to me what is "reasonable" in terms of number of requests I can make to their servers, so my standing plan is to run all user queries once a day.

This may seem inconvenient, but in my experience with my queries, only a few boats get added each week, and I'm looking at about 30 different boat models/lengths across the west coast.

I'll be adding support for SailboatListings as well, and possibly other sources.

I'll take suggestions into consideration, but my priority right now is to launch, and then add features as I get user feedback.

Give me ~2 weeks.

[mramoo]

Ryban,
Thanks for the update. I'm sure that those of us that are looking for "new to us boats" as you are, will welcome your app.

[hsi88]

I use oodle.com. It covers pretty much all the boat listing websites with a single search.

[Ryban]

Originally Posted by hsi88

I use oodle.com. It covers pretty much all the boat listing websites with a single search.

I'm not sure oodle's features overlap with the features I'm offering.

I have a very specific set of boats, each with their own year and price ranges I'm interested in. My service knows what I'm looking for, monitors the market, and gives me a daily summary for me to sort through.

I'll happily embrace an existing web app that does what I'm specifying, but to my knowledge such a tool doesn't exist.

[hsi88]

I'm not sure oodle's features overlap with the features I'm offering.

I have a very specific set of boats, each with their own year and price ranges I'm interested in. My service knows what I'm looking for, monitors the market, and gives me a daily summary for me to sort through.

You are probably right about that. With oodle, I think I would have to set up a separate search for each boat model to get different ranges for each boat. But when looking for lets say a Catalina or Hunter, between a certain size range, year range, price range and location range, I can do that and have any new listings emailed to me instantly or on a daily basis. They have some additional options as well. Like only show me ad's with pictures and things like that.

The one thing oodle (and perhaps others) have problems with are the ads where they show $10 but really want $10,000. They should probably assume the higher price. The people running the ads just want to be included in searches for cheaper boats. Pretty sneaky!

[Pole]

I think its an excellent idea... do you want to make money selling the app? Boats tend to be a 'buy-one-every-10-to-20-years' kindathing. Would I actually buy the app if I was searching for a yacht...
But what this app could also be used for is valueing a boat. And thats probably something every boat owner wants to know - Whats my boat worth in todays market?

[Ryban]

Originally Posted by Pole

I think its an excellent idea... do you want to make money selling the app? Boats tend to be a 'buy-one-every-10-to-20-years' kindathing. Would I actually buy the app if I was searching for a yacht...
But what this app could also be used for is valueing a boat. And thats probably something every boat owner wants to know - Whats my boat worth in todays market?

I plan on launching as free, especially in the alpha/beta phases. If the project is successful and people are using it, I may decide to monetize it somehow -- but probably either with a subscription (a couple bucks a month) or with ads.

[Ryban]

Just an update: I've recently have had time to work on this, and do some testing of the infrastructure and should have a beta out before Thanksgiving.

Will post here, and probably in a fresh post when the beta is deployed.

[cpt_757]

Looking forward to!!

[reed1v]

There are already free apps that do this: Sailnet is one of them. Most of the navigation apps now interface with boat vendors, suppliers, etc all along one's waypoints. Not sure what more one could add to these. We used one last summer going through the Cape Cod Canal to compare fuel dock prices along the coast up to Quincy, got a good restaurant hit in Scituate, and pre ordered some fuel filters in Portland: all done on one app with our old Iphone. Total cost= zilch.

[Ryban]

Originally Posted by reed1v

There are already free apps that do this: Sailnet is one of them. Most of the navigation apps now interface with boat vendors, suppliers, etc all along one's waypoints. Not sure what more one could add to these. We used one last summer going through the Cape Cod Canal to compare fuel dock prices along the coast up to Quincy, got a good restaurant hit in Scituate, and pre ordered some fuel filters in Portland: all done on one app with our old Iphone. Total cost= zilch.

I'm not sure there's an overlap between the features I'm offering with this app, and what those tools are offering.

This tool has a very specific, simple purpose: provide people in the boat-buying market an overview of what's available that meets their parameters, at their price range. It crawls websites like sailboatlistings and yachtworld to collect this data.