What would you chosse: newer but smaller or older and cheaper?

[bergmd]

@Riki Did you make your choice? I'm having to face a similar situation. What did you learn?

[Dave_S]

Originally Posted by Sojourner

Older vs Newer was a big question for us as well..... my instinct when buying a car or motorbike or anything is go newer, fewer headaches. BUT then I realized everything expensive on a sailboat needs to be replaced / overhauled every 10 years as a general rule of thumb. New sails, rigging, engine overhaul, electronics.... so then the 1998 boat we were looking at with outdated gear suddenly became much worse a deal than the 1991 we ended up buying with new/refitted everything. As long as the hull and keel and deck are in good shape, there's no reason to worry about a few extra years of life on a boat. It's the stuff inside and bolted onto it that you should check and see how much is gonna cost you in a year vs 10....

^^^ IMO This is good advice

Work out the cost based on time until replacement of big ticket items calculate pro rata on the expected life. Then you can compare $. Both of these boats will be in different places in the replacement components cycle.

Once you have a value comparison then calculate size, it matters. I don't know the boats you are comparing but if they are like for like I think in comfort and sailing capabilities the difference between 38' and 44' would be much more than the 16% that it appears on paper.

I don't see any issue with age so long as they are similar boats.


Just noticed the old date
Ha ha...........as you were

[bergmd]

Thank for the advice, Dave.

[GrowleyMonster]

Single? Family? The bigger boat no matter how you slice and dice it, potentially has more room, if you include all available space for tramps to lounge on. Probably more room in the hulls, too. Single and singlehanding? I would go with the smaller. Less upkeep, all things being equal. Smaller sail plan = easier handling. My boat is a 44' mono sloop and I have the weight and strength to handle the rig pretty well, but when the wind is up it can be a real bear. Singlehanded, I would prefer something smaller. I pretty much knew it would be this way but I am counting on GF to help take over some of the sailing duties as she gets experience. It's sort of in our pre-nup, LOL! Yes, pretty much ANY sloop, ketch, or yawl rig can be set up for singlehanding, with limitations and workarounds, but I think if you are singlehanding a lot, you would prefer something under 40' or something like a motorsailer with a smallish sail plan. And NO boat is big enough for a family. Everyone and their gear will expand to fit all available space.


As pointed out already, the more modern boat might have a more efficient layout, narrowing the usable space gap between them.

[riki]

Originally Posted by bergmd

@Riki Did you make your choice? I'm having to face a similar situation. What did you learn?

Hey berg, sorry for the late answer but not many news. I am slowly shifting to the decision of saving a little bit more and then aim for something newer. I’m afraid that buying something old not only won’t satisfy my needs and taste but will mostly represent huge expenses in the next future. Beside that I never found anything that justifies, from my point of view, the prices that most of sellers are asking for old and surpassed boats, and in all honesty I don’t feel to spend 100k for a +20 years old boat already squeezed by big charter companies, then small charter companies, then crappy charter companies and maybe a few more owners. No thanx.
Cheers

[LeeV]

Originally Posted by riki

Hey berg, sorry for the late answer but not many news. I am slowly shifting to the decision of saving a little bit more and then aim for something newer. I’m afraid that buying something old not only won’t satisfy my needs and taste but will mostly represent huge expenses in the next future. Beside that I never found anything that justifies, from my point of view, the prices that most of sellers are asking for old and surpassed boats, and in all honesty I don’t feel to spend 100k for a +20 years old boat already squeezed by big charter companies, then small charter companies, then crappy charter companies and maybe a few more owners. No thanx.
Cheers

All good, reasonable thoughts. We're still looking, and our debates and conversations have taken us away from new, to 2-3 year used, and now we're looking at a bit larger but 6-8 years older based on our situation. And we're financing 80%.

I'll retire in about 5 years, my wife in 6. Govt and school employees, so not wealthy. We won't sell our home unless it's to move to Florida and buy an equal value home (sub 500k). So we need to buy now while we're working; if we buy something really costly, e.g., $500k and sell before we retire, then it would work, but we want to keep our boat into retirement so that won't work.

Bottom line, we've saved enough for a deposit on a $375-$400k boat that would leave us with a manageable mortgage (our home mortgage is small). As we keep saving, the loan amount will drop a fair amount, so we're taking our time.

You probably didn't need to hear all that, but that's where we are!

[riki]

Originally Posted by LeeV

All good, reasonable thoughts. We're still looking, and our debates and conversations have taken us away from new, to 2-3 year used, and now we're looking at a bit larger but 6-8 years older based on our situation. And we're financing 80%.

I'll retire in about 5 years, my wife in 6. Govt and school employees, so not wealthy. We won't sell our home unless it's to move to Florida and buy an equal value home (sub 500k). So we need to buy now while we're working; if we buy something really costly, e.g., $500k and sell before we retire, then it would work, but we want to keep our boat into retirement so that won't work.

Bottom line, we've saved enough for a deposit on a $375-$400k boat that would leave us with a manageable mortgage (our home mortgage is small). As we keep saving, the loan amount will drop a fair amount, so we're taking our time.

You probably didn't need to hear all that, but that's where we are!

Nice one. Good luck with your choice. 😉