Where To Start ? All The Good Cats Are In ...

[ausaviator]

I'm sort-of in the same situation.... where to start?

It's ok for the locals but hard for us foreigners. It's like asking where someone could find a cat in Australia. There might be half a dozen in Sydney and 50 in Queensland, scattered all the way from the Whitsundays to the Gold Coast including the Sunshine Coast which has literally dozens for sale. arrrrggghhh!


As a rank amateur looking at the US too, there appears to be lots of random ex-charter yachts amongst the Caribbean, BVI, USVI but amongst many of those there are some good private use boats.

Then, there's random ones all over the east coast, but then there are dozens more if not in the hundreds of vessels locally for sale but not on the major websites and then there's word of mouth.

What am I / we to do people?

[Sand crab]

YW has 93 catamarans and 69 multihull listings in Florida. Some of these are new boats yet to be built and some of these listings overlap but that gives 100+ boats for sale in Fla and the majority are in So. Fla. Ft Lauderdale is the place to walk the docks and see the boats.
I know this seems contrary to common sense but first find a broker then get recommendations on boats from him or have him check out a boat that you like then put an offer in. If accepted then fly in to check the boat out before the survey. The contract will give you an "out" here if it isn't up to snuff. But you could do this anywhere in the world.

[Jimbo485]

Originally Posted by POH

We've quit our jobs and committed to a Carib --> Panama --> Oz trip.

Now we need a boat (you may have seen my other threads on this!)

2nd week of September I'll be footloose in NYC and will head to Carib/Florida to start looking.

Without a specific boat locked in as top priority, where do you guys suggest should be my first destination?

Martinique? Ft. Lauderdale? BVI?

Don't want to spend a fortune traveling around, so also interested if anyone has a place to crash in those spots or needs/wants crew to move around Carib etc. (couchsurf is next best option). Also happy to just have a drink if any forum members think I should come to their neck of the woods.

POH, I am an Aussie and have now bought 2 boats in Florida over the last 12 years. So here is my take.

You shouldn't be asking about a destination. You need to make a short list of specific boats for sale, not destinations, from internet research and then the destination(s) will be obvious. Ideally the destination will be wherever the greatest concentration of your short listed boats is, but the reality is that your short listed boats will be all over the place. You have to be prepared to invest the $$ in travel in order to find the best boat for you. $5000 in travel now will potentially save you much more later in terms of finding the best deal.

(On the basis of my short list, I did a 10-day trip through Texas, Florida, Bahamas, France and Spain to see 8 boats. I signed no contracts and paid no deposit before those visits, even though some brokers wanted me to. I took a mask and snorkel, waterproof camera, took about 100 photos of each boat, including below the waterline, and took copious notes. Some boats dropped off the short list immediately, the rest went into a comparative excel spreadsheet so I could see which ones hit most of my wants and needs. That reduced the final short list to 3 and then I made emailed offers, with no deposit. Once the negotiation was over, I signed a contract with a deposit subject to survey. The brokers will try to bully you into their crazy system (10% deposit before inspection) and you need to resist, but that is another whole topic...)

[karabil]

I agree with poster above. We bought our first carribean boat 8 years ago by finding what suited via net, made conditional offer without deposit, flew in to inspect and survey, then came home and negotiated price taking survey and originl offer into acount. went back 3 months latter to fit out in st Martin and sail back to Aus over 1 year.
This year we again went shopping on the net, narrowed down to 3, allocated 2 weeks to travel, flew in, inspected boats and made comparison lists in first 5 days, offered fixed price take or leave it, when accepted we surveyed and then paid deposit. This boat will stay in the carribean and med rather than come home.