I have a sneaking suspicion that have never even seen the boat in the flesh. Beware pictures on the
internet. We hates them! They lie...they LIE!
Backing up a bit from what I'm going to suggest, I just want to say that the trucking cost you got quoted is very likely a very low estimate of what it's ultimately going to cost you. Moving a 40' boat, including decommissioning and recommissioning, from coast to coast of the US is going to run @ $15k, all in. Your truck has to go through a couple of countries before it even gets to the US. If the boat is not derigged and secured properly your $15k proposition can turn instantly into a much more expensive problem...in countries where redress is extremely difficult.
If I were hiring a
delivery captain for that transit, I would hire the guy first and worry about where he lived second. You're talking the
price of a plane ticket, big f'ing deal. Long haul
delivery captains are multi-talented MacGuyvers for the simple fact that they routinely get on old boats in questionable states of
maintenance and need to find a way to get the job done. They need to know diesels,
electrical systems etc. inside and out and that is before you even get to knowing the
route that they are going to go.
You're going to
live aboard and you're a
novice. What you need is a swami, and there are in fact some boat brokers who specialize in exactly what it is that you want to do. You need to look at boats, lots of boats, and not just on the
internet. You need to get in them, sail them, poke around in them and so forth. I guarantee you that after doing that with a knowledgeable
broker you'll end up deciding on a different make/model than you had figured on. THEN you spend TIME finding the BEST VALUE boat of the type/class/make/model that you've decided on.
This is critical. Boats depreciate. You're not buying equity, you're buying a hole in the
water that you dump
money into, pure and simple. But if you buy the right boat that can be mitigated to a serious degree. The key is to realize that every boat is a compromise, and the longer you look at boats the better those compromises come into focus and many of those things you thought you could not live without, particularly some aesthetic considerations, fall to the back of the line.
Starting out by paying someone $15k to deliver a boat that you've only seen from pictures is a recipe for disaster. Don't do it. Find someone who can help you by educating you about the process you're undertaking IN PERSON, and enjoy the ride.
And no, I'm not a
boat broker.