I am on the same
boat, planning to do a similar transaction.. I was about to close on a boat from UK owners and I was thinking about using this service:
Transpact.com - Secure Escrow - Buyers' Satisfaction Guaranteed, Sellers get paid, Guaranteed
It seems like a good option if you are in
Europe. It is an online escrow service and it does appear to be serious and the
fees are not too bad.
You probably know about escrow.com .. very established etc.. that might be better if you or the seller is based in North America, etc.
Either way, unless this is just a smaller
purchase where you can risk the
money, I think I would not dare do a direct transfer unless the seller was willing to give me the boat, keys and bill of
sale *before* I sent him the
money. That is usually not going to happen so an escrow is the way to go I think. Transferring money without anything in your hands is .. well.. having a lot of faith in humanity