The End of the Beginning...Long Distance Purchase (maybe)

[Taodnt]

Greetings All,

I will try to be brief but fail. Last December a friend suggested I look into sailing as a hobby. Rugby union football has been my sport of choice for over 40 years (player, club administrator, regional administrator, referee, referee coach, and now back to club administrator, and of course...fan) so I had no time and frankly no interest in sailing.

But the conversation intrigued me and on a Sunday night at 10PM I hopped onto the local Craigslist to look for sailboats for sale. What am I looking at for initial costs, etc? Now, this IS December and I live close to (for American football fans easily guessable) the "Frozen Tundra" (which is now heated btw) and came across an ad from someone selling their boat because they were retiring to Florida and didn't want to trailer it down because "there are plenty of boats for sale in Florida".

My Dad lives in Bradenton, so I search the Sarasota-Bradenton craigslist there and start reading some ads and come across the term "blue water". I guessed as to the meaning but Google searched it anyways and found a whole ton of stuff. Later (now about 2AM) I found the blog "Zero to Cruising" (I am a 'zero'), read for a few hours and I am hooked (hard)[actually in fishing terms I swallowed the hook].

Prior to that night what I knew about sailboats and sailing you could put in a thimble and have room for your finger. A few days later I found this forum and have been getting the daily updates ever since. Of course a lot of the posts and replies have me scrambling around learning all sorts of things. My career in software development has me lacking in mechanical, electrical, plumbing, hydraulic, electronic, woodworking, and navigation skills which seem to be required for this venture. I get to learn something(s) new every day.

I have my first formal sailing lessons starting next Monday with an Intermediate set of lessons scheduled for August. I am 63 and employed, but all my cash tied up in my company's profit sharing plan. I cannot borrow from it so have planned on purchasing a boat after I retire in 18 months. That was my plan.

In my research I have been drawn to the Nonsuch brand. One has come up for sale that I can purchase now with funds that I can borrow p[rivately and repay at retirement. I would store the boat until I am ready to sail. The problem is that it is far away and I need/want to act quickly (and prudently).

My questions to the Team:

Is there a lower limit to the selling price of a sailboat that hiring a Surveyor is usually not done? The boat is selling at $25,000. I am thinking I should spend the money on the survey.

I would welcome any recommendations for a surveyor. The boat is located in Florida East Coast. How quickly do surveyors act on a request?

Do I escrow the purchase price based on survey results?

How are sailboat transactions "regulated"? Are there titles? Do I need to perform lien searches, etc?

I am not a Florida resident and I do not have the means to move the boat at this time. I imagine there is a registration process. I am asking for guidance here because of the timing of the opportunity.

Any recommendations on insuring the boat would be welcome as well. If I were sticking to my 18 month plan I could do all this research on my own.

I have read many threads regarding how the dream and the plan are one thing and that the execution of the plan is totally something else. That is why I titled this the way I did. I am at the execution phase early, and at the end of the dream (the beginning).

All comments and suggestions welcome. If there is a part of this process that I missed please enlighten me. I have more questions but I do not want to wear out my welcome. I hope this is the right place for the post.

Thanks for listening.

Chris