I’ve
sold my
boat and I’ve been in the market for my next sailboat for about a month now, but I haven’t been having great luck and the summer sunshine here in
British Columbia doesn’t last long, so I thought I’d see if anyone on the Cruisers Forum can suggest any leads—or if anyone’s selling.
My difficulty seems to be that my
budget and needs are in an awkward range. I’m paying straight out of my pocket rather than
financing through a bank or finance company (long dispiriting story there), so that means that my
budget is about $25,000 Cdn, which has to cover: a) the
boat price; b) the 7% BC sales tax (plus another 5% federal tax, if I buy from the States); c) initial
repairs and upgrades.
On the plus side, I already have moorage lined up. Also, my needs aren’t exorbitant. I need the following features:
- 29+ feet length
- furling
- fibreglass hull
- a reliable inboard diesel that I can easily get parts for
- VHF, sounder
- a dinghy
Notably, certain of these elements I can add in myself as upgrades, if the base
price is low enough. There are plenty of other elements I’d like (such as
wheel steering), but given my budget constraints I’m philosophic about what to hope for. A coastal cruiser is fine; I'm still tied to my (5) jobs, so I won't be crossing oceans for years yet. I do, however, need the boat's fundamentals to be in serviceable shape; I’m reconciled to having to fix up any boat in my price range, but I can’t buy anything that will eat up my dwindling summer with a major stint in the workyard (i.e., I don’t mind having to
work on it through the
winter, but it has to be useable in the short term).
Yachtworld and the other famous search sites seem to have quite a few such
boats, but now that I’ve hunted all the brokerage listings in BC (and skimmed the cream of
Washington State). It seems that all the
boats listed in my vague range tend to be: 1) overpriced smaller boats that are pimped up or pumped up price-wise; 2) boats that should be $30k but which are in terrible shape; 3) boats that seem generally fine on paper but then turn out to Have Something Dreadfully Wrong.
Before a kindly soul inevitably suggests it: I have indeed done the “wandering
marinas looking for ‘for sale’ signs and asking around at the marina offices and inquiring about boats that look unused” search thing. This approach is one of the few things in life that is truly both fun and depressing (and I have found that the Unrealistic Seller Price Expectations Syndrome tends to be even more in evidence when a boat owner receives an unsolicited buyer inquiry). Moreover, a trip down to
Florida or
California to round up a deal isn’t in the cards, schedule-wise.
I’m finding myself down to a dwindling few choices, which I’m going to look at this weekend down in
Washington State, and I’m running out of summer, so I thought I’d see if any of the Cruisers Forum folk in BC or Washington has any hot tips or trusty beasts they’re thinking of selling.
I suppose I might be interested in owner
financing for a boat priced above my budget, but as a writer, scholarly journal editor, PhD Education student, and part-time professor, I’m frankly too shifty for people to trust.
Any leads?
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