Where do you keep an eye on new sailboat listings? (Global)

[theseaward]

Hi all, my partner and I are on the hunt for an offshore-capable boat to cruise and explore with. We’ve narrowed our search down to the likes of Passport 40, Island Packet 38, Caliber 38 etc.

We’re ready to go now and we’re open to traveling anywhere in the world for the right boat, but we still haven’t found the one. We spend a lot of time searching, including all the big sites like Yachtworld, but every so often we stumble across a site or a brokerage that we didn’t know about.

I thought it would be really helpful for us and others searching, to ask the helpful folk on this forum to drop their favourite sites/brokerages in their country or area —*even if they’re obvious to you, it might be something we’ve never heard of! North America, Europe, Australia, anywhere… I’d love to know what your top picks are to keep an eye on new listings.

Thanks in advance for your help! Apologies if this has been asked before, I did try looking first but couldn't find something similar.

I’ll drop a few of the sites that we’re already keeping an eye on below to get the ball rolling…

www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f152/
https://www.yachtworld.com/
https://www.sailboatlistings.com/
https://www.sailboat-cruising.com/
Facebook Marketplace
Craigslist
Kijiji
boats.com
https://www.boatsonline.com.au/
https://www.boatsales.com.au/

[sailingharry]

I pretty much hate dealing with brokers, and find yachtworld web site is pretty awful.

That said, few boats worth buying show up on the likes of Facebook and craigslist, and "friend of a friend" is a tough way to find a narrow selection of boats (if you are wide open to "a boat," better chances, a friend is about to give away his functional 35-footer, although he is limiting the buyer pool to his friends). Sadly, there are few options to yachtworld. If I were selling our '98 Saga 43, I wouldn't hassle with the limited audience of craigslist, and I wouldn't use a broker who didn't list on yachtworld.

Think about the flip side. You are willing to travel the world to look for a boat. A seller wants to reach you. Would a seller 300 miles from you be well served by a site, like craigslist, that limits search radius to 200 miles?

[jamhass]

We had excellent service from our broker (Offshore Atlantic Yachts), who handled both our purchase and (eventual) sale of our Valiant 40. There are brokers who do specialize in particular brands (even older ones), and it is worth searching for them, especially once you have narrowed your search down to a manageable number of boats. These brokers are likely to know a lot more about their favorite boats than more generic brokers. Our knew our boat from new, having handled all previous sales.

[sailingharry]

One big problem I have with brokers is the geographic issue. With real estate agents, you select an agent and they show you houses in your location. But boat brokers are different. I looked at 3 Sagas before we bought. One in Toronto, one in Florida, and our final one in Annapolis. We never "worked with a broker."

The first, we contacted the broker, drove to Toronto, looked at the boat, and passed.

The second was word of mouth, no broker involved. It failed survey. Bummer.

The third, we called the listing broker, looked at it, he wrote up the contract. We are happy buyers.

Now, the question. Let's assume I reached out to a broker to help me buy a boat. He wouldn't have "found" any of them, as the listed boats were on yachtworld (or not listed at all). He would only have actually seen the one we finally bought, as that was in my home town and I can't imagine an Annapolis broker would have gone on a showing in Toronto or Florida. He probably would have insisted someone (me!) pay him a commission on the private sale even though he would have provided no services. Would he have been able to do a better job of finding a surveyor than I did (enter NAMS, do a search, call surveyors)? What value would a broker have provided in this search?

OP has indicated he has similar issues. Distance is a minor object, his target boats are limited and likely dispersed. Any broker he engages will only present him boats listed on yachtworld, and OP is looking for additional sources. And any broker he engages won't go see most or even any boats.

I do ask this sincerely. To my mind, the answer is "nothing." But, conventional wisdom disagrees with me. What am I missing?

[theseaward]

Thank you for the replies!

Apologies for any confusion re brokers. While we aren't seeking a "buyer's broker", in our boat search we have occasionally stumbled upon a brokerage that seems to only list boats on their own website, not on Yachtworld etc. So if there's a great brokerage that you know of, we'd love to know about them to ensure we're not missing a good listing that's already out there.

Thanks again for any tips. Fingers crossed something lines up soon, it's been a very long search!

[chris mac]

Since you have a fairly fine tuned list of which boats you are interested in, join the FB owners groups. Post an intro and a desire to buy. That way you may be able to find an owner who is considering selling but isn't actively listed yet
I know our owners group has a few people a year do the same thing. Sometimes successfully.
Good luck in your search

[theseaward]

Originally Posted by chris mac

Since you have a fairly fine tuned list of which boats you are interested in, join the FB owners groups. Post an intro and a desire to buy. That way you may be able to find an owner who is considering selling but isn't actively listed yet
I know our owners group has a few people a year do the same thing. Sometimes successfully.
Good luck in your search

Fantastic idea, will do this. Thank you!

[sailingharry]

Originally Posted by theseaward

Fantastic idea, will do this. Thank you!

Actually, that is how I found the first Saga I put a contract on. It never was with a broker, or advertised. The owner emailed me and said "Harry... We need to talk ." Unfortunately, it still has never been listed, advertised....or sold.