Specific Risks of Getting an Ex-charter Boat?

[rabbi]

Originally Posted by Skip JayR

I am very thankfully we live in times of the Internet not keeping blind as till beginning of the 90th... and in conclusion I would advice every seriously boat buyer: keep away from "mass production". Go one or two step lower of your original size, and move into the direction of "individual customized boat building". Its worth every penny, isnt ?

In the world of multihulls it works... there is a lively scene of self builders, many naval architects and designers exist there who sell plans... so one can pick up a good design... look for a local boat builder, take the naval architect as consultant aside, and bingo.... an excellent boat is the result.

If you want to keep the boat forever or simply don't care about resale value Ok.

If you want to have a rough idea what your boat may be worth in five years stay away from custom builds, small scale builders and amateur builds.
The large production builders like Lagoon, Fountaine pakot or leopard have a big and at least somewhat predictable market. Given a 'normal location' (i.e. not Senegal) any Lagoon 380 in normal condition can be sold in reasonabe time for a reasonable price.
A small scale builder like Aventura or a one-off even if from a reputable designer? Pretty unlikely simply because there are very few buyers interested in these.
An amateur build from an unknown designer often sells for less than material cost.


Plus these high volume builders may save a few bucks here and there but they get most parts of each boat right. Simply because they have done it a thousand times.
It just takes one lemmon to ruin the brand name of a small builder.



As to ex-charter. You can be lucky but get a decent survey AND do your own survey both in and out-of water. If the charter company doesn't let you do this: run and don't look back

Ex-charter boats can be good deals but also nightmares. I have seen several charter boats on the rocks. Boats tied to harbour walls and smashed agains them with just one fender out. Engines started andreveed up seconds later. 10 young man making a one week party on a small cat. A Leopard 38 rafted up on both sides with 5 (!!) much higger heavy monohulls in a swell and only the cat had an anchor out.
This is stuff a caring owner simply would not do.

The main problem is that even at the best charter bases all repairs are done in a hurry. often by folks who have never learned their trade but are genius in keeping the boat running with just some tape, glue and wire.just expect to re-do a lot of these quick-fixes.
And plan for a re-powering because the engines have been abused and maintenance often is limited to one oil change per season.

That said we currently have an ex-charter cat and while it did have some issues the price was too good to be true.
One of the best things about charter cats forme is that its mostly an empty shell. No owner improvements, no expensive but totally outdated electronics, no old and bareley used watermaker that costs as mucb to re-build as a new one, etc.
You have the chance to get a cheap shell and add only the equipment you want.

I looked hard at a number of ex-charter cats in the caribbean and the med and from my experience the med-based boats looked much better. The carribbean is a much harsher environment.