For Sale: Ericson 31 custom by Manateeman

[boatman61]

I wanted to look at a trimaran in Antigua a couple of decades back.. there was a liveaboard American who was acting as local agent on the owners behalf.
When I flew over from SMX I called him to arrange a viewing and was told that it was sat on a mooring and that he would take me out to it in his dinghy for $100... I told him to sit on his dinghy and swivel.
This was in 2000..

[mvweebles]

Originally Posted by Woody

But $$ for photos? C'mon....

Maybe it's like the old circus side shows with bearded ladies and siamese twins. OPs handle is Manateeman and the Manatee Crew.

Seriously, setting up a website with lots of pictures is really helpful. When I lived in San Francisco, selling a boat was best through the local sailing magazine Latitude 38. Best and most cost effective way to sell was a short advertisement with a URL. Give people the information they need to qualify themselves. I helped several friends setup a site and their boats sold quickly and for upper range of fair price.

Peter

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by Woody

Deposit for a sea trial? Ok, sure. But $$ for photos? C'mon....

I sold my boat mid pandemic last summer and had to deal with plenty of tire kickers. The best decision I made was to clean the boat, take 100+ high resolution photos, and upload them to a hosted gallery that I could easily share by simply pasting a link. My mistake was not doing it sooner.

Your time isn't inherently more valuable than anyone else's. When sellers don't take the time to post good photos, list equipment and other important information up front, it could be assumed that that lack of work ethic can be translated to the care and maintenance of the vessel.

Maybe you know your boat is one of a kind, but over the years I've had more time wasted by people misrepresenting or omitting info about the condition of their vessel than otherwise.


Good luck.

Originally Posted by mvweebles

Maybe it's like the old circus side shows with bearded ladies and siamese twins. OPs handle is Manateeman and the Manatee Crew.

Seriously, setting up a website with lots of pictures is really helpful. When I lived in San Francisco, selling a boat was best through the local sailing magazine Latitude 38. Best and most cost effective way to sell was a short advertisement with a URL. Give people the information they need to qualify themselves. I helped several friends setup a site and their boats sold quickly and for upper range of fair price.

Peter

Oh boy!...You guys are going to invoke the wrath of Manateeman. He private messaged me with some tirade after I mentioned "the picture thing", earlier in the thread.

I have sold a number of boats in my past. Some through a broker, others myself. Both ways can be a hassle. Sometimes it comes down to just doing business. Ya, I can rant and rave but in the end, a smile will get you further down the road than a negative attitude.

[geoleo]

Originally Posted by Manateeman

It’s in the water. It’s very close to a great DIY. Where do you get this stuff.
Not interested...fine.

Why dont you fix the "Hurriane damege" since you "know the details"----or hire someone to fix it? and supervise? ?. lol

[garyfdl]

I think you 'guys' are being a 'little tough' on the OP. From my read, he is probably emotionally invested and not real keen to let the boat go, even though it is the right thing to do. Also, not everyone is a 'sales/marketing/people person' type. Cut him some slack.

That said, the old adage of "a picture is worth a thousand words" is true; creating a dedicated sales site for the boat with plenty of photos is sound advice.

Erickson 31's are beautiful boats IMO. I fell in love with them and looked at one locally pre-COVID, sail-away condition and double the price. Unfortunately (for me) they draw too much to get in and out of the harbor where I'm located.

[boatpoker]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

I'll make an attempt here to try and keep this boat related. I certainly understand the frustration trying to sell a boat in these times. By that I do not mean covid or any current or past administration or any EPA laws or any of that other nonsense. I was trying to sell a Rawson 30 Pilothouse not too long ago. I was in the middle of recoring the decks. The factory had done a shoddy job coring the foredeck using a inadequate bonding method that I could tell. All that needed to be done was to fair everything, give the perkins prema a once over and a new lower rudder shoe. I was asking $10k.
What I got were low life bottom feeders. Constant con attempts were made to whittle the boat from me for nothing. A barrage of insulting phone calls and an array of email offers, sight unseen. I even had a couple of fresh off the boat Russians try to whittle me down to nothing.

Two things became apparent. 1) I was in a low money category that brought out all the boat fender kickers and 2)The times of DIYers had past years ago. In the end, I found it easier to take a partial payment and a Chevy Tahoe in payment. I was able to flip the Tahoe in a week. But what a hassle!

No longer are there DIY yards, where blue collar people build boats from scratch. I remember a yard in Redwood City on the SF bay where you would see a literal community of boat builders. Some living aboard while they built. Every one of them with the dream of taking off to sail the world. These were the days that manufacturers like Westsail sold kit boats. As technology made advances and less and less blue collar jobs needed, the ability to work with ones hands also declined. I doubt much of that will ever come back.

Take a look at the thread "Re: Boats Less Than $30K Recent Noteworthy Finds" , under Monohull sailboats. That thread has almost 2600 posts. Many incredible deals. Mostly light fixers. Yet not one of those posts mention any of the dreamers here buying one. Instead you reads more like..."Well if it wasn't so far away, I'd jump on that one" or "It needs a mast, that's $40,000". Most people only want to keep their dream alive by pretending they are going to do something significant with their otherwise boring life. It is an incredible leap to dedicate 20 hours a week, 5-6 days a week of there life for 2-4 years, reconditioning a boat to go cruising. It is a lot easier to come to this forum and talk about it and being an armchair sailor. People might not like this view of things but it is never the less...true.

Well said.

[mako]

Originally Posted by boatman61

I wanted to look at a trimaran in Antigua a couple of decades back.. there was a liveaboard American who was acting as local agent on the owners behalf.
When I flew over from SMX I called him to arrange a viewing and was told that it was sat on a mooring and that he would take me out to it in his dinghy for $100... I told him to sit on his dinghy and swivel.
This was in 2000..

@boatman, I had a similar experience and it was very frustrating. Seller had a big boat anchored out in the river, rather remote, and he had no way to take me to see it. I drove 4 hours, 3 times, the last one was with my inflatable kayak (tube blew up while I was inflating it at the boat ramp). So never got out there to see it and the seller never made an effort to show me it. BoatUS wanted to charge me $100 to take me out there.

Eventually some guy bought it as he brought his own dinghy.

I felt bad as I really was serious, but had to walk away out of frustration.

[boatpoker]

Selling a 40 footer a few years back, a broker buddy gave me one of his slips in an in-water boat show for free. The deal was I had to spend the weekend on the boat and deal with all potential buyers.

In the second day of dealing with stupoid (not a mis-spelling) tire kickers and reperatedly answering the same irrelevant question I finally came up with a response that got rid of them immediately ...

Tire Kicker - Lady with two young kids ... Why are you selling the boat ?
Me - I've got two weeks to live.


PS. Two days later I did a survey for a guy who decided to walk because of issues i'd found with the boat. In our conversation I mentioned I was selling my boat and it was in the same harbour. He said "Why didn't you tell me?". Well ... because you are looking for a sailboat and mine is a powerboat. He asked to see it and wrote me a cheque without conditions at full asking price within 15 minutes.

[Manateeman]

We still have this boat and in the spring I’ll take some more photos which I’ll put up here. We are in the boatyard and kinda busy but if you are serious, you know how to contact me and I’ll try to answer your questions.
Mark