Used cat

[LLJ]

Hi,

I’m new to the forum and new to sailing. The prices on the various websites selling used catamarans seem a little all over the map to a relatively inexperienced person. I’m curious if a budget of $500,000 Canadian will get me a decent used cat that’s not too old. I really like Lagoon or Fountaine Pajot but open to others as well.

Thanks for any advice!

[dougweibel]

The value of a used boat will vary dramatically with a number of factors. It is not unusual for the same make/model/year of boat to have prices over a wide range, particularly as the boat gets a bit older with the way a boat has been maintained and upgraded becoming more important.

500K CAD is a reasonable budget, but you should really be thinking about spending say 420K to 440K on the boat with 60K to 80K reserved to take care of deferred maintenance and upgrades.

[Tin Tin]

You may find a 5-6 year old 38 - 40 ft ex charter cat for around $350k USD that has just come off charter. Just watch for ones that may have been hurricane damaged, (these will be the ones where price looks very attractive). Other than that your budget will only afford owner version, less used boats from around 2010-12. But then you may be looking at rig renewal (say $12k+) some expensive re-new items like sail drive diaphragms, house batteries, water maker membranes, alloy tanks for fuel/holding etc start to leak at this stage and through hulls treated with caution.