Show of hands: who actually chartered boats before buying?

[HBrew]

If your budget for a boat is $50k, then yes, chartering is not an option. But if you plan to spend $300k, $400k, $500k or more then chartering, if you can find boats similar to your planned purchase is a lot cheaper than buying the wrong boat.

For instance, my first question was one hull or two. You should definitely answer this question with a charter.

[Cheechako]

nope I've chartered but not for determining something like that.

[Scrimshaw4]

I spent several years doing offshore deliveries on different sailboats before buying my boat. The experience helped me to understand several elements that I realized were critical to making a purchase. Things like;what are the live-aboard characteristics both off shore and at anchor, what did I know and need to learn, what were the must have's, nice to have and definitely not to have elements of the boat. This had to be considered for both of us.
While I have chartered I think it gives a false sense of the realities because of the "idealistic" nature of the charter locations and true lack of offshore experience on the boat. These are just a few of the considerations. JMHO

[Powercon Steve]

Tried different sizes. Still testing!!

[cal40john]

The club I belong to is primarily a dinghy club, but it had two keelboats when I joined. I got to experience beginner to high performance dinghies, and the two keelboats. This brought me into contact with club members with their own boats that I got to go sailing on. I started racing and crewed on even more boats. Did some charters for the purpose of sailing in different areas again experiencing more boats.

Sailing all the different boats was not for the purpose of selecting a boat to buy, but it taught me what kind of boat I like to sail. The extremes of my kb experience go from a Melges 24 to a 44 foot cat to a CT 41 modified with a couple of square sails.

When people ask me what kind of boat they should buy, I wonder how one could put down that much money without at least taking a class to experience some different boats, and learning what is important to them.

[Adelie]

I had almost 30yr of sailing experience on a very long list of boat types before buying my first boat. I knew I wanted a Cal from sailing on others, but had only sailed on this model once before buying.

[SaltyMetals]

Originally Posted by cal40john

The club I belong to is primarily a dinghy club, but it had two keelboats when I joined. I got to experience beginner to high performance dinghies, and the two keelboats. This brought me into contact with club members with their own boats that I got to go sailing on. I started racing and crewed on even more boats. Did some charters for the purpose of sailing in different areas again experiencing more boats.

Sailing all the different boats was not for the purpose of selecting a boat to buy, but it taught me what kind of boat I like to sail. The extremes of my kb experience go from a Melges 24 to a 44 foot cat to a CT 41 modified with a couple of square sails.

When people ask me what kind of boat they should buy, I wonder how one could put down that much money without at least taking a class to experience some different boats, and learning what is important to them.

Definitely chatter first, even if you hv had lots of experience on other boats. I thought I loved the Jeanneau 45ds and was on the point of buying one but decided to search on out from a charter company and took one for 3 wks. Glad I did. Like a greenhouse unless you hv a generator and I did not want that complication. So v glad I had chartered. Bought a second-hand Jeanneau 43ds instead. Much better build quality, no plastic made to look like wood, no long forward facing g windows which catch all the sun , no inner hull matrix but built the traditional way w stringers. Maybe 2008 problems forced them to save money on construction so the 45ds was born.

So once you decide on the model you want I wld strongly recommend you go and charter one for at least 2 wks. Some systems might not work perfectly on a charter boat, batteries, electronics, pumps, windlass but you can always fix those.
Andrew
"Genial Bee"

[Wave_length]

My wife and I chartered three different catamarans before we bought. This was invaluable experience to learn what we liked in a boat. I would advise everyone thinking about buying to sail the type of boat they are interested in. If you are looking to live on board long term then charter for a week and see how it goes.

You really never know a boat till you live with her.

Cheers

[brigittela]

I am going to charter my first boat in September. I have raced and done a couple of boat deliveries as crew on various boats. I've registered for the Annapolis boat show in October and hope to purchase in the near future to do The Great Loop in live-aboard.

[Kerry1]

We were working 7 days a week, at times up to 16 hrs a day. I decided we needed a break from farm work so went to town looking for a dinghy to go fishing. We came back with a Herreschoff 28 by Compass Yachts. Prior to that as a teenager I had a plywood "Arrow" class dinghy, and we had once chartered a Noelex 25 for a weekend.

[sailorboy1]

I've NEVER chartered.

But after taking sailing lessons (I had never sailed) we joined a sailing club and sailed on a Cal-33 every weekend for 3 months. THEN we got our first boat, a 1988 Cal-39.

[a64pilot]

I never Chartered, to start with I liken it to going on a Honeymoon to see if you’ll like marriage.
But agree, if your going to drop seven figures on a new boat, rent one first, assuming you can find one for rent. Boats I was looking at don’t seem to be the ones that are in Charter fleets.
I don’t think a week or two can determine if you’ll like doing it for a long time.
I went to go down the Starter boat route and purchased it and it busted survey for a wet deck and hull structure issues and it was two years old.
So I decided that older but better built would be better than newer and more plastic, so we ended up with this 38 IP as our starter boat with the intention that if we couldn’t deal with sailings slow speed we would dump it, but if we were OK with it, we would buy newer and larger.
We had never sailed and have never taken a sailing lesson, it’s just not that hard, people have been going to sea for Centuries before the ASA classes began.
Well one day we were sitting below and I asked my Wife, what’s wrong with this boat, cause to be truthful, I wasn’t looking forward to the same Hell we went through finding this one, not with all the traveling and seeing boats that were misrepresented etc. Didn’t want to have to kiss a lot of frogs.
So I started fitting it out for cruising, cause it had never been fitted out with any gear at all, near as I could tell it was mostly just a possession to have, although one could did say sail it, but I don’t think it ever spent the night at anchor. It was obviously a Marina Queen.

[Fore and Aft]

I would be interested to see who has actually sailed before buying their first yacht? A client of mine spent $300,000 on a cat and the first time he went sailing was on the sea trial! He knew it all, had watched YouTube and was hiring a delivery skipper to show him the ropes for a few weeks.
I get a fair few clients who have never sailed or boated and just throw themselves in the deep end.
Cheers

[sailingchiro]

Chartered many boats until "she" determined the boat we wanted. "we" wanted a catamaran under 40' for a deal. Saved our money until we found it. Best decision was to listen to my wife. She loves sailing. She didn't like the monohull.

Personally, I find nothing better than to feel the heel of a 60' ketch with rail in the water and the rigging singing to me. But I would be solo.

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by Jammer

I think that a great deal can be learned from owning a modest boat that cannot be learned by chartering.

Too true. Most of that learning process is called "repairs." And once you start learning that critically important facet of cruising, you'll soon lerarn that ACCESS has a lot going for it.


We chartered a boat around the size of ours once. To get to the engine dipstick, you had to remove the cushions from the aft cabin!!! On my boat, I open a little door and the dipstick is right there.


Some boats are very nice down below, but you can't get to ANYTHING without removing some stupid panel that wasn't even necessary to begin with.


There's more to it than just boat size and layout. Way more.