Show of hands: who actually chartered boats before buying?

[Statistical]

I bought my current boat without chartering (and with almost zero experience). However if I were going to move up and spend a lot more (say $200k+) I would probably charter first. I am going to be a lot more picky spending $200k to $300k so would appreciate a week aboard.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by Jammer

In another thread, there was advice given to someone new to cruising boats to go out and charter various boats to learn the market and determine their tastes.


This is all good in theory but I don't think anyone does it.


My experience is that people who buy sailboats figure out what they want either by sailing as crew with friends, or through articles, forum discussions, etc. The main reason being that chartering is a very, very, expensive activity and the range of boats you can experience that way is limited.

The odds of being able to charter a boat style and model of what you want to buy are VERY low.
I think if you have never owned a boat, much less sailed for more than a daysail, that it is very good advice to do so!
Why? Because inexperienced people think cruising is 'days of luxury in the sun'. A week or 10 days of moving, sun, moving, trying to get food, boat problems, more sun, unexpected winds, sun, hard starting dingies etc etc will make anyone question if cruising is right for both of them.
This could save you tens of thousands of $. Or more likely 50k-100k $.

I knew a couple who spent tons of money on a 51 footer, and 3 years, too busy working on it to sail that much. The went down the coast, got off the boat and that was it. Not an unusual story either.

[MicHughV]

Does sailing with friends on their boat count as "chartering"...it should.

I sailed on countless boats owned by others, but never chartered.

[SV_FlyingTigress]

Just got back from Greece and chartered a Lagoon 42

[SaltyMetals]

This is exactly what i did. I fancied the Jeanneau 45ds but chartered one for 3 weeks to see if i liked the model. Decided that the 43ds was a much better built boat, traditional stringers instead of the inner hull matrix which was cheaper to build after the 2008 financial melt-down, interior of the 43ds is in real wood, not plastic made to looklike wood. The long forward facing windows look very stylish on the 45ds but a disaster in hot sunshine which make the interior worse than a greenhouse, fewer opening ports of the 45ds to get fresh air. Yes i learnt a lot by living on the 45ds for 3 weeks and was so glad that i chartered first.
Andrew

[Cloroxbottle]

Originally Posted by Jammer

the range of boats you can experience that way is limited.

That's the thing. Say you assemble a list of a dozen boats that you might be interested in for Caribbean+ cruising. Unless you're interested in a Hunter/Benetau/Production Cat the odds of you finding more than a few boats on that list nearby to look at in person with the owner's permission let alone getting out on the water in one is almost impossible.

So a lot of these decisions get based on limited information from the internet with a lot of it coming from websites with specifications and owner testimonials.

[Tupaia]

Begged rides, delivered, test sailed and chartered. About 40 multihulls, three years, seven countries. Then commissioned and built a boat we'd never sailed, but we knew exactly what I didn't want by then. 25 years on, still happy with our choice.

[desodave]

I'll add to the repeated chartering before buying total. I took lessons and chartered with chic du jour almost 40 years ago with no intention of buying a boat, just wanting to have a good holiday. But I loved being out on the water and it sparked my interest in one day owning a boat. Over 20 years ago, my partner's sister was getting married in eastern Canada and wanted a west coast adventure as a second honeymoon. I suggested me taking a refresher course and chartering for a 2 week cruise to Desolation Sound ... we all really enjoyed the trip on what then seemed like a really big 31ft'er. My partner (now wife) and I decided that chartering might be much more fun by ourselves and chartered 36ft'ers ( Hunters and Catalinas) 3 more times before deciding to take the plunge on a pre-retirement plan to purchase a 38ft Hunter. We owned that boat for 14 years before upgrading to our current Bavaria Vision. The chartering really confirmed our interest in and enjoyment of coastal cruising, and lead directly to our boat ownership. It gave us an affordable window on the cruising life without (I readily admit) really appreciating the cost and effort required to maintain a cruising sailboat.