Never Buy a Boat in the Spring

[JBsurfin]

Originally Posted by Foswick

Just a rant ...

We are just closing on a boat purchase. The boat is physically a 2-3 hour drive (or 2-3 day sail) south of us and has a few things I want done before bringing her up here. Not a huge deal except that trying to get anything done relatively quickly in the middle of May is challenging my negotiating skills.

Of course, the problem is that everyone is trying to get into marinas and boatyards at the same time.

The boat is within a short sail or motor to at least a half-dozen haulout facilities, so I would have thought it wouldn't be that hard. I started the process at the beginning of May and (foolishly) agreed to a May 21 closing date. So, that means that in three weeks I needed to:

1. Find a surveyor who was both good and available. (My regular guy could do me a favor and squeeze me in on May 24.)
2. Get a haulout for the survey that happened to be on the same day as the surveyor was available.
3. Schedule a water trial for that same day. (The broker handled this, fortunately, since the seller lives two states away.)
4. Get the water trial and survey done.
5. Follow up with specialists on engine or rigging issues identified in the survey.
6. Insurance ... don't get me started about insurance.
7. Arrange for moorage in my home port. This means getting on a transfer waitlist from my current slip to get into a larger slip. So, I don't really know when my name will come up on the transfer list.
8. Arrange for moorage at the boat's current location, so I can do work and bring her up when she is ready and I have moorage up here.
9. Arrange for a second haulout to get work done that we identified during inspection (just bottom paint and seacock replacement ... but still.)

Anyway, you get the point.

I will say, several people have really been great in this process. But, the boatyards are really booked solid, and I am looking at mid-June as the earliest date for my second haulout to get work done.

Woe is me.

All depends where you are. I bought a new boat in Feb. The owner's storage yard had no issues meeting my schedule with a launch for trials and the Surveyor was not book as yet. Its a 2 hr drive for me. Fortunate for us in NJ, was a mild winter and no ice to deal with. Selling my old boat and my marina tells me there wont be any issues getting it launched for trials/survey. Yard is also the Broker. Never without a headache of some sort. You just figure a way to deal with it.

[JPA Cate]

Man plans; God laughs. Life gets in the way of plans.

Ann

[Peter1949]

Just curious-what did you buy? And good luck