Tips on tracking boats values/prices?

[Scaramanga F25]

A broker that searches for YOU. Your broker then can save you a lot at that price point.

[ramblinrod]

Originally Posted by JensenJourney

So I've been making good strides toward my goals toward boat ownership and cruising... and am getting more serious about it.

What tips/advice do you all have for tracking values/prices for potential boats? I'm not in buying mode, just wanting to get more familiar with the market and process. I'm probably still a year or more out, but want to be able become more comfortable with this aspect so that when it is time I can reduce my odds of making major 'newbie' mistakes (even though I will be a 'newbie')

So websites you use to check pricing? How do you find 'sold' prices? Magazines you follow? Apps? Etc?

What are your words/phrases that make you instantly reject a boat prospect? What ones catch your eye? What ones are used to catch an eye that don't really mean anything, but might catch someone like me?

How did you determine the best/most important aspects for YOUR first boat purchase?

Just any/all other advice you might give a life-long land-lubber who wants to make a change. Even things that seem basic or obvious to you with experience, and grew up around boats, might be missed by someone like me with NO experience, so let me hear anything that you think is important. Thanks!!

The most important thing to realize as a noob, is that you can’t possibly know what boat is best for you. You have no frame of reference other than a starry-eyed impression of it means to go sailing.

My recommendation is to do whatever it takes to build that frame of reference, not just to go sailing, but complete boat ownership.

One method is to join a yacht club. Inquire if there are any members who would like to take you underwing to teach you how to maintain and sail a boat. Chances are very very good their are some older members that could use a younger back now and again.

Don’t jump on the first opportunity. Make sure they actually know how to sail. Ask if their name is on any of the trophies in the case? If not ask about the longest cruises they have been on.

Just “interviewing” candidates, you will pick up many many years of incredibly valuable experience, as if by osmosis.

Be prepared to do some tough work. Hazmat suit, full face mask, rubber boats, latex disposable, and work gloves. You should wear these doing mould cleaning, bottom, and fibreglass work, but you will likely be laughed at by the old timers who never used this stuff. They were tough. And a lot of them are dying of cancer. Related? Is it worth the chance?

Sound like fun yet?

That’s kinda the point. Owning a sailboat is about 5 hours of hard work, for every hour of pure bliss. Unless one can hire out the work (to someone like me) requiring some pretty deep pockets.

Once you get established in the club, and get some sailing basics, you can jump around between boats, going for daysails, and maybe crewing a few races. Initially, look for boats with jolly nice skippers, that are in the middle of the pack of the standings. If that goes well, start upping your game with more competitive skippers. (Remember when he yells at you that he is not angry with you, even if swearing, he is frustrated with the boat not at optimum, and trying to give clear, quick instruction over the din of wind, waves, and crew.

After about 3 years of this, totally immersed, every weekend, every race night, you should have have gained enough experience to bareboat charter in a benign location like the BVIs for a couple weeks.

Now you will have some experience maintaining, racing, and cruising other people’s boats. Now you will have some frame of reference to know what kind of sailing and boat suits you.

Then establish you boat purchase budget. How much can your afford? Now cut it in half; one half for buying, the other half for all of the other first year expenses.

It really depends on finances, but the lesson is, reserve a lot more money than you expect for additional expenses.

So go out and buy the boat that best meets you needs. I recommend you buy used and don’t pay too much, as your needs will change, as you gain more experience, and you will want to sell your first boat, likely in about 5 years, to get something that better meets your “developing” taste and preference.

For every boat you purchase, do not change anything about the design in the first year. First things first.
1. Add missing / broken safety equipment.
2. Fix other broken stuff required to use the boat.
3. Perform deferred maintenance that left undone will further damage the boat.

Plan all birthday, anniversary, and Christmas presents being “boat stuff”.

You may have noticed at this point, that your 1 year lead time, is about 10 years too short unless you crash the schedule big time. ;-)

Lastly, there are likely as many different ways to do this are there are boat designs (10’s if not 100’s of thousands) and everyone is different.

Best bet, plan on your life to change in ways you couldn’t even imagine.

If you have a spouse, get her involved every step of the way, (including the work, and the sailing) and with every decision, if you want her involved in the end game.

[BVLew]

The couple who produce the YouTube "Sailing Soulianis" produced a detailed spreadsheet for boat-buying and boat-upgrades -- available their Patreon supporters: https://sailingsoulianis.com/boat-buying-dashboard/.

[higginslake]

Brokers have access to the soldboats.com database and can help you get comparable sales data.

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by JensenJourney

Thanks for the replies... Sorry I didn't give more detail, I assumed it didn't much matter. I have a family of 11 (9, yes 9 kids) but probably won't have all of them with me when I hit the water (oldest is a high school Sr now). So something with berths for 7-10? Catamaran most likely. I expect something from $300-$600K. I'm currently inland US, not on a coast, so all my "looking" is online right now.

So any further suggestions would be great. Thanks for the ones already. I hadn't considered a detailed spreadsheet to track things of interest. I might put one of those together (unless someone wants to email me one )

Spend your lunch breaks surfing the internet...After a while you will start to get a feel.

DANGER: If you do this, you are likely to come across a deal before you are ready to buy. Have a plan in the back of your head for what to do in this event.

Realistically a boat that will sleep 8-10 for more than a weekend, you are probably looking at a used Charter Cat...and even then it will be a bit of a zoo (I'm youngest of 10, so I have an idea).

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by Scaramanga F25

I have a friend who bought his 2nd boat an offshore 37 footer, his first being a 26 footer on a lake. He assumed he knew the drill. Two of his good friends, experienced island cruisers, recommended heavily to not purchase this low-quality American build from a homey. It came with so much equipment he bought it anyway. He was to fix it over one Florida winter. Well 2 winters later he had it trucked to his country home and at last count, he had spent at least twice the boat's value. The saddest was that all this equipment was now obsolete or not working, not to mentione the structural problems we pointed out when he asked later. BEWARE of the goodies. Buy a sound boat and install the goodies after.

Sounds like he needed a surveyor...or more likely, he wasn't going to listen to anyone regardless of their experience.