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(no email)
Date: Mon Apr 03 2006 - 00:53:46 EDT
Hi Patrick,
When you make the trip to checkout your short list I suggest you take a video camera and film each boat - be sure to film slowly as the tendency is to move the lens too quickly - also try to film the bad things as well as the things you really like about each boat. If you wife joins you perhaps she could introduce each boat by telling the boat name, LOA, and any other things to help you understand which boat it is on the list.
I suspect you'll find lots of boats as you described in Fla - that's the traditional jumping off point for people on the east coast who plan to sail to the south Pacific or around the world. Then, sadly, when sailing from their east coast port they discover (for instance) one or both of them has gotten seasick and doesn't appear to be getting over it "or" the wife (typically) decides she's not *really* willing to spend the next several years of her life on a speck in the ocean cramped into living in a space 40'x12' that's wet most of the time - when she could be living in luxury in their 3000 sq ft home filled with the things she enjoys with a mall down the street. Or, one or both discover the reality of sailing is different from their drea,m of "sailing away".
And the boat stays in St. Petersburg and the owners leave it for someone else to fulfill their dreams on.
Not meaning to get all meloncholy - but that stuff happens at times.
One other thing, sometimes it's helpful to speak to marina owners. Often, the owners of boats will lose interest or stop making the slip payments for whatever reason. The only option the marina owner has is to sell the boat and hopefully get the back fees - and some profit would be nice - but they're mostly interested in getting what they're owed and filling the space with active, paying customers. A marina full of boats not being maintained begins to look like a ghost town - which can make the whole place depressing.
Speak to the marina owners and find out if they're getting ready to hold an auction of non-paying boats. They may sell you a boat pre-auction and you'll save some effort. We had a boat at our marina that the owner sold for $1. He was just tired of dealing with it - a 38' heavy ketch - I had dreamed of owning it for years - and it sat in the marina on stands for 15+ years! Never saw anyone working on it, etc. I called the owner and he wouldn;t come off his $30k price - I would have given him $10k - he was doing nothing but paying marina bills at $1500/year. It was exactly what you described and I'm *still* irritated I didn;t end up as owner of that beauty. Sorry - I'll put my soap box away. ;-)
HTH's
Good luck -
Sincerely,
Larry T (Catalina 27)
A Blood Test for your oil - www.youroil.net
For Test Results http://members.rennlist.com/oil
----- Original Message -----
From: Patrick Harrington
To:
Sent: Sunday, April 02, 2006 5:59 PM
Subject: RE: [world-cruising] Re: To Broker or Not To Broker
Based on feedback received so far, I did a search on YachtWorld for boats in
Florida only, and then sorted them by city. Of the 270 boats returned from
my search criteria, 47 were in Ft Lauderdale, which was almost 2.5 times as
many boats as were in St. Petersburg and almost 3 times as many as were in
Miami. It seems that I will have the best selection of boats to look at in
Ft. Lauderdale. So, I guess I'll take a trip to Ft. Lauderdale this summer
and look at as many different boats that fit my criteria as possible. I
made a list of a few brokers in the Ft. Lauderdale area. I'll send them my
criteria and let them propose boats for me to look at. Based on their
responses, I'll pick maybe two of them to meet with when I go down there.
The brokers I picked are: Transatlantic Yacht Sales, Jordan Yacht and Ship
Co., Bollman Yachts, SGA Yachts, Horizon Marine Center and 4Yacht, Inc. If
anyone has any experience with any of them, please let me know whether it
was good or bad.
Per Ken's response, I know fairly well what I want in terms of criteria, but
there are several makes of boat that would satisfy most of my criteria.
Except for my little 18' trailerable, the only boats I've sailed are
Beneteau's and one custom-made Cartwright-style cutter. I know I don't want
a Beneteau and won't find another like Free Radical (the Cartwright-style
cutter). If I had more experience than I do and could narrow down what I
want to a single manufacturer or even two, I would definitely follow your
suggestion. Given that this will be my first major boat purchase (and the
fact that I'm stuck in Kansas for now) I think it best that I go with a
broker. I'm just hoping I find a good one and don't end up with a
"nightmare" story at the end. I'll list some of my criteria at the end of
this post for anyone interested in viewing and commenting. Some of my
criteria are going to be hard to find in combination with others, so I
expect the boat I get will be a compromise of competing criteria.
Since I plan to keep the boat on the Mississippi Gulf Coast for a few months
after I buy it, I also looked for brokers in Mississippi, but there were
only 5 listed in YachtWorld and they seem to mostly be powerboat brokers. I
did make a note to contact Southern River Yacths and American Gulf Yacht
Sales, though.
What I want in a boat
1. Cutter Rig (would settle for sloop if everything else about the boat
were perfect)
2. LOA between 38 ft and 48 ft
3. Fiberglass hull (aluminum or steel would be ok if in excellent
condition and sufficient other criteria met)
4. Full skeg-hung rudder
5. Medium to heavy displacement
6. Full, modified full (cutout forefoot) or modified fin keel
6.1. Good performance to windward, ability to point high
6.2. Good righting moment
6.3. At least moderate ability to steer while backing under engine power
6.4. My preference would be a wide short fin, with plenty of balast
7. Draft not much more than 6 ft and not much less than 5 ft
8. Sugar scoop transom would be nice
9. Aft cockpit is preferable, but I also want a nice aft cabin with
decent headroom, so that may dictate a center cockpit
10. Little or no wood topside (this will be a hard one, I love the
"classic" look)
11. No huge portlights, so pilothouse boats are probably out
12. 100 gal fresh water tankage at the very minimum, preferably 150 or
better
13. 100 gal diesel tankage at the very minimum
14. Two cabins (a V-berth guest cabin and an aft owners cabin)
15. Two heads, both with showers
16. Keel-stepped mast
Additional Extras
1. Roller furling jib and staysail (but not main)
2. Windvane steering in addition to Autopilot
3. Watermaker
4. Generator
5. DC refrigeration instead of or in addition to engine-driven
6. Transom or cockpit shower head
7. Pump and hose rigged in chain locker for saltwater washdown of chain
when raising anchor
8. Dodger and bimini
9. Arch and davits for dingy
10. Radar
11. SSB radio
12. Solar panels
13. Wind generator
14. Separate shower compartment in at least one head
15. Second sail track on mast for storm sail
16. At least one watertight bulkhead would be nice
17. Inverter
18. Deck drains to catch rain water
19. Electric windlass
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