Delivery on it’s own keel or shipping.  Getting your boat back home:  What would the boat require before being able to be considered truly ‘seaworthy’ if delivery on her own keel is chosen? Parts and labour in that country may indeed be very cost-effective OR end up being so expensive that the ‘bargain’ you thought you were getting is no longer the case at all.  Shipping is generally very expensive, with quotes averaging around the 1000 dollars/ft mark, includes loading, insurance, off-loading,  given by the boat shipping specialists. You can shop around and try and get a good ‘stand-by’ deal. But generally, it’s expensive and you’d have to figure this in with whether you are getting such a great deal/ bargain that it is still worthwhile to pay the shipping option for getting your boat home.

There’s so much more we could cover and discuss – but that pretty well wraps up the initial ‘first steps to buying a second-hand boat’,  in general at least.

We look forward to addressing any queries/questions you may have after reading this little blog on buying a second-hand yacht/boat, whether power or sail. There’s so much to share and I look forward to relaxing into it a bit more and not be too worried about making the odd syntax error or spelling error or indeed repeating myself.

Valid and Informative Resources: Way back in the day, we referred books, especially to the wonderful and respected cruising yachtsman, Eric Hiscock;  we kept his volumes aboard the boat for reference. They were full of helpful advice and information. If you were to read that now, the principals are the same when it comes to seamanship and other important measures for being and keeping safe at sea, however, technology, navigational electronics (which are way cheaper than they were back then!),  boat designs, boat building techniques and materials have truly streamed ahead, thank goodness for that!  

Now you have the internet! Incredibly resourceful – but also can be confusing and a bit dangerous with being fronted with so many people’s opinions and that includes disgruntled people who had a bad experience with a particular design of boat or dealers etc and then use the forums and blogs etc to sound-board their full on negative, one-sided accounts / experiences. People even use online resources to diagnose illnesses, and undertake treatments without consulting professionals directly.

So now there you are – armed with the lists, the internet and all the ‘expert’ friends who advise you,  you’ll probably still start contacting every broker and/or boat owner advertising in the region where you are buying and probably even where you have no intention of buying – cause you can.  Then you’re having to deal with deciphering between the ‘sales talk’ and the reality, deciding whether you are looking at current photographs or photos taken in the boat’s much younger days!  Sometimes to often, owners will advertise their boats privately, but also want to cover their bases and list with a few, or every possible, broker. The ads of the broker get seen first, then on further research, buyers will come across the private ads; the private ads are now given some further credibility because the buyer has seen the broker ads first. Then the buyer thinks he’ll save money, get the boat cheaper because he can use the ‘no brokerage’ as additional leverage on offer – and so go directly to the owner. In most cases the owners are not able to be impartial, unbiased about their boat, that they love. Also, who is going to look after contracts, deposit of funds whilst you as the buyer investigates the vessel, by way of traveling to the location, surveys etc. how will you know that the owner isn’t running a little Dutch auction on the side, and then will turn around and take the highest bidder.

How many advertisements I’ve seen posted up on sites of boats for sale using the original brochure photos – taken by professionals of a brand new boat – and we’re talking about a boat that is 10 years or more down the track from being new and featured in that brochure! Recently viewed a catamaran, built in 1991, the photos presented even had some dates on them of 2000. Umm, excuse me, it’s now 2012! 

Having said that – we are sometimes listing boats that are distant from our base, photos are provided by owners and we have no way to verify whether these are current and relevant to the way the boat is now presenting. Or indeed the owners insist we use their photo files. Then on inspection we can be rather disappointed. Yes, we’ve been embarrassed  a few times over the years – where buyers don’t ask any questions, just announce they are coming to view a boat, or indeed don’t announce they are coming and present on the office doorstep. We have had no time to prepare them to the reality, what to expect, what not to expect. Also as many of the boats are live-aboard vessels, brokers need to give the owners some notice of inspection/ arrival. Marinas and boats are not like cars and a used-car lot – just turn up and then expect to walk on anything that has a sign on it.

So with that in mind, it may be well to use this moment to emphasize that it is best to contact the broker/ listing boat agent and let them know you’re on your way, when you’ll arrive and to make arrangements to view / inspect a vessel or several vessels. Sometimes the boats have gone with owners on a trip, or moved location for a period. The brokers can’t always have the time to keep updating numerous websites with changes of location of vessels. Check by emailing is usually the best way before you turn up at the doorstep of your broker.

I’ve certainly also had my share of owners send me photos of their boat and forget to mention these are from when they first bought the boat! But that was actually 20 years ago, so the chances of her looking and presenting the same as she was twenty years prior is pretty slim.  I read recently of some funny pointers on translating the ‘sales pitch descriptions’ on a helpful blog site, and for the most he was pretty spot on and I had to have a giggle. There’s a lot of truth in what Brett Becker has listed there – keep in mind that it’s from an American perspective and there is a difference from region to region, country to country. 

Over the many years we have often noted strange approaches of buyers when communicating with brokers – one example is to pretend they know a lot more than they actually do – the psychology it seems behind this is so that some horrible boat sales person doesn’t ‘take advantage’ of you. If you get the feeling that the boat sales person or boat broker (and there is a distinctive difference as previously discussed) will indeed take advantage of your naivety, your lack of knowledge, then you are dealing with the wrong person!

A professional and caring broker will take you under the wing and advise you. In fact, for the ‘green’ buyer,  an experience yacht broker will often be able to know and advise you on what is better suiting for you than you think is suitable. 

Whether or not brokers and vendors want to admit to it, a professional broker is there to assist, advise and also protect the interests of the buyers. Be careful of someone whose philosophy on the boat buying business is simply ‘buyer be ware’. Yes, buyer beware indeed – of who you are dealing with! 

Snippets of Additional: Having a reputable and professional broker to deal with is a good step in the right direction. A boat salesman is usually just that – a salesman. Many have never invested in buying a boat themselves. When you deal with a professional yacht broker, his/her professional duty is to advise you, based on their long-standing experience, knowledge and resources. 

If you go to a recommended specialist, legal or medical for instance, and he tells you that you need x treatment or need to do y this or  z that, do you tell him that your neighbour has another opinion and you’ll probably take your neighbour’s opinion as more informed and accurate?

Some Historical Reflection/Memories: When my previous partner and I had brokerages in Sydney Harbour, back in the ’80’s and ’90’s, we were members of the BIA of NSW. 

In short, membership to this Boating Industry Association,  was and still is, not just given to just anyone who applies and pays the membership. There has to be some criteria before acceptance and there  is a code of ethics that, being a member, they are obliged to abide by – if found that they were not abiding by the code of ethics, the membership would be revoked – struck off!  Members could display at their office and on their advertising – Member of the BIA of NSW, or QLD or whatever state. It was supposedly to give further confidence for vendors and buyers that they are dealing with a professional broker with integrity and experience. 

As I grew up in a ‘business family’ where it was simply no other practiced and taught than to be honest, diligent and respect and care for customers, so it was ‘natural’ for me and my partner who also came from an ‘honest’ business family background to operate under ethical code of conduct. We certainly saw some doozies come into the industry over the years. We had also seen a few ‘brokers’ over the  years who were really just fast buck “salesmen” –  get ‘struck off’, membership revoked, or just not last very long in the industry. 

Here is a summary example of such ethical and professional responsibility that would be reasonable to expect from a Yacht Broker and as the essence to their service and conduct: 

CODE OF ETHICS
XXX members are obligated to act in a position of trust to render accurate, truthful and expert advice to the community and to accurately and honestly advertise their products…..  A public commitment to fair-trading through the promoted industry obligations and a proof of a long-term commitment to the industry.

A great example of  this ‘buyer knows so don’t screw me’ attitude – I had this buyer who had gone back and forth and back and forth nutting out the pros and cons of selected boats on encyclopaedic volumes of emails. One of the things he was so compulsive about was something called the ‘comfort factor’. I have to admit, I had not really heard of a ‘comfort factor’ as such. So I looked it up and indeed a boat designer had come up with a formula for boaters to calculate this ‘factor’ when considering at what level a boat is going to be sea-kindly or other! He also had a book, very dated, of the ten most popular cruising designs, which was like his bible.

Basically this ‘comfort factor’  translated, in realistic terms, that you’re going to be very comfortable at sea on a barge! Yes, go the Joshua Spray designs because they fair  very well on this ‘comfort factor’ concept. Well, for the most of the vessels with the higher comfort factor ratings – you also can’t sail out of site on a dark night!   But there you go this guy was obsessed with it,  to the point where his ‘objection’ for one very nice centre-cockpit ketch was that it didn’t have a good enough ‘comfort factor’ rating in his opinion.  I thought that was pretty strange, seeing as the designer of that boat was also the ‘inventor’ of this ‘comfort factor’ criteria gig. You have to nod your head and have a laugh.

Tags: boat advice, boat brokers, boat choices, buying a boat, cruising yachts, Langkawi Malaysia, Marine industry, SE Asia