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- Used Sailboat Buying Guide Ebook
How to Avoid Buying the Wrong Sailboat
The complete guide to finding, inspecting, negotiating and buying a used cruising sailboat. Fully revised and expanded, in a UK edition and a US edition.
A used sailboat can be the best money you ever spend. It can also be the most expensive mistake you ever make, and most of the mistakes are avoidable.
Before we decided to build our own boat, I looked seriously at a 40-foot performance cruiser. The surveyor spotted a slight misalignment between the keel and the rudder, something I had missed completely. It pointed to a bent rudder stock. When we raised it, the owner admitted he "remembered hitting something". He wasn't interested in fixing it and offered a token reduction in the price. We walked away.
That survey cost a few hundred pounds. It saved us from a boat that would have cost far more than that to put right, and worse.
This book is built to help you do the same: to find the problems before you've paid for them, and to know what to do when you find them.
An update, and a much more complete book
This is a revision of my ebook How to Avoid Buying the Wrong Sailboat, first published in 2019. That edition showed you how to decide what you need and rule out the boats that don't fit. It's still at the heart of the book, and it's been rewritten and kept.
But choosing is only the first part of buying a boat. This edition takes you through the whole purchase, from your first budget to the first weeks aboard, with 18 chapters, a checklist at the end of every chapter and a complete elimination checklist you can fill in on screen.
What you'll be able to do
- Rule out the wrong boats in a minute. Build a personal checklist of what you do and don't want, so you can dismiss most listings before you waste a trip.
- Set a realistic budget that includes the survey, the first-year repairs, taxes, insurance and the replacement costs most buyers forget.
- Search smartly, read a listing like a detective, and research a model before you drive to see it.
- Inspect a boat on a first visit, spot the red flags, and tell the deal-breakers from the problems you can negotiate.
- Run a sea trial that tests the boat, and choose, brief and question a surveyor.
- Turn the survey report into a fair price, with repair quotes and a clear walk-away number.
- Understand the paperwork before you sign: the purchase agreement, the deposit, title and liens, taxes, finance and insurance.
- Take delivery, get the boat ready for cruising, and check that the safety gear works.
What's inside
Part 1: Decide what's wrong for you
- How will you use the boat?
- Set the real budget
- Eliminate the wrong boats, with two worked examples and a guide to the twelve design choices that matter
Part 2: Finding boats
- Where to search, and how to read a listing
- Researching a model
- Broker or private sale
Part 3: Evaluating a boat
- The first-visit checklist
- Red flags
- The sea trial
- The survey
Part 4: Making the deal
- Pricing and negotiation
- The offer and the purchase agreement
- Title, liens and paperwork
- Taxes and fees
- Financing and insurance
Part 5: After the purchase
- Taking delivery
- Getting ready for cruising, including a section for liveaboards
- The safety gear check
Plus an appendix with the full checklist, and links to more than 40 related articles on this website.
Why there are two editions
Choosing, inspecting and surveying a boat is much the same on both sides of the Atlantic. Buying it isn't. Once you've picked the boat, the rules about who owns it, how it's registered, what tax you pay, how the contract and the deposit work, and what loans, insurance and safety equipment you need are all different.
I could have written one book that says "check your local rules" on every page. I'd rather give you the actual process for where you are. So there are two editions: the process chapters are the same, and the chapters on contracts, registration, taxes, finance, insurance and safety rules are written for your country.
Which should you buy? Choose the edition for the country where the boat will be registered and kept, because that's where the rules will apply to you. If you're buying a boat abroad, both editions include a section on buying a foreign-flagged boat.
| UK edition: £14.99 | US edition: $19.99 | |
|---|---|---|
| Written for | Buyers in the UK | Buyers in the US |
| Registration and title | Part 1 of the UK Ship Register, the Small Ships Register and unregistered boats; bills of sale; transcripts of the register | US Coast Guard documentation and state titling; abstracts of title; liens and bills of sale |
| Tax | VAT status and proof, importing a boat, and the post-Brexit position | Sales and use tax, how it varies by state, and buying in another state |
| Contracts and deposits | Broker and RYA agreements, client accounts, survey and sea trial periods | Purchase and sale agreements, escrow, contingencies and acceptance |
| Finance and insurance | UK marine finance, Part 1 mortgages and UK insurance practice | US marine lenders, the preferred ship mortgage and US insurance practice |
| Surveyors | YBDSA surveyors | SAMS and NAMS surveyors |
| Safety equipment | UK requirements and the UK beacon registration rules | US Coast Guard requirements and NOAA beacon registration |
| Spelling, units, currency | UK spelling, feet with metres in brackets, pounds | US spelling, feet, dollars |
The two editions are priced in each currency, at roughly equivalent amounts.
What you get
- The ebook, over 70 pages and around 24,000 words, as a PDF you can read on any device.
- A fillable PDF checklist to build your personal profile, eliminate the wrong boats and choose the gear you want. Click a box to put an X in it, and type your budget and notes straight into the form.
- A short checklist at the end of every chapter, so you can take the book aboard.
- Clickable links to more than 40 related articles on this website, for when you want more detail.
After you buy, a download link is sent to you by email, delivered by MailerLite. You may print the ebook for your own use.
Who it's for
I'm a British sailor and writer, and I run sailboat-cruising.com. I'm a member of the Yachting Journalists Association and am an RYA Offshore Yachtmaster. I've sailed for over 50 years in the North Atlantic, the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. I've sold several boats in the UK and one in Grenada, sailed a Nicholson 32 for several years and built my own boat. I've been through the buying process more than once, and I've made some of the mistakes this book is meant to help you avoid.
A sea trial on a boat I was considering as a replacement for my Nicholson 32 showed me something no survey could: a boat with an unacceptable degree of weather helm that neither the owner nor the surveyor could trim out. We didn't buy it. Lessons like that run all through the book.
Questions
I own the 2019 edition. What's different?
It's a much larger book. The 2019 edition was about choosing a boat. This one keeps that method and adds everything after it: finding and inspecting boats, the survey, negotiation, the paperwork, taxes, finance and insurance, delivery and fitting out.
Is this legal, tax or financial advice?
No. It's a practical guide, and the chapters on contracts, registration, tax, finance and insurance tell you what to ask and who to ask. Rules change and vary, so check with the relevant authority or a professional before you act.
Can I use the UK edition if I'm buying in the US, or the other way round?
The process chapters will help you anywhere, but the legal and financial chapters are written for one country. Choose the edition for where the boat will be registered and kept.
How do I get the ebook?
You'll receive a download link by email as soon as you've bought it, sent through MailerLite.
Some web pages that the book links to contain affiliate links. You can read my full disclosure here.
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