Buying A Boat

Every year, boat manufacturers go to tremendous lengths to entice buyers. They upgrade the models they’re holding over from one year to they next. They replace others with “new and improved” versions. Very often there’s a genuine “wow” element in some of the changes they make. However, the vast majority of those changes are cosmetic, and no matter how sexy or desirable the new bells and whistles may be, you have to look beyond them when you decide which boat you want to buy.

Sometimes when I’m checking out a new boat it looks so good at the dock, and it has so many neat comfort and convenience features, I have to force myself to step back and look at the boat itself… to consider its “bones” so to speak. The point is most people find it very difficult to try to select one boat over another by looking at it in the showroom or in the water. After all the new boat gleams from stem to stern. It’s clean, uncluttered and seductive. You slither in between the steering wheel and the gearshift, nestled wonderful creature comfort but you’re not getting a true picture of how that boat suits you.

Now obviously it’s a somewhat different story when the manufacturer changes the hull design, offers more powerful engines, or otherwise modifies the power train. These changes go beyond cosmetics to a degree, but unless the new system is radically different from the old one the difference in performance will rarely be significant. Besides you shouldn’t be anywhere near a boat yet.

As much fun as it is to go to a dealer, or wander through a show, you should take your first steps toward purchasing without even looking at a brochure. You start by sitting down at home; consulting with the people you will head out with and set your priorities. What are the 10 or 20 most important things to you that you want in your boat? Be very very specific because the more detail you put into your list, the better your final decision will be. When you know exactly what you want, you’re much less likely to be seduced by bells and whistles.

You want to know where you will be on the water most of the time… in a small landlocked lake, on a river or canal, or in larger waters such as Georgian Bay or Puget Sound. Obviously the prevailing conditions in these three locations vary greatly, as will the demands each puts on the boat you choose. You have to decide what the main activity will be in the boat, as well as the second and third. A boat built for wakeboarding is quite different from a boat built for fishing. You can get a boat that’ll do both, but you have to decide which is more important.

Years ago, my brother-in-law called me up all excited about a boat he had found that was a sailboat and a motor boat. He was wondering whether I though he should buy it. I asked him whether it was a motorboat with a sail or a sailboat with a motor and he said… “It’s both!” After a futile discussion I asked whether he had taken it out for a sail… or a motor… and he hadn’t. He called me a few days later to say he didn’t buy the boat because it neither sailed nor motored very well at all. The point is a boat must be designed for a primary application and that must be the most important application in your list of needs.

Another determining factor in your decision is when you go boating. Obviously if you plan to fish in all kinds of weather from early spring to late fall, you will need something different from a fair weather boat to take out on day trips in the summer time… and different again from a boat to take you down the Intracoastal Waterway to Florida in the fall and back each spring.

That brings up another factor. How many people will you take along? On the surface, this priority is straightforward but it does show how important details can be. Let’s say you decide that most of the time two of you will be cruising but you will often have guests for day trips. You’ll need one stateroom, a small galley and a head. You will also want a large cockpit, aft deck, or salon with plenty of room for entertaining. If you’ll often want to have another couple overnight, you should look for two cabins, perhaps a master stateroom aft and a forward V-berth so you can have privacy. You may want two heads. If one of your frequent guests has bad knees or some other challenge, you might look at a boat that’s on one level, without so many stairs.

Now here’s where some bells and whistles come in. A large television and stereo system could be part of your entertainment… or an icemaker and wet bar topsides.

Once you have your list of priorities and know which are carved in stone and which have some flexibility, you can go to look at boats. Be prepared. There is nothing quite so seductive as a new boat, especially to someone who has made the decision to buy one. As you get swept up in the elegance, the fit and finish, the exquisite details, remember to step back every once in a while and look at your list. Make sure you’re getting what you need and not being carried away by all the neat stuff.

All this will get you close to your decision. But there is one more step that is vital, a sea trial. I was looking at a boat one time that looked good on paper… and on the telephone. Its owner would tell me every chance he got how well it handled. Well… I took it out and, as you have probably guessed, had an eye opening (perhaps I should say ear-shattering) experience. Every time the boat went over the slightest wave its bow rails rattled so much I thought they were coming off. Wiggle them by hand and they wouldn’t budge, but take the boat over the rail and it sounded like it was flying apart.

A sea trial is particularly important in smaller classes – say thirty feet and under. If you have a choice between a direct drive and a stern drive, try them both out. See what difference duo props make. And don’t just take them out into the big water and open them up, go slow around the docks… bring the boat up to the wall or into a slip. See whether you can handle the boat comfortably because if you can’t you won’t take it out.

It is not as important to take out larger cruisers because handling is not as much of an issue. You’re dealing with a slower moving craft. Your pleasure is not predicated on speed so much as it is on accommodation. However, if you take a large boat out and it strains to get up on plane, imagine how much more difficulty it will have laden down with guests, food, and all the other detritus you carry on board. Sometimes boats are underpowered. You should not have to pay the price for a boat that won’t get out of its own way, unless, of course, you want a vessel you can moor in a slip at your favourite marina and use as a cottage. Then the power it has doesn’t matter so much as the accommodation features.

So here are your steps: set your priorities, with all the detail you can manage. Then go see the boat. Look beyond the window dressing – behind the curtain, so to speak, and figure out what the manufacturer had in mind for this boat. What are its strengths? Do they match your needs? Be prepared to make trade offs but make sure the boat meets your demands, rather than you adjusting your demands to suit the boat. Aim as high as you can. If the boat you’re considering hits 80 percent of your list, buy it, but before you sign, put the pressure on.

Go through the boat and check every system. Flip every switch, turn every knob, and faucet, open every cupboard, look under all the seats… make sure everything does what it is supposed to do. Then go through it again and look to see whether the doors all fit perfectly in their frames, that the latches are easy to use and that there’s nothing sticking out to catch you or your clothes when you walk by. You wouldn’t buy a $30,000 car from a dealer who said “Oh we can fix that.” Why would your demands be any different on a boat that costs $60,000 or $260,000?

There is no greater pleasure than taking your new boat out for a spin… and if you do your homework before buying it, that pleasure will last a long long time.