LandlockedInUT
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2022
- Messages
- 51
Go grab yourself a beer because I'm one of those guys that loves listening to himself type. 
If you don't have patience or are out of beer, skip to the end and I'll summarize my questions.
As the name suggests, we're currently stuck in the land of weak beer and "boating" on giant evaporating puddles. My wife and I work remotely in the tech industry and are looking to head back east within the next 12-18 months. Right now, we're aiming for the Pamlico Sound area of NC. The game plan is to get a place on the water to park a boat behind and then head to the Bahamas for the winters while working full time as we go. The biggest obstacle we see at the moment is reliable broadband internet and are hoping, doubtfully, that Starlink will pan out and become an actual thing. If it doesn't, we'll have to wait until retirement and/or hope that something else comes along. Due to the nature of our work, the relative spottiness and lack of speed of the current offshore offerings aren't options and the ones that *may* work are insanely expensive.
Anyway... not sure if here's the place to ask it or not, but I do have some questions regarding loans and insurance on older boats. What we're looking at right now is something in the 43- 58' range from Hatteras (43DC up to 58 Yachtfish, excluding sportfish models). We both have boating experience despite our current geographical isolation, are both very familiar with maintenance and upkeep on fiberglass diesel boats, and fully understand the scale, cost and complexity of the boats we're looking at, so this isn't so much of a "should we get this boat" thing as it is how old a boat should we realistically expect to finance and insure?
I understand that the insurance and financing game has evolved considerably in the past 10- 15 years, and I've read that it's nigh impossible to get a loan and/or insurance on something from the late 70's to mid 80's, even with a glowing survey and sea trial. Is this the case?
We're about 2.5-3 years from pulling the trigger on the floating component of this pipe dream, and we'd like to know now if we're going to have to cough up cash for what we want, if we'll be able to have it financed and/or insured, or if we'll have to look at much newer stuff. We'd rather put that money into the 'ole portfolio and draw off it to make payments on a loan than to toss it all at a depreciating asset, but if that's what we have to do, then that's what we'll do.
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TLDR: In 2.5 to 3 years from now, can we realistically expect to get a loan and insurance on a late '70s to late 80's Hatteras with a glowing survey/sea trial, or will we have to pay cash and/or self insure? Or will we simply have to look at newer boats?
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Anyway, thanks for reading. We look forward to learning from the massive wealth of knowledge here, and hope that we can give back to the forum some how.
If you don't have patience or are out of beer, skip to the end and I'll summarize my questions.As the name suggests, we're currently stuck in the land of weak beer and "boating" on giant evaporating puddles. My wife and I work remotely in the tech industry and are looking to head back east within the next 12-18 months. Right now, we're aiming for the Pamlico Sound area of NC. The game plan is to get a place on the water to park a boat behind and then head to the Bahamas for the winters while working full time as we go. The biggest obstacle we see at the moment is reliable broadband internet and are hoping, doubtfully, that Starlink will pan out and become an actual thing. If it doesn't, we'll have to wait until retirement and/or hope that something else comes along. Due to the nature of our work, the relative spottiness and lack of speed of the current offshore offerings aren't options and the ones that *may* work are insanely expensive.
Anyway... not sure if here's the place to ask it or not, but I do have some questions regarding loans and insurance on older boats. What we're looking at right now is something in the 43- 58' range from Hatteras (43DC up to 58 Yachtfish, excluding sportfish models). We both have boating experience despite our current geographical isolation, are both very familiar with maintenance and upkeep on fiberglass diesel boats, and fully understand the scale, cost and complexity of the boats we're looking at, so this isn't so much of a "should we get this boat" thing as it is how old a boat should we realistically expect to finance and insure?
I understand that the insurance and financing game has evolved considerably in the past 10- 15 years, and I've read that it's nigh impossible to get a loan and/or insurance on something from the late 70's to mid 80's, even with a glowing survey and sea trial. Is this the case?
We're about 2.5-3 years from pulling the trigger on the floating component of this pipe dream, and we'd like to know now if we're going to have to cough up cash for what we want, if we'll be able to have it financed and/or insured, or if we'll have to look at much newer stuff. We'd rather put that money into the 'ole portfolio and draw off it to make payments on a loan than to toss it all at a depreciating asset, but if that's what we have to do, then that's what we'll do.
-------------------
TLDR: In 2.5 to 3 years from now, can we realistically expect to get a loan and insurance on a late '70s to late 80's Hatteras with a glowing survey/sea trial, or will we have to pay cash and/or self insure? Or will we simply have to look at newer boats?
-------------------
Anyway, thanks for reading. We look forward to learning from the massive wealth of knowledge here, and hope that we can give back to the forum some how.
