Hello

Hello, after reading this forum for many months, I've decided it's time to join. Lots of great knowledge here which I really appreciate. At the moment my wife and I have a 14' stitch and glue skiff named Rascal that I made with my Dad a number of years ago. That's mainly used for pulling nieces and nephews on a tube or for crabbing out of Westport, WA. In a couple years we'll target finding a boat for cruising the inside passage to Alaska and after a few years of that I'd like to switch over to the East Coast and the warm waters of the Bahamas.

For now we are chartering different types of boats to get a feel for what works for us. To date we've tried out a Selene 36, Bayliner 3988 and Ocean Alexander 39. We enjoy cruising the San Juans and Gulf Islands but we are also targeting Barkley Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island and Desolation Sound next. In a past life I use to live on a Catalina 30 and did 5 trips from Seattle to Barkley Sound with it. I was lucky enough in the 1990s to do at trip from Seattle to Mexico on a 35' sailboat. As for Alaska I've done the Inside Passage via a cruise ship, Alaska State Ferry and one fishing boat delivery. I am looking forward to doing my next Alaska trip on my own boat and my own schedule.

My wife and I explore land via our VW Westfalia Vanagon camper and have done Seattle to Dead Horse, AK with it. I think our Westfalia travels will help us out with boat shopping because we are use to exploring with small and limited accommodations. At the moment we are all over the place with our boat list, Bayliner 3288 and 3888s, CHB 34s, Ocean Alexander 38s galley down, Nordhavn 40s, Grand Banks 42s and Bayliner 4788s. We're working through the must haves, like 2 staterooms, island queen bed, shower stall, safe walk around decks, 3-4 year resale ease, etc. I'll fire up a boat shopping thread when I get our target list of boats narrowed down. Cheers!

Welcome Aboard!!

I think you should narrow your choices a bit based on mostly budget at this point in time. You are looking at Bayliners which can be had for $20,000 or less all the way up to a Nordhavn which will probably run you over $100,000.

As far as ease of resale... boats are really easy to sell, just make the price very low. There was recently a thread and discussion about a very nice Mainship listed for around $10,000, price drop to around $8,000 and sold in about 2 days. Just a rough guess is that the boat was worth around twice that amount, distressed buyer leaving town, etc. If you think you will be able to get all or most of your money out of the boat when you sell...not going to happen.

Better "walk the docks" a bit.If someone who appears sincere and really interested asks me about my boat I will generally be quite honest with him. Like " you can get a boat a lot like mine for around $30"

Have fun, I agree with the others, buy your second boat first, you will hear this expression several times in the next few responses, I didn't make it up, I just happened to say it first here..

pete

Pete Meisinger said:

Welcome Aboard!!

You are looking at Bayliners which can be had for $20,000 or less all the way up to a Nordhavn which will probably run you over $100,000.

Click to expand...

Can you point me to those Nordhavns?

Welcome aboard.

Glad you're here. I am sure your experiences to date will ensure you find just the right boat.

Hey welcome aboard dear.

Thanks for the welcome gang. As Pete noted zeroing in on a budget would help and we are kinda of all over the board on that too just like the boat. We'll see if that settles after a charter or two this summer. There is no rush at this point. For now I am just going to target enjoying the Seattle boat show in January.

Welcome Red!
Sounds like you are potentially on the right track (with your lists, chartering, trying before you buy, your experiences, etc.) to finding your "best or at least good boat". Like Pete said, buy your second (or third) boat first! That should end up being less expensive in the long run.
Budget is an important first place to start, and with that in mind, don't spend all of your money on the boat! There will be some (potentially) large expenses with a used boat "making it your own", repairs, updates, additions, etc. Keep some money aside for that as well! That is what happened to us, and even with a very good boat, we spent more in the after purchase than we thought we would
If getting the largest portion of your purchase price back when you resell (in a fairly short turn around (4 years)) is important to you, you may want to look at boats that tend to hold their value over time and/or tend to have a demand for (such as American Tug, Nordic Tug, Kadey Krogen, Nordhavn, Selene, etc. etc.). There are others, and with those boats (hold value longer over time, therefore maybe pay more up front), you MAY stand a better chance of getting more of your money back when you sell or maybe sell easier (or maybe not )?
I tend to agree with the earlier post that usually boats are not "good investments" as far as the monetary aspect is concerned.
Good luck and enjoy the process.

Tom, it looks like your home port is close to one of our favorite finds this summer. We really enjoyed our visit to Pirates Cove, that is a gem of an anchorage and park.

It's been awhile since I had my sailboat so I've been ramping up on "upgrade" costs. I've been learning some good stuff here and over on the Bayliner Forum. It's given me an appreciation for various costs of what one might think to be a minor thing that could set you back 5 grand like a new canvas for a bimini. I am trying to get better educated on the post purchase expenses and maintenance items that can be spendy like turbos and aftercoolers. All that to say I'm definitely going in with my eyes wide open on upgrade costs post purchase. Since we probably won't keep this boat very long it seems like buying a "popular" boat would be wise for easier resale without having to hold a fire sale. You guys are good on this site about calling out upgrades can be costly and fuel is a cheap part of the equation.

We're probably looking at this a little different because we are targeting two separate cruising grounds, Alaska and the East Coast with some combination of the Bahamas. So I am thinking two different boats, trying to pick the right tool for the job. For Alaska I definitely want some type of power boat where we can be inside out of the rain while clocking miles. For the Bahamas and East Coast I am leaning towards a sailboat. I plan to charter a sailboat in the Bahamas then see if that swings me back to power. It will be interesting to revisit this next fall after we gather some more experiences this summer. Thanks for the thoughts.

Welcome aboard and happy boat hunting. The only thing I’ll add is, get out and use the boat before you start putting money, sweat and time in to it. So many dreamers take the plunge, only to never get around to actually using the “Dream”. They spend so much effort to get it ready that the interest dies before they actually go out and cruise.
Be realistic with what you intend to do with the boat. I cant imagine being on a boat cruising like we do on anything smaller, and yet we haven’t really had the desire to go bigger. Your boat needs to meet your needs, not everyone else’s.
Cheers and keep us in the loop.

Thanks for the note Crusty Chief....nice blog by the way.