SO...You think you want to buy a boat? Oh so many questions...oh so many concerns.
Everyone has a different "dream boat". My idea of a dream boat and Jake's idea of a dreamboat are slightly different.
Very quickly you will learn (if you haven’t already) that simply put, there is no such thing as the perfect boat. Once you can accept this fact, you're off to a great start. The primary purpose and function that the boat will be used is of mega-importance and really does dictate the general direction to take. For example, if you are planning to only use the boat for coastal cruising or even just for day sails with lots of friends vs. crossing oceans or as a liveaboard will all yield a different "perfect boat". Should it be made of fiberglass, wood, steel, aluminum, or maybe cement? Should it have one, two or three hulls? How much money can you afford to invest in this perfect boat? Should it be new or used; how big should it be;...the list goes on and on. There are libraries of books out there on how to choose the perfect boat, but in order to keep this short and sweet, we're going to narrow down how we determined OUR PERFECT BOAT, the Island Packet 31.
The first thing we did was make a tic list of all the things we wanted from the boat. So, here goes:
- Affordable, i.e. Used
- Ability to Outfit & Maintain (cost-wise)
- 30-35 Feet
- Offshore (ocean) Worthy
- Rugged Build
- Super Heavy
- Fiberglass Hull
- Full Keel
- Medium-to-Shallow Draft
*note that this tick list was ever changing as we did our research and this is what it ultimately became by the end.
Our boat search began much in the same fashion as our sailing experience...from books. The first book we read on the topic of boat selection was “How to sail around the world - Advice and Ideas for Voyaging under Sail” by Hal Roth. Hal and his wife sailed all over the world and suggested 35-feet is the perfect size for the endeavor; big enough to be comfortable with enough water/fuel tanks for long distances and still maneuver through tighter/shallower canals.
Once we had an idea of size and a tic list to work off, we determined the most important factor, price range. How much do we want to spend? Its not very hard to spend over $1M on a sailing yacht and near impossible to buy a new boat for less than $300,000 (and that is right off production line), which doesn't include all the bells and whistles to make it run. We capped our budget around $35-$45K for the base price (not including upgrades), so we pretty much knew that our only option was to purchase a used boat from the start. Check.
All boats need constant maintenance, work and upgrades (esp. used boats) so we made sure to set aside a sizable chunk of change to afford the improvements as well. Like decorating a house, decorating a boat includes what your using it for. Since we plan to do plenty of offshore (hopefully worldly) cruising as well as live aboard, we made sure to include that in our tick list and plan accordingly so that we could maintain zero debt without working for a period of time.
The best boat is one you can afford, afford to maintain, and still do whatever you want and need to do with it.
Early on, we dabbled in the "production boat" pocket of the market, which includes makes such as the Catalina, Beneteau, and even Hunter. Any of these could easily be found and in great condition AND in our price-range. The major drawback though is that they are not really built tough enough to withstand major wind or strain outside of day sailing or coastal cruising. The number one, most important thing for us is safety and we knew the boat had to be rugged enough to be able to withstand just about anything, even hurricanes. So we checked these guys off the list.
We also ventured down the "bigger boat" path for a short time...something in the 37-38 foot range, but the build quality and condition was poor at best, at least within our price range.
