All boats are compromises.  There is no single perfect boat anymore than there is one perfect car.  Ferrari sports cars, Land Cruiser SUVs, Ford pick up trucks, and Chevy soccer mom vans are all designed to fill a specific niche in the automotive world and each has special functions.
  
Boats are much like cars.  I will, in this article, only discuss twin engine, diesel powered, sport fishing boats over 32 feet in length.  That still leaves an enormous amount of variability and equally many pros and cons of the multiple variables.

Rather than start out looking for a 42 foot Brand A or a 53 foot Brand B, a prospective boat buyer should start by drawing up a comprehensive list of where he intends to go, and the maximum number of people  who will be on board 90% of the time (It is crazy to buy a boat with enough staterooms to give optimum privacy to the one biggest crew you will ever have in the next 3 years!).  Then, calculate how much fuel you need to make the longest crossing you intend to make more than once or twice a year. Carrying a bladder or some drums once a year beats having a boat with the capabilities of which you rarely use. Here is why:

Size Matters

The size of your new dream boat may be a lot like the  responsibilities and demands of your job. According to “The Peter Principle” an executive who performs well tends to be promoted until he reaches a level at which the demands of his position overcome his abilities and he can no longer be promoted or maintain his position.  He or she is pushed sideways into a job with equal (or lesser) status, but one where he will remain for the  rest of his career.

In my analogy, I see one reason for the thousands of boats that sit, wasting away, in canals, at docks behind their owner’s house.  Often they are just too much for the owner to cope with!  In particular, they may be too big for the owner to enjoy taking out by himself, or with family and friends, but no professional crew.

A 50 foot plus convertible is too big to take out for an hour or two when her owner finally does get a little free time.  It takes so long to wash down the entire exterior, chamois off the water droplets, including the spray curtains, and of course do the engine room checks that it is not worth the hassle.

I always quip “Let me make sure we’re not sinking” when I enter the hot engine room after even a short trip, but sometimes we are!  The last time I had that sinking feeling when I climbed into the engine room water was pouring from a dripless shaft seal that had a rubber boot that needed adjusting.  Nothing really major, but enough to make me always check the engine room while I am still dirty, and before I have a cocktail.

Then you still have to clean the interior, vacuum the carpets, wipe off the countertops, do the inside surface of the windows – ad infinitum!  The care and maintenance of a boat is a direct function of the area of its cockpit deck, fore deck, bridge deck, salon and galley soles, and number of marine heads that need to be cleaned.  Size does matter, and this is where one of the inherent conflicts in boat brokerage comes into play.  Brokers get paid a commission on the total cost of any boat they sell, and bigger boats cost more and create bigger commissions.

There is an old joke about the winter it got so cold in Florida that the yacht brokers had their hands in their own pockets!  Unfortunately, there really are way too many sleazy yacht brokers.  However, a good, reliable broker is your friend and the expert upon whom you rely. Finding a good one is all important!

Choosing a Broker

A reputable broker should gladly give you names of his or her previous clients so that you can call or visit to inquire about the relationship between the broker and his client, and the satisfaction of any transactions they had shared. Getting the right broker is in many ways the  most important part of looking for a boat.

It is not a broker’s job to sell you a boat, it is his job to steer you toward boats that fill the bill your descriptions and discussions have indicated would suit you.  Often this is a boat you would never have thought to look at!  The ultimate decision must be yours.
Jeff Fay and I once bought a Rybovich for less than the price of a far lesser production boat that I had in mind because a (now retired) broker friend, Peter Schweitzer, found her languishing in Sarasota. “Humdinger” was, and is, what her name implies and she is still going strong 30 years later.  Still under the care of my friend and ex-partner, she is one of the prettiest and most successful charter boats in Kona, Hawaii and still strong and sea worthy- thanks to a good broker with his finger on the pulse of things and a wide range of contacts.

In direct contrast, I once went out on a sea trial with a friend.  My friend really liked his broker, considered him a friend, and trusted his advice.  I knew it would do little good, and only damage my relationship with my friend, if I mentioned that not only was I getting  half soaked,  I was about to lose half the fillings in my back teeth on the ride which the broker was describing to our friend/client as both soft and dry!  The broker was selling a boat, not guiding the customer in his decision.

The deal was made but the owner did not keep his new boat for very long.  The professional captain he had to hire to run his new, bigger boat steered him into a much better choice for him to achieve long term boating pleasure.

Surveyor- A Buyer’s Friend

If a broker helps you understand what style and size of boat suits you best, a  good marine surveyor is the hero who protects you from dangers you can not see or imagine when you have finally found  what seems to be a suitable choice.

Perhaps the most anxious I have ever been during a boat survey was when I was in the Canary Islands and on the selling side.  I knew my boat, a custom built, foam sandwich composite 40 footer named “Duyfken” well and loved her. She had carried me through hazardous situations over thousands of miles of ocean and we had caught every species of billfish off her.

The surveyor, a Spanish gentleman, with a degree from M.I.T., was the most thorough going I have ever seen.  He went over her with a fine tooth comb. What if he found something seriously wrong that even I did not know about?  At that moment, the importance of getting a good surveyor the next time I was on the buying side became more obvious than it ever had been before.

Part II to follow

For a complete list of our other featured blog posts and to see the full line of Guy Harvey Sportswear, please visit: www.guyharveysportswear.com

Related posts:

1. So – You Want to Buy a Boat — Part II
2. NEW! Guy Harvey Artist Pavillion Debuts at Miami International Boat Show
3. Thanks for Visiting Me at the Miami Boat Show

Tags: Boats, Peter B. Wright

This entry was posted on Friday, July 16th, 2010 at 1:54 pm and is filed under Fishing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.