Thanks everyone. All great points and well taken. After reading these posts, other threads, and talking it over, we've decided on a plan (nothing profound, but it's a good one for us). Keep in mind we've been looking for almost 6 months now, have narrowed down our list to a few different models, and have traveled hundreds of miles in varying direction to view a number of examples of each. No luck. So while we're not desparate, there is merit to continuing shopping in case we find "our boat".
So here's our plan: We'll go to look at boats up north if they appear to be worth it. One or two in particular are our top choice models and appear to be in good condition, so it's worth a peek.
- If the boat is not so nice, well then we have no problem! We move on.
- If the boat is decent, and perhaps worth considering, but not great, then we can wait. If she sells to someone else, no huge loss. If she's still around in Spring and we haven't located another boat, perhaps we'll consider it (more convenient for sea trial, etc., and overall evaluation too).
- If the boat's in
great condition (like really well-maintained), well then we have this issue of if and how to proceed. But in our experience, the odds of this occurring are very small. But if we don't go look, we won't know. That's just reality.
So that's the plan. The more boats we see, the more likely we are to find what we're looking for.
