[Sailormon6]

If you’re negotiating to buy a boat at this time of year, when most northern boats are winterized and on the hard, how do you write the offer so that you reserve the right to have a sea trial, when weather permits, to give the buyer an opportunity to operate all the boat’s systems and ensure that everything works properly? At this time of year is it customary to wait until the weather breaks to have sea trials?

The seller might want to launch the boat and have the sea trial right away, even in bitter cold weather, to close the deal and stop his winter storage expenses, but the buyer won’t want to launch the boat and test the plumbing and other systems, only to hoist the boat back out and winterize the systems all over again, and put it back in storage for the rest of the winter. Is there a custom in the business as to how this is done and who should pay for the launch and two-way hoist and re-winterizing?

As the buyer, I would prefer to wait until the weather breaks for sea trials, and, if I go through with the deal, it seems reasonable to me that the buyer should pay for the cost of storage pro rated from the date of the signing of the agreement, and for the cost of the launch, because those are expenses that he would normally have at the beginning of the season. But, if the sea trial reveals serious problems, like a bad motor, and the buyer and seller can’t negotiate an agreed resolution of the problem, who should pay for the winter storage and the launch? It seems to me that the seller should pay those expenses.

Is there a customary way of dealing with these matters, or is it completely open to negotiation between the parties?