Best location to buy an old sailboat

[chucklesR]

Geography aside, Xort's epic search for a boat details the one consideration not mentioned so far in this thread, to wit:

The best place to buy a used boat is where the boat is.
Every single boat is different depending on a chain of events and a chain of owners, each of which is unique - the only constant in the mix is that the boat is going to be where it is, and you will have to go there to look at it.

[sck5]

If you DO go to the great lakes dont forget Canada. Now that NAFTA happened there is no disadvantage to looking in Canada compared to across the lake. (so long as the boat was originally built in either Canada or the USA - imports from Europe may have more complications)

[xort]

re: Canada
You will have currency fluctuations.
SCK, are you sure there are no import duties getting a canadian boat into US other than state sales tax?

[Sailormann]

Are you saying that you would not buy a Great Lake's boat or that you just wouldn't credit it with likely to be in any better shape than a Florida boat?

One more of the 'caveat emptors'.... there is a steady stream of hurricane boats that are brought up to the Great Lakes, refurbished and sold. Sometimes the vendor will advise the buyer of the boat's history and sometimes they won't. If you do end up looking around here (Ontario) then it would be a very good idea to contract a local surveyor to look at the boat for you. They know who most of the people in the hurrican boat business are and can advise you accordingly.

[mgiguere]

Hi Blowfish:

This is a great old boat...seemingly in excellent shape. I've had one for 25 years and it is super, especially for the money. Can go off shore, built like a tank, and fast. Check it out. http://www.sailboatlistings.com/view/10361

Moe

[sck5]

xort

yes i researched this. I was looking at a cs36 in Kingston Ont. and the broker said that if they sold the boat to me for export then I didnt need to pay provincial or federal tax in canada. (He also said that not all brokers were familiar with the necessary paperwork but he had done it before and knew it could be done fairly easily) Of course, before you sail it away you would need to document it in the US and pay whatever state tax you would owe wherever you live. The key for NAFTA rules of origin is that any boat that was ORIGINALLY BUILT in a NAFTA country can be exported to another NAFTA country free of import tax. That means any boat built in the USA or Canada (or Mexico if they built any boats) can be bought in either country and all you are comparing is the price in whatever dollars you want to compare them in. (Yachtworld will do all the conversions for you). I believe that if you were to buy a boat in Canada that was, for example, originally built in France, then you would have a more complicated situation which would mean that the rules for importing boats from France would apply, but I am not sure how or if they would net out Canadian tax already paid in that case.

Of course, there are transport costs but if you already live on a Great Lake then that is nothing. In fact, I would have looked forward to sailing a boat from Canada back across to NY.

[merc2dogs]

I have a bad (?) habit of checking out boats in various price ranges.
What I've found over the years is that there isn't really any good -places- to buy a boat, but there are good -times- to buy boats.

I found that in the late summer/fall prices dropped on boats because people in the north who are wanting to sell are hoping to avoid haul-out and storage fees. After haul-out season, prices went back up because people are wanting to recoup those costs. (the money is already spent till may, so why take less?)
Spring time, (for boats and bikes) is a bad time to buy because that's when the market is there, everyone who had a good time on their buddy's boat last summer (or sold to save costs) is looking for their own.

It's fairly common to see boats on craigs list in the late summer or fall listed at several thousand dollars less than summer or spring prices.


Ken.

[WheresTheBrakes]

Don't forget luck... there is no telling with a boat search, it is half searched with your heart and half searched with your wallet..

I bought a boat with another guy in September.. we searched and searched for months, and looked at really crappy boats and really strange owners.. We finally found one that looked pretty perfect about 6 hours away in NC.. well we went, up and back in one day, and the boat was horribly neglected-the chainplate on one side had practically pulled through the hull..the photos we had seen were like 20 years old..

Well after missing a day on the beach with my family that had come into town to see me, we were bitching about the waste of time the trip was.. that was a Sunday..

Well the guy I was buying the boat with went into work on Monday still bitching about the trip, and a random guy who worked there said he had a boat for sale, it turned out to be in excellent shape, 10 mins from my house, at about half of what we were looking to spend on a boat..


So there you go, if we hadn't have gone on the wasted trip to NC, the boat might have sold without us ever having seen it !!!

Just keep your fingers crossed and good luck !!!

[marigot]

We have a C&C 36 Frigate, 1969, sitting in the mud in Savannah, GA. She has great lines but needs some love. We have owned this boat for years and sailed her for many years in the Chesapeake. Summer before last my husband took it down the ICW to Savannah. We Any interest? We will let it go cheap to someone who will give her the love she deserves.

[Elzaar]

OK, so I spend 30 minutes a day checking Yachtworld with occasional forays out of town to look at boats that rarely look as good as advertised. It's sounding more and more (given my generally cheap nature, handy-ness, shop, and 2-3 year timeline), like my time would be better spent wandering the docks on Puget Sound. Is that about right?