Buying Your First Boat

Owning a boat is a dream that many people have but it can be a bit daunting to take the leap and purchase something. This is particularly true if your boating experience is fairly limited and you haven’t already been through the process of buying a boat.

There are steps you can take to make that first purchase a bit easier.

Evaluate Your Needs First

Make a list of what you want to do with a boat when you get one. What is the primary purpose plus any secondary purposes? Do you want to do any offshore cruising? Do you need overnight accommodation and if so for how many people?

Then determine what kind of boat best fits your purpose.

Go and visit your local boat brokers. Tell them what you want to do and how much you have to spend and see what they suggest. If possible have a look at some of the boats they have for sale to get some idea of what you can get for your money. Many boating industry sales people have a lot of useful knowledge but understandably they also have eye on selling you something. This doesn’t mean their advice will be bad, but you have to be aware it will add bias.

Determine Your Budget

What is your budget? You may want to revise this after you have looked at a few boats in your initial price range. Also you need to factor in your ongoing costs, insurance, maintenance, storage, fuel etc. Can you afford to run the boat you want to buy?

Seek Advice

Often you may have friends and acquaintances with whom you can discuss your boating ambitions. This can be useful but be aware that some people can have strong prejudices against a brand or a type of boat for no reason other than something they heard and which may turn out not to be true.

Talk to people in the industry like boat builders or mechanics. Many of them are friendly and helpful as long as you don’t take up too much of their time. If you need some in depth advice offer to pay them as their experience and knowledge is how they make their living and if it helps you make the right decision it is money well spent.

Do Your Homework

There’s plenty of information around that will help build your knowledge before you go boat hunting.

Read as many magazines and books as you can. In my experience most printed information is of a good standard with good practical advice.

The type of construction can have a lot of bearing on the value of a boat, however no boat building material is inherently better than any other. Every material has it strengths and weaknesses but at the end the day a properly built boat, well maintained is better than a shoddily built, neglected boat whatever the construction material.