Then, after you have identified your finalists, you can factor comparisons between the boats, including their accessories, into your final decision in your attempt to best match your desires as well as try to get the most for your money. Accessories can help you narrow down a collection of good choices.
The Factors
Let’s start out by conceding that a canoe would likely be the most economical boat we could live in—that is, unless you keep losing your paddle. Then maybe a rowboat (which secures its oars) would be better. I once slept in a rowboat, bent into a gap between two fixed seats, one seat driving into my back and the other jammed into the back of my thighs. It was one of my less enjoyable nights aboard a boat.
You can sleep anywhere, but anywhere is not necessarily acceptable or comfortable. It is very easy to make choices that sound truly wonderful and romantic and then end up feeling as if you’re on a camping trip that won’t end. Now, that rowboat might have been acceptable to someone, right? Who am I to tell someone else what comfortable or acceptable accommodations are? For better or worse, we get to make our own decisions. For me, I want to be sure that I can stand up in my home, and storage is more important to me than boat performance, although I absolutely want my boat to be operational. I have other requirements as well.
There are a million boats out there for sale, and “new” used boats appear every day to replace every boat that sells. Set up your criteria for what you demand of your boat, and then begin to exclude boats.
Power vs. Sail
Most of the time, your preference is in your heart. Sailors want sailboats. Powerboaters or fishermen want powerboats. The decision is often part of the personality.
Sailboats are slow and quiet, with unlimited range under sail, provided there is wind. They require manual labor to operate. A sailboat that is the same weight as a powerboat will typically have a lower center of gravity because of the keel and ballast; the counterbalancing between the keel and the mast will often give the sailboat greater stability under difficult conditions, both at dock and at sea, than a powerboat of similar displacement. While the rigging and sails can be expensive to maintain, a sailboat in good overall condition has much less operating expense than a powerboat.
Powerboats are typically faster than sailboats and a bit louder. They do not have an unlimited range, and range and expense are dependent on fuel usage. While there is no rigging to maintain, the greater number of engine hours usually translates into a higher engine maintenance requirement. Many powerboats are extremely susceptible to wind and weather because of their high windage (exposure to wind—the whole boat acts as a giant sail) and higher center of gravity, and can be uncomfortable under trying conditions. Also, the higher the center of gravity, the more the boat will roll. Unlike a sailboat, there is minimum counterbalance.
The greatest advantage of a powerboat is that at the push of a button the boat can go to its desired location quickly, while a sailboat might have to weave its way to a location slowly, depending on wind direction and speed. Powerboats are also ideal for fishing; they have the ability to trawl, they offer comfortable seats, and they have added storage for bait and catches.
I am a sailor, but have always been jealous when meeting my powerboating friends at one of the Boston Harbor Islands. They would leave after me, pass me, and already be anchored and settled with a drink in their hand by the time I would arrive. As to comfort, I lived in much tighter conditions. Still, I preferred my sailboat: I spent typically less than $100 in fuel in any one season, even with fairly heavy time away from the docks, and my limited engine use kept engine maintenance to a minimum (usually limited to the beginning and end of the boating season).
As far as liveability goes, powerboats are typically much more comfortable than sailboats. Powerboats carry their beams farther forward and aft, making the interior much more comfortable throughout. Powerboats tend to come up higher out of the water, often creating standing headroom throughout the entire interior, sometimes with multiple living levels and an open flat deck. And the living quarters and galley tend to be so much bigger in powerboats that it is common to find sofas, big TVs, lamps, and carpets in the salons, and full standup refrigerators in the galleys.
As far as space and storage goes, this is highly dependent on the boat. Typically powerboats do have much more room in the living quarters and staterooms. Depending on the configuration of the engine room, there might be more room down below as well. The fact that a sailboat is pointy in the bow and sometimes the stern, tends to significantly limit a sailboat’s storage and living quarters.
Center-cockpit sailboats are able to preserve more of a sailboat’s living quarters then aft-cockpit boats. They typically allow for a stand-up aft stateroom that often resembles that of a master stateroom in a powerboat.
A quick comment on powerboats: Fuel is expensive, and a performance 40-foot boat can easily burn $1,000 or more of fuel on a weekend trip from Boston to Martha’s Vineyard and back. This detail, seldom mentioned at boat shows, often comes as a surprise to many new, unsuspecting boat owners. There is, however, a wide fuel efficiency spread, and other slower, similarly-sized boats may be much more fuel efficient. Take the time to know what you are getting into.
Regardless of whether you are a sailboater or powerboater, failing to learn the different types of boats and layouts of all boats will make it impossible for you to truly know what your options and choices are and what is available. I guess that’s why I love boat shows so much. It’s like exploring.
Wood vs. Fiberglass
Fiberglass is strong, versatile, and easily repaired. It is light relative to its strength. It doesn’t leak when you first put it into the water, and an accident does not necessarily junk your whole home. Fiberglass is relatively maintenance-free. Finance companies are willing to lend money for fiberglass boats, and insurance companies are willing to insure them. Most boat buyers prefer fiberglass boats, so when the day comes that they decide to sell their boat, there will be a much wider audience of people who might be interested, and therefore higher preservation of value.
So the question is: Who in his right mind would want to buy a wooden boat?
One advantage to wooden boats is that they are cheap. An old wooden boat can be purchased for far less than a comparably sized fiberglass boat. Consequently, you get more space for the money. Wooden boats also tend to look and smell nice, and even an inoperable boat might be an excellent choice for someone who does not want to leave the dock or perform much maintenance.
Wooden boats require more care than fiberglass boats. You might not be able to finance the purchase, get the boat insured, or sell the boat. But let’s just say that if you want a boat that you do not plan on selling, and love to work on boats, and are great at what you do, and are careful, and don’t need or can’t find insurance, then a wooden boat might be perfect for you. Because of the difficulties in financing wooden boats and acquiring insurance, it is sometimes possible to find amazing deals for older wooden boats, particularly those in some state of disrepair. If you don’t plan on operating the boat, but have enough cash to buy the boat outright and want to avoid insurance payments, an old wooden boat might provide you with the perfect floating house for a fraction of the money.
Some travel lifts will not haul wooden boats because of the stresses that are placed on the hull. So make sure that you have the facilities at hand to allow you to take care of your home! As another word of caution, many marinas require that their tenants carry insurance, which might be difficult to acquire for a wooden boat.
New vs. Old
Boat values do not remain stable or appreciate. Boats depreciate, some faster than others. Go to an online resource such as http://www.yachtworld.com and examine the decrease in price per year. Remember that even though these are all asking prices and not actual sale prices (your broker can tell you the sale prices), the results are obvious.
You get more value with a boat that is not a new boat—provided, of course, that the boa
t has been properly maintained. In addition, if you are lucky enough to purchase a boat that has already been used by a person who is the same “kind” of liveaboard as you are (see “What Kind of Liveaboard Are You?”), you may find that your startup costs can be substantially reduced. For instance, if you want to be a noncruising liveaboard that likes coastal amenities, and you find a boat being sold by the same kind of liveaboard, you may already find your boat equipped with a 110-volt system, inverter, charger, cable TV jacks, telephone jacks, installed TV antenna (or satellite system), good stereo and speakers (inside and topside), spreader lights, and so forth. These may have been add-ons on a new boat, but these costs, as well as the time and labor of installation, have already been borne by a prior owner.
Many new boats, even from highly reputable companies, have quirks and bugs that need to be worked out; sometimes they leak from fittings or seams on deck. While manufacturers do everything they can to avoid these types of issues, they are not uncommon. Aging, and using a boat and its engine and systems, will work out many of those bugs.
If logic dictated, very few new boats would be produced. But lots of new boats are produced—lots and lots, despite the fact that there must be a million used boats for sale at any one time.
Some people—enough to keep all of the boat manufacturers in business—do not want to buy a used boat. The choice of new versus old depends not only on your preference but also on your budget. If you can elect to buy a new boat rather than save $25,000 by buying a one-year-old boat, then you are not as cost-sensitive as someone else might be.
Boat manufacturers know this, too. That’s why they might help you secure lower interest rates and provide various promotions to help lead you toward a new boat. Boat retailers do the same thing, and often will take your used boat in trade. Still, at some point—maybe not with a boat that is one year old but perhaps one that is slightly older—a significant financial savings will be realized by purchasing a used boat. These days warranties are often transferable, allowing an owner of a used boat to be protected by the same warranties as the boat’s original owner. Many manufacturers provide customer service for the new owner of one of their used boats to the same extent as if the boat had been purchased originally from the manufacturer.
Still, many people do not want to take ownership of a boat that has been used or lived in by someone else, and that is fine. By buying new, they get to customize and break in their boat their way. What a wonderful benefit—coming, of course, at a premium. Depending on your manufacturer, there might be a great deal of potential customization, some as great as having a boat custom built. Keep in mind that the value of a new boat will decrease the most under the first owner’s watch, so resale value will not typically be proximate to purchase price.
One last issue of note: Remember that purchasing a used boat that will at some point in the owner’s tenure become twenty years old is a financial risk, given that many financing companies will not finance a boat more than twenty years old, and insurance may be difficult to acquire, as well. While the market value may be substantially diminished for the seller, the right buyer might be able to capitalize on this lower-priced boat.
Budget
A person’s budget can be one of the most frustrating wet blankets on any lifestyle. I’m the kind of person who likes to live beyond my means just because I love the toys that money can buy. As my bankrupt uncle used to say, “With a great credit limit, who needs a budget?”
This topic is important to your short- and long-term happiness. For the most part, boats are expensive to buy, own, and operate. Boats can even be expensive to sell. Understanding the costs of boating is critical to knowing what you can afford. This of course depends on your needs and goals, as well as your location. There are some very economical solutions to acquiring a boat; liveaboards who decide not to use the boat as an operating craft thereby save operating costs. I’ve dedicated an entire chapter to the costs of boat ownership. Preliminarily, potential liveaboards do need to understand their budget before actually making the jump, and a good understanding of budget will work miracles for establishing the criteria for including and excluding boats.
If a boat is financed, many financing companies will require that the buyer make a down payment of 20 percent of the cost of the boat. There are fewer creative solutions for financing a boat than there are for purchasing real estate. Small economic cycles aside, boats generally go down in value (a lot), while houses and real estate generally go up in value. Thus it is possible for a boat owner to owe a lender more than the boat is worth, which is a huge risk for the lender and a paralyzing dilemma for a boat owner who wants to sell. As a result, lenders care much more about the equity a boat owner has in his boat than a mortgage lender cares about equity in a house. This is not like a house or piece of real estate where a borrower can get a second and even third mortgage, or put a lesser amount down in exchange for paying mortgage insurance, because most boat lenders aren’t foolish enough to hold a second lien on a boat that may not be worth even as much as the first lien—at least not without some other collateral.
Accordingly, if you choose to finance a boat, your lender will often require certain terms and conditions in your insurance policy; these terms may also limit boat usage. And unlike lenders for real estate, financing companies of boats often want to know that you have experience as a boater, because their collateral could so easily be damaged.
One more point on insurance: Since lenders require that a boat be insured, if the boat owner violates the terms of his insurance policy, the insurance will be lost. That means that the terms of the loan will also be violated, and a lender could at that time ask for the entire balance of the loan to be paid off with your next payment. An example of this would be if the insurance policy prohibited the boat from being taken out more than ten miles from the coast, or prohibited any use in hurricane-prone areas during hurricane season. If the insurance company finds out about any improper use, particularly if you suffer a loss during that improper use, your whole financial world could come crashing in, causing you to end up with a damaged (or sunken) boat, no insurance, and a lender asking for the immediate payment of the entire balance of the loan outstanding.
Ignoring costs of a boat’s ownership and operation, you will need to have at the ready 20 percent of the cost of the boat, plus the applicable sales tax (which may or may not be able to be financed). If you need to have your boat delivered, that will cost money (sometimes a lot of money). Insurance costs money. Surveys cost money, and in addition to the survey, you will need money for the haul and launch so that you can properly examine the condition of the hull, through-hulls, rudder, and any other gear located below the waterline. That means that for a $100,000 boat, you might need upwards of $28,000 just to complete the purchase and take ownership.
Then you will bear registration fees immediately, and your marina will likely charge you money up front for a slip in which to keep the boat. Then, if you have anything that needs repairs or improvements, you will need to address those issues soon after you take ownership.
I hope you were expecting all of these costs. If not, it’s a good thing that you decided to read this book. I was not prepared for all of these costs, and was shocked when I got into severe trouble during my maiden voyage, which ended up costing me several thousand dollars just to deal with an emergency at sea and the repairs that followed.
There are upsides. Unlike all of those other boaters out there who are incurring the same costs as you for their boats, you don’t bear the costs of a landside residence. If you are a cruising liveaboard, maybe you don’t even own a vehicle, and there are other savings you will receive as well. And you will eventually own an asset that will have value. Most importantly, you get to be a liveaboard, with all of the benefits that provides.
Big vs. Small
I spend quite a bit of time in Los Angeles. While I enjoy my toys, I don’t take the same pride in material possessions as do many other people in L.A. For instance,
I drive a Toyota Corolla: simple, smaller than most cars, fuel-efficient. That’s who I am. Before I met my wife I was shocked to learn how many women in L.A. would not date me because my car was not “adequate.” This wasn’t even hidden. I once asked a woman out and her response was (and I’m not kidding), “What kind of car do you drive?” When I told her, she politely refused.
Some people have a similar attitude toward boats, and are impressed with size. Of course there is a very practical component to boat size: You are going to be living aboard, and headroom, storage, and a comfortable living area are all very important. But in addition to practical factors, boat size means status. While knowledgeable boaters are impressed with differences among boat manufacturers, the general public is impressed only with size. Even if extra boat length is not needed, many seem to desire it. After all, we all want to look great pulling into a marina. And if you are the kind of boater who wants to impress the world, length is of greater importance. Freud would be proud.
Almost universally, liveaboards seem to agree that no one should subject himself to living in a boat smaller than 30 feet (this may be the only thing that liveaboards can agree on). This is, of course, an attempt to set a minimum comfort level. There are many liveaboards who do, however, live in smaller boats quite comfortably. When you think about how large a boat you should acquire, it is best to at least heed the sentiments of my friend and trusted boat technician Chris Birch, who advises liveaboards to acquire the smallest boat they possibly can fit in, and take the money saved, which is significant, and invest in a landside facility for storage. Ironically, many liveaboards over time begin to express similar sentiments.
The Essentials of Living Aboard a Boat Page 4
