Note from Trish: Russ Swan, contributor of this issue's article, is Take Her Sailing's newest joint venture partner. Check out his exciting array of "Adventure Yarns," books specializing in true stories of sailing adventure. He is currently in the midst of a circumnavigation of Australia (his home country), and I hope we will get to hear some great stories when he gets back. This article is a great demonstration that the cruising village is independent of geographic location--same questions, same issues, same insights!!!
If someone mentioned to you they dreamed of going sailing, and expressed more than a passing interest in buying a sailboat, what would be your best piece of advice? And given the benefit of hindsight, if you were at that stage, what would you do that was different? What mistakes would you avoid?
These questions were put to a number of cruising yachties recently in a survey. The most common mistakes were not buying the right type of boat in the first place and not learning enough beforehand. There are many traps to snag the unwary or inexperienced. Respondents tell of repercussions ranging from disappointment to severe financial hardship - and worse.
Define Your Sailing
The first piece of advice from old-salts is to know exactly what you want to do with your sailing boat. Where do you want to go? How much time will you live on it? How often will you use it? Do you want to do competitive racing or just the odd weekend at anchor somewhere nearby? What sort of waters and climate will you be sailing in? These sorts of questions have a significant impact on the kind of craft you need rather than want.
If you don't know or not too sure how you want to use your boat, then go out and talk to yacht owners who are doing something close to what you think you would like to do. Go to yacht clubs, read books and magazines and join Internet discussion groups.
Involve Your Partner
Buying a sailboat may be compared to bringing a third person into a marriage. It's going to demand all the love, time, finances and attention it can get. Ideally, it's best if your partner is a willing and active participant. It's not unusual to find many lonely, once-married people out there, especially men.
Once that hurdle is resolved, another begins. Men and women generally have contrasting views as to what is considered important. For example, my partner in life wants to reupholster all the mattresses and cushions. For my part I would prefer to spend the money on a new Staysail or perhaps another solar panel. If it's going to be a happy ship, then both must take pride in her and reasonable agreements reached.
Consider Costs
Probably before you even start, it's wise to do a painful, soul-searching sanity check on the financial impact. Buying a yacht is just the beginning of dipping into your pockets. One apt definition of BOAT is "Bring Out Another Thousand". There may be additional work required, or inventory items to be repaired or replaced. You may have to get it professionally delivered, or hauled by road transport somewhere.
Then there may be hidden costs waiting in the wings to drag you deeper into the financial muck. Make sure the owner can supply all documentation, clearly showing ownership, preferably right back until the vessel was first built. Make sure there are no Customs or yard fees or defaulting loan agreements or divorce settlements outstanding.
All this is in addition to monthly repayments, insurance, marina or mooring fees and other "must have" items that inevitably follow. And of course, there are routine repairs and maintenance costs.
And a note of caution: be aware that expensive does not necessarily mean better quality. There is no little red book listing market values for boats. The large difference in price between two similar vessels may be because of overpricing, or because it has a bigger and better inventory. Then again, the cheaper one might still be the better value because of its condition and perhaps modifications. It pays to get second and third opinions as to a fair value.
As a final rule of thumb, unless you really know what you are doing, never buy with investment in mind. Sailboats generally don't make good financial investments. Leave it to the more experienced entrepreneurs.
Learn, Learn, Learn
Any decision or act by a skipper at sea whether by ignorance or not, could have serious consequences including loss of the boat or even life. Even the simplest of situations have resulted in tragedy. There can be expensive legal implications and even jail. Common sense is simply not enough to rely on to keep you from disaster. Knowing the rules can help avoid pitfalls.
There are many training courses that you can do through yacht clubs, universities, various state government maritime departments, maritime schools and qualified AYF instructors or by correspondence. Doing these courses teaches you such things as safety, regulations, safety, terminology, navigation, safety, weather, sailing and seamanship. Did I mention safety?
Some will suggest that as you progress through the learning curve, you should get to know some people and go racing. This is fun and free too. If racing is not particularly what you want to do, you will at least learn how to get the absolute best out of your sails and boat under various weather conditions. Self-learning by reading from a book is no substitute for sailing with skilled sailors.
Ideally, once you are suitably qualified, some bareboat chartering is definitely worthwhile. If you do more than one, select different types of vessels to get an idea of the size and features you want when the time comes to buy your own.
COMMERCIAL BREAK!!
Declare yourself with Take Her Sailing's new T-Shirt!!
It's important to keep people informed of your status...you can do it now with the first of the Take Her Sailing T-Shirts. I mean, why should we limit this kind of signaling to boats?!?!
The shirt is ash gray, heavy cotton, and comes in Men's sizes Small, Medium, Large, X-Large, and XX-Large.
Check out our models and buy your shirt today!
NOW BACK TO OUR ARTICLE ALREADY UNDERWAY--
Get Some Experience
Check with everyone you can find for crew opportunities. Crewing while "learning-the-ropes" will pay dividends. Sailing with various owners highlights the real benefits and shortfalls of different designs, as they praise them and cuss them for you. It also helps to establish what features you like best, before dumping your money into the wrong hole-in-the-water.
If you plan to cruise, volunteer to crew on a long distance offshore passage of at least 4 or 5 days, to see if you are up to the constant motion and space restrictions. It might be a good idea for your spouse or partner to do the same thing, but on a different boat.
If you're going to be part of a crew, you should be willing to give up some spare time to help with maintenance like cleaning, painting, fixing the head or just handing the owner a spanner while working on the engine.
In the words of one survey respondent, "If you are friendly and helpful, you'll be invited to work and play on lots of other boats until you're exhausted. This gives you a wide variety of useful knowledge, not some joyride with a broker who isn't going to tell you its weather helm sucks awful."
Consider Alternatives
This is what one respondent suggested, "If you buy a boat but can't afford to save up money to sail away, what good is that? I would suggest that even if you want something bigger; start either with an easily resold trailerable light cruiser, or a 26-30 foot cruiser. Make your docking and navigational mistakes on this for a few years and then buy your dreamboat. You will learn handy maintenance skills too."
Another said, "If you can't find anything within your price range, consider buying into a partnership in your area. There are pitfalls of course, but it reduces the cost by quite a bit and offers a chance to learn from more experienced sailors. You may get to sail for less money and even if the boat is not your ideal, it will likely be good for learning on. Then you can either get it out of your system or have enough experience to go out on your own."
Start Small
Here is what one yachtie said about buying big yachts "I have a lot of friends who have virtually unlimited resources. They regret owning a large yacht because it won't go certain places where a smaller one would easily fit. They sit at the dock many weekends because it's just too much trouble to motor out to the beach and anchor with the crowd. It must be. They usually want to ride out there with me. Big yachts are fine if you're headed for the Bahamas, but that's not near often enough".
Caution on Compromises
"Buying a boat always involves compromise", is often said. Among the biggest source of complaint for owners is that the selected vessel proves to be unsuitable in some way.
Making compromises may be okay depending on what feature's you are trading-off, but who in your family or crew is it going to affect most? Over time, little irritations create shallow wounds in the emotions that eventually rub raw. For example, it may be that the boat doesn't sail to windward well enough, or perhaps it's just too slow, or simply doesn't have enough headroom, or not enough storage space or the cockpit is too cramped.
Used yachts might arguably cost about the same as a new upmarket motorcar, but the similarity ends right there. It's a much more serious business that should not be approached on a sudden fancy. Think it through so you know what you are going to do and what you need to do it.
About Russ Swan
Russ came late to cruising, having bought his first boat Lowana IV in 1993 at Mackay, Queensland, and sailing it back to his home of Darwin, Northern Territory under the command of a hired skipper. Russ has logged thousands of sea miles sailing firstly from Fremantle, Western Australia, then later three trips to Indonesia and two back to the Kimberley, Western Australia. In between trips, he finds time to go on coastal excursions around the top-end.
