Choosing The Right Boat - Introduction
What is the right boat for you? Read any book or boating magazine on the subject and you will usually get the same answer; it depends. Choosing a boat is all about compromise. If you want a boat you can spend a week on without going stir crazy you will not be doing a lot of water-skiing. If you have visions of crossing oceans there are no gas stations along the way. If you just want to hit the lake for the day, do you really want to take out a second mortgage just to pay for it? These considerations and many more all go into the decision process when buying a boat.
If you have never owned a boat before you can expect some serious information overload. You should also plan on receiving all sorts of advice, some valuable, some not, from those folks whose opinion you seek. Before you get too bogged down take a deep breath and just ask yourself what you really want to do on the water.
Whether you are an experienced boater or brand new to the sport, if you are buying a boat that is new to you think carefully and do your homework. In these pages we will not be arguing the virtues of horsepower, twin vs. single engines, sloops vs. schooners, and so on. Countless volumes have been written to address these questions with much more authority than I can muster. What we will discuss, however, are the green implication of boat choices in general. With this thought in mind there are a few high points to consider.
New Boat or Used Boat?
There are only a few instances, in my opinion, where buying a new boat makes much sense. If money is no object you could easily commission a new boat built to very specific, very green standards. If you plan to sail extensively offshore the fact that your life depends on your boat is reason enough to go top of the line.
For the rest of us mere mortals, however, it is hard to justify a new boat for several reasons.
The first of course is money. Brand new boats cost a lot. Just like a car, when you motor out of the marina in your brand new boat you just left a wheelbarrow of money on the dock. Now I know there are boat salesmen who will argue that a boat is an investment that will hold its’ value over time. In a few cases they may be right, but how many people do you know that ever sold their boat for what they put into it? Enough said.
Boats are toys. Great toys, fun toys, life-changing toys, but toys all the same. If you are reading this blog I assume you tend to think about how your purchasing decisions affect the world around you. From a purely financial standpoint, the money you save buying used instead of new could make a big difference somewhere else.
Opportunity cost is one of the few concepts I remember from my disastrous experience with college economics. Textbooks will tell you the opportunity cost of a decision is based on what must be given up as a result of the decision. When comparing the brand new, super fancy $150,000 boat to the three -year old version of something similar selling for $100,000 the opportunity cost of the new boat is $50,000.
Regardless of the numbers involved with your boat purchase, take a hard look at the opportunity cost of the boat you want compared to the boat that would work just fine. The $50,000 you might save buying a used boat could probably outfit your home with solar panels or any number of green upgrades. Invested conservatively, $50,000 might mean the difference between retiring early instead of slugging it out until you are too old to do everything you want with your life. Run whatever scenario you want, the idea here is to focus on how your choices affect the world around you.
One caveat here is to beware the boat that is too old. There is a fine line between the opportunity cost of a really nice boat and the disaster that can be had in a bad one. We will delve into this more when we discuss propulsion systems later on, but it would be a mistake to assume a cheaper boat is always a greener boat. Saving a few dollars buying a leaky, rusty, fuel-spilling tub does a lot more harm than good.
A careful, patient, shopper, however, can find a great late model boat with low engine hours and all the bells and whistles with little trouble these days. Spending some time on the Internet at websites like Yachtworld will allow you to compare prices, features and anything else you are looking for in a boat.
Walking the docks at a local marina will also give you a good feel for what is out there. Be especially aware of the sun-faded “For Sale” signs and you might find a very motivated seller. Many boats have sold on a late Friday afternoon for half the asking price. Patience rewards the careful, informed boat buyer.
Once you find what you are looking for make the purchase contingent on the results of a survey. This is not the time to be cheap. Leave cousin Eddy at home and shell out a few hundred bucks for a pro - the money and potential frustration you will save in the long run are more than worth the surveyor’s fee.
Would you rather find out before or after you own the boat that she needs to have her hull completely redone because blisters have formed in the fiberglass? On top of the several thousand dollars you will shell out for repairs you will also be creating some terribly toxic waste. The actual repairs are done wearing a respirator and a haz-mat suit since the material used is so nasty.
Don’t be cheap, get a survey.
