Boat Buying 101

Now that we've officially purchased 2 boats, I've been doing a little review of the process in my mind and I thought I would pass along a few tidbits that those of you searching for your dream boat might not have thought of.

1. Looking at yachtworld.com and sailboatlistings.com and boatquest and any of the other multitudinous sailboat sales sites that exist is a good form of entertainment for the prospective buyer.  It does in no way reflect the actual information pertaining to said prospective boat, and the pictures in many ways resemble the glossies in Vogue - you have to remember that the model in those pictures still wakes up with morning breath and smeared mascara and probably farts in her sleep..
2. Everything pertaining to the sale of your dream boat will take approximately 2.7 times the time you have alloted for it.
3. Everything pertaining to the sale of your dream boat will cost approximately 1.5 times the money you have alloted for it.
4. No one cares about the transaction as much as you do.  To you, it's your home.  To the broker it's another day on the job.
5. Finding the right name for the boat (if you're not the 1 in 100 lucky folks for whom the existing name actually means something) is worse than deciding the name of your firstborn
6. If you want your prospective boat to actually look like the pictures in the ad, buy one from a current or former aircraft mechanic

            The Ad picture                          What it really looked like

            The Ad Picture                          What it really looked like

I'm on the train heading back to St. Louis after spending the weekend cleaning on the Tartan and I'm happy to report that she actually does now look like the ad pictures.  The jury's still out on the name issue though.