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Whether you’re a new boater or an old salt, you have much to gain by trusting your boat search to a knowledgeable professional.
I’m a bit of an evangelist when it comes to boats – I believe that if you’re lucky enough to live near water, salt or fresh, owning a boat is the true meaning of life.
I’ve never given up the faith, but after owning the same 35’ sloop for 30 years, things had changed. With two teenage boys who had somehow grown big, the space aboard Sway had grown small. On rainy days, especially around dinner hour, the scene on board was right out of A Night at the Opera, when the Marx Brothers and half the ship’s crew try to fit into a small cabin. We thought about buying a cottage to enjoy island life or getting a bigger boat. The boat won – it was really no contest.
So began our long journey to buy a bigger boat. Although I had chatted with numerous brokers over the years at boat shows, I’d never dealt directly with a broker when it came to buying a boat. The first boat I bought was from an individual and the second was from the boat manufacturer. When it was time to start calling brokers, I was open-minded. The first two or three I spoke with were very helpful and obliging with information about specific boats. Although I ran into other brokers who were less forthcoming and helpful, my overall experience was positive.
In a meeting with broker and yacht designer David Walters of Fort Lauderdale, he asked what stage of the hunt I was at. Curious question, I thought. How hard can it be to buy a good boat? I had been looking for a couple of months and thought I was closing in on something. But Walters was right. It took almost two years of looking at boats in Canada and the US before we finally had a deal on the boat we wanted – a Tayana 48 in San Francisco.
Before you contact a broker, do some serious thinking about what you want in a boat and what kind of boating you hope to do. Beyond choosing power or sail, think about where and how you plan to boat or cruise; the size of boat you need; accommodations and amenities for you and your partner or family, as well as guests; and of course, your budget for the boat and associated costs such as moorage, insurance and maintenance.
If you’re an experienced boater, you may already know the answers to these questions – you may have been thinking about them for a long time, in fact. If you’re a newbie, even a general idea about the kind of boating you hope to do will give your broker a starting point from which they can steer you toward the right boat.
In our case, we were looking for a centre-cockpit sailboat with a generous aft cabin and a traditional teak interior. I’d never really been a fan of centre-cockpit boats but designs had improved in the ‘90s and usually included a great aft cabin with ensuite head. I preferred a draft of about six feet, ideal for access to the small anchorages Anne and I like to visit. This sort of boat is rare in BC so our search focused mostly in the US; our BC broker never stopped digging up prospects for us, mostly on the West Coast.
The Relationship
The broker-client relationship really starts with trust – you cannot work with someone who doesn’t understand what you want in a boat if you’re buying, or know the market for your boat if you’re selling. Pat Sturgeon, who owns a brokerage in Mississauga, has been selling boats for more than 30 years and his advice for a buyer is to visit a number of brokers and get a feeling if there is a potential for a relationship.
