Phewwwwww…. Where do I begin?

I think it is best for me to break this down into sections so that it is easier for you to extract any relevant information you might need without having to read through a long story….. and long it would be as the yacht search took us exactly 1 year, 9 flights covering 43 880km and 59hrs of flying!!!

So, a quick overview….

When we decided that we wanted to buy a yacht, in my mind, I had a feeling that it would be a relatively quick process and fairly straightforward. This was not to be the case and to give you a sense of what this experience was like, towards the end, I was ready to buy a yacht that was not exactly the right one for us in terms of build quality and condition. This is not a great place to be in mentally, but it gives you a sense of how desperate I had become. I eventually said to Claire, ‘the next yacht we look at has to tick all the boxes before we even go and look at it’ as I had decided that if the next yacht didn’t work out for us, that it would be the end of the dream.

It was costing us a lot of money and time and I felt that I needed to get back to work to claw back some of the money we had spent.

So here are some stats:

Date of first yacht we viewed: February 2018

Date of last yacht we viewed and purchased: February 2019

Yachts viewed:

Yachts we offered to buy and offer was accepted:

Lagoon 57 – Croatia

Lagoon 400 S2 – Genoa, Italy

Lagoon 400 S2 – Phuket, Thailand

Helia 44 – Sicily, Italy

Lagoon 400 S2 – Almerimar, Spain

Yachts we offered to buy but had not viewed:

Catana 47 – Le Marin, Martinique – Jan 2019

Yachts we had surveyed & Cost:

Lagoon 400 S2 – Phuket, Thailand

Survey £1300

Helia 44 – Sicily, Italy

Survey £780 (The Surveyor gave us a decent discount as in the early stages of the survey, he advised that the moisture content in the hull was double what it should be and that at this stage he recommended that we didn’t buy it)

Lagoon 400 S2 – Almerimar, Spain (White Pearl)

Survey including rig survey & Tonnage Measurement £1630

The above costs do not include any haul out costs and are for the cost of the survey only.

What other costs are involved when looking for a yacht:

• Flights (Also for Surveyor when required)
• Hotels (Also for Surveyor when required)
• Car Hire
• Tonnage Survey (Required if you are registering your yacht Part I in the U.K.)
• Food
• Taxi’s & trains
• Travel lift / crane
• Airport Parking

So what did the search & surveys cost us in total:

Although this is not 100% accurate, it is close enough to give you an idea of what you may be in for. £8,800. I think you can safely round this up to £9000.

I wasn’t going to include this but I am sure there are some of you out there who would want to know so I feel I have to.

Why wouldn’t I? Well, I haven’t been keeping track of this cost as closely as I should have and I think the real reason is that I genuinely didn’t want to know the answer, as it is scary.

From what I have heard, yachts are expensive….  Well, I was finding it expensive just looking for one let alone owning one. I was also getting quite frustrated flying around the place experiencing different places and cultures, alone, as the idea had been to see these places with my family.

So lets put the £9000 into perspective. Phuket was a long way to go and the total cost for this including the survey was just under £3000.

So, take that off the £9000 and we are down to £6000 if you keep your search more local.

The flights I took were always the cheapest I could find and the hotels / AirBnB’s were mostly super cheap (Some at £30 per night) as I was there by myself so no need for too much luxury.

In hindsight, I should have spent more on hotels in Sicily. I ended up having to walk 40 minutes to the marina each day and on one occasion, the farm dogs had escaped and they were protecting their road quite aggressively. There was only one way to my AirBnB and that was past the dogs. Exciting times indeed. I did get past without being bitten. They were keen though, so I count myself lucky to get through unscathed.

So is £6000 or £9000 a lot? Well to me it is and I don’t think we expected to have to spend this much.

There are some factors to take into account, which will impact your overall search cost:

• Your overall yacht budget. If you are on a small budget, you will be looking at local yachts so that you don’t end up spending as much as we did.
• Your location. Mmmmm. Well, if I was buying a monohull, I think there is a good chance that I could find one suitably local to the U.K. As we were looking for a catamaran, it is highly unlikely that you will find one here in the U.K. as they are not as common here as they are in say the Mediterranean or Caribbean for example.
• Ability to get insurance for a specific type of yacht. I will go into this in a bit more detail later.
• Willingness to buy an ex charter yacht. Again, please read my experience regarding the ex charter yacht option which is detailed later on.
• Honesty of the seller / broker. Grrrrrr…. If the sellers were honest up front, there are 4 yachts I would not have gone to see. These 4 involved flights, hotels etc, so could have saved me £5000 of the £9000 spent and a lot of time.

So I am sure the above will raise some questions regarding Insurance, Honesty and ex Charter yachts. If yacht buying is new to you, you will be wondering what the hell I am talking about.

Insurance

Well, this was quite interesting and we stumbled upon the impact quite early on. I had expected to be able to choose my yacht and make a couple insurance applications on line and choose the best one for me. Job done!

Not quite that easy. Please note that it may be easier in other countries so this is a U.K. Insurance Company specific point and I guess there is nothing to stop you from getting insurance from foreign companies if possible.

When requesting insurance in the U.K. not only did they want a copy of the Survey report, they also wanted a rig survey report. Typically a Surveyor does not also do a rig survey though there are a few out there who do. Include a rig survey in your report in your search / purchase budget.

Another very important point is that when the rig reaches 10 years of age, the insurance companies like you to replace the standing rigging. Make sure you take this into account when you look at older yachts.

My advice with insurance is to establish a relationship with an insurance company / companies and a couple of Insurance Brokers early on.

You don’t have to have found a yacht at this point and they are willing to help.

Ask them relevant questions before you start looking at yachts which will help you narrow down your search criteria.

Two key questions that I would ask:

• What is your policy regarding the age of the standing rigging and at what point would you expect the standing rigging to be replaced?
• Will you insure an ex charter yacht and is there a difference in insurance premiums between ex charter and non ex charter?

Another important point when requesting insurance is that the Insurance Company would like details of your experience and sailing qualifications. In some cases, they are more interested in your experience only.

As part of our Insurance, we need to have additional crew onboard for the longer passages and the crews experience and qualifications need to be submitted to the Insurance Company in advance of departure to ensure we have cover in place.

Note that this is despite having logged over 20 000nm. Admittedly, mostly as crew but a substantial amount as skipper.

Ex Charter Yachts

This is also linked to insurance.

Let me cover off the insurance link first.

The view of the insurance brokers that I spoke to was that the ex charter yachts had taken more punishment than a privately owned yacht and they were not keen to insure these though they would, and I assume, at an increased premium.

There will be plenty of well looked after ex charter yachts out there that will be perfect for you or me so don’t discount them from your search.

We did however try to avoid spending too much time looking at them. 4 of the yachts we viewed were ex charter though as they always seemed to be cheaper.

We found that most had high engine hours and had been treated fairly roughly. You may get a cheaper yacht up front but I think there is a good chance that you will need to spend a decent amount of money getting her into shape again and I also think there is a risk of having increased maintenance costs due to the increased wear and tear on the engines, generator, sails etc.

You should really think it through and work out if you can take the risk. Replacing an engine is extremely expensive.

Honesty of the Seller / Broker

It is important to be aware of this as you will waste money believing you are jetting off to see a great yacht.

I found that you can ask all the questions that you like and you typically don’t get a straight answer.

We prepared a list of questions to ask the Broker / Seller ahead of going to view the yachts to make sure we were not wasting our time.

A couple of examples are:

• Has there been any damage to the hulls?
• Is there any damage that you need to let me know about before I come and take a look at the yacht?
• I see the yacht has new sails. Why were they replaced if the yacht is only 3 years old?

Now there are good and bad Brokers / Sellers.

I would say that out of the Brokers / Sellers that we dealt with relating to the yachts that we viewed, 6 were good and 6 were bad.

So from a Brokers / Sellers perspective, they are keen to just get you to the yacht to take a look at it and will not give you the full story.

The bad things we encountered on individual yachts:

• Yacht had been in hurricane Irma. Mast came down and holed the deck in multiple places. Repairs were clearly evident. It also appeared to have been partially submerged as there was damp throughout. In addition to these main points there was a long list of other items. It took less than 5 minutes to decide that it was not suitable.
• Yacht had been used for ‘Beds on Board’. Generally not looked after. All the floorboards had expanded due to moisture and none could be lifted. This was a U.K. based yacht so not a major waste of money. I also don’t believe we asked any relevant questions regarding the condition of this yacht ahead of viewing it so I don’t feel that the Broker is accountable in any way.
• Yacht had hit a rock and repairs had to be made. No photos could be provided of the damage caused so it was difficult to understand the extent of the damage. Most people would take a photo for insurance purposes at least. The fact one couldn’t be provided made me concerned.
• Found a great yacht which I viewed abroad. Perfect condition. Offer was accepted and we were very excited. I followed up with an email as soon as I got back home to ask how I pay the deposit and what the next steps were. No response so also left a few voice messages with the Broker. Finally made contact and was advised they had sold it to someone else after I viewed it and agreed the offer to purchase. A serious WTF moment.
• Exterior of the yacht looked great however, the interior had dampness in the woodwork. To me, I would want it all stripped out and new installed.
• Stern cleat nearly ripped off. Clear damage to the hulls in multiple locations. Lots of corrosion on light and tap fittings.

I would not have been to see any of these yachts had the Brokers / Sellers been up front with me.

So, as mentioned, make sure you have a decent list of questions and make sure they understand the need to answer them honestly.

It is so frustrating when you are excited to see the yacht only to get there and clearly it is not in the condition shown in the photos or as the Broker / Seller described.

Photos… Make sure you ask for recent photos. Yes, we viewed yachts where clearly the photos used were from a time when the yacht was in far better condition.

It is not all bad though.

I had some great experiences too, so don’t be disheartened, just be cautious.

Some of the great experiences were:

• One yacht I went to see which was for sale by the owner, the owner insisted that I stay on the yacht and not in a hotel so that I can have a good look at the yacht. Really nice and not expected.
• The Brokerage who we purchased White Pearl through were great and are clearly trying to stand out form the rest. Well done ‘Yachtsale’.
• Unlimited access to a yacht for 3 solid days with the Broker keeping his distance but always on hand to answer any questions.
• Meeting with private sellers who clearly looked after their yacht and were keen to show her off.

Well, hopefully the above is informative and will help someone.

Oh, one other thing. It is quite a big deal making the decision to buy a yacht and sail off into the blue yonder.

On my first few flights to view yachts, I did have a couple of moments of panic…..

‘What the hell am I doing, this is madness’

You need to get over that and once you have your boat, it all starts to feel right.

Good luck and happy yacht hunting.