We Have A Boat?

With any big change, we expect there to be uncertainty, frustration, and stress, but the unknowns of this process have been to be much more than we expected.

In his book Offshore Cruising Companion, John Neal says it takes 6-9 months to complete the sale of a sailboat - from the time you start looking until the closing of the sale. When we read that, we laughed, thinking it overdramatic and due to buyer uncertainty or lack of knowledge. How wrong we were.

When I've discussed the process of purchasing a sailboat with those around me, I have likened it to buying a house. The survey, the insurance, deposits, possession dates. On the surface it is very similar. However, the devil is in the details. For example, the survey took 12 hours, and included hauling the boat out of the water for hull inspections. To haul out the boat required booking time with a boat yard, in an incredibly busy time of year (surprisingly November). Jean was in New York for 2 days, a quick, pricey, and important trip to ascertain the condition of the boat and whether we were going to move forward with the sale.

After receiving the survey report (3 business days later), we waited another 2 days for the findings from the engine oil samples. Before we could close the sale we needed to secure an insurance policy, so the entire report was sent to our insurance broker. Several days later we received a policy, but the conditions were extreme (fix the crack in the countertop within 30 days - does the kitchen counter affect seaworthiness??), so we sent back a plan for resolving the issues, including those we would "continue to monitor", like the countertop and the broken TV. Another 5 business days and we heard back from the insurance broker - they had accepted our plan of action and offered a policy.

After the survey it took 2 weeks to let our broker know we were ready to move forward, but we had anticipated it only taking 3 or 4 days. Our initial look at Sea Fire was October 19th, and it took until December 23rd to close. And even now, the documents have not been signed by the seller. 2.5 months since we found this boat and we still are not complete.

What I'm getting at is that every step appears linear, clear, and clean-cut, but in reality has layers of steps to be completed within it. We were completely unprepared for how tedious this process is.

In closing, we would like to apologize to John Neal. We laughed at his 6-9 month timeline for buying a boat, and ours took 12. Thank you John, for providing a realistic expectation of the process, even if we didn't listen.