Help and advice on buying my first motor boat

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PJH

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hello,

I am a 42 yr old man with a wife and two sons (aged 16 and 12). We have enjoyed many 'beach' holidays, encompassing scuba diving off ribs/boats, snorkelling off boats and general lazy days on small fishing / pleasure charter boats.

As a family we'd now like to purchase our first ever 'starter' trail-boat - but where do we start, and what boat should we buy?

I've no experience of towing a trailier or boat, or of actually taking a boat to sea - we are total beginners.

As a rough guide we would want the following:

. power boat small enough to trailer to and from our home (we have a 4 x 4 that can be adapted for the towing)
. must be able to seat min. 4, to maybe 6 or 8 people
. probably a bowrider or possibly a sports cuddie
. we'd use it for the occasional leisure weekends on the sea in South Wales, UK, between spring and autumn.
. must be low maintenance (I have very limited mechanical and electrical experience)
. must be able to be launched / re-set on trailer by 2 adults
. budget - approx £9000. (incl. trailer)
. once purchased I do intend taking a recognised 2 day course on basic sea handling and safety at sea skills. (I will become a safe and responsible boat owner!)

But where do I start? What should I be looking for?
I reaslise that,due to price constraints the boat will be pre-owned and enjoyed, but what is the 'maximum; age I should allow myself to go to?.
Do I buy private or through a broker?
If we buy private what are the pitfalls that I should look out for?
How do I know if the private seller is the genuine owner?
How do I know if the boat / engine / trailer has been well looked after and maintained?

Any advice an experienced boater can give us will be very welcome.

We are hoping to get into boating as a family, on a boat that we can cut our teeth on, learn on, get experienced with, that will eventually move us onto bigger things.

Many thanks
 
Welcome to forum.Sure to be lots of advice on this,but first a question.
Where will you be hoping to use the boat?
 
A good place to start is to look at the boats on this site in your price range. This will give you a feel for the sorts of boats you can get. You'll probably get more value for money privately than through a broker at this price range. Then ask lots of questions here about the models you like the look of.
http://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk/php/b...&Submit.y=9

Maintenance is down to the vendor showing records of maintenance. Basic common sense comes into it. Once you've shortlisted some boats to look at, you can probably get some experienced local forumites to give an opinion.

We can then help you through rest of process regards proof of ownership, training etc etc
 
Welcome to the forum - and hopefully welcome to boating!

You are right to ask the questions you have, and Im glad to see that you will complete a course. The best are through RYA certified instructors, and a Powerboat level 1 or 2 course should sort you out.

With regard to the boat, to get a boat and trailer package you are looking at a used boat for sure - but this doesnt mean you will have to put up with a nail that needs constant attention. What ever you buy, it is a good idea to have a survey completed on both the hull and mechanicals - as you are not technically minded (as I am not) then a survey will help you make an informed descision.

As to whether to buy from a broker or go privately, depends on how confident you are. Do you have any boaty mates who can come with you to look at any prospective purchases? This is useful as a) they may spot something you dont and b) may prevent an impulse purchase you later regret. Buying pricvately you need to ensure that you chack all of the papaerwork the owner has. Unlike a car, there is no owners document, but there are certain bits of paperwork and 'straight' boat should have. They are:

* VAT Certificate
* SSR Registration Document
* Engine and Drive Service documentation

This is the minimum to look for.
Buying from a broker will be a more secure way of doing things, as they have legal obligations regarding the condition and ownership of the boat they are selling you. There are litterally hundreds of brokers in the UK, most are good and will give you decent advice. There are a couple of 'boat supermarkets' now that stock used boats rather than broker them. These are quite a good place to start as you can oftern see 10 or 15 similar types of boat in one place so you can see what is available, talk to the experts and any stock boat should have a 3 month mechanical warrenty. A good firm, though a little distance from you is Essex Boatyards. I have nothing to do with them commercially, but bought my new boat through them and they are superb. Plus they stock around 150 Mobos of all shapes, sizes and budgets - check out their web site at www.essexboatyards.com.

There is no reason why a brokerage boat should cost to much more than one sold privately - and you get a little more peace of mind.

With regard to age, condition is much more important. A 5 year old boat that has been mistreated will give more grief than a 10 year old boat that has been cherised. Again, look for mechanical service history, condition of the hull (small number or no bangs and scrapes) and simple things like is it clean!!!

If you are nervous, a new boat may cost less than you think. A 16" Bayliner 160 Cuddy complete with engine costs from £10995.00 including VAT.
 
Well an SSR is not worth a wank. I have a supply of them if any one interested. If not going to France, it's not even worth a carrot, though costs a masive 10 quid for [no thanks] all!!
 
Well its def not SSR. You can register anything as White Princess or white Binliner etc. It dont mean a thing. I've got a choice of numbers for my boat!!
Best answer I can give, is buy it from the blokes house, like a car. Then at least you know he lives there,rather than pub car park you see. 20 grand boat outside council flat dont look right, does it?? But most folk are honest, so just look if it seems honest.
 
oh, while I think about it, there are quite a few small sports boats that have been brought in from the USA with the weak Dollar.

These are fine, but by law they need to be CE marked - most havent as it costs upwards of £1000.00 (which is alot on a 10k boat). just check that boats have a Certificate of Conformity and a CE plate, or VAT Certs with a date prior to 1998.
 
oh heck

Hiya

Bad news: I know lots of people with £9k boats able to carry 4-8 people and most if not all are pretty nifty with mech and electrics. In fact, saying that you aren't very good with mech and elec is a very bad start indeed- even spending 10 or 50 times this it would be pretty important to know what does what. You oughta have a favourite screwdriver, at least once have used a multimeter, be able to (usually) guess that a nut is 13mm and pick the right spanner without reading the "13" on it, have soldered something, often fix or even make things around the house, and be strong and saftey concious enough to handle a boat on to a trailer and then drive the trailer around the roads, including some reversing. Your stipulatuion of "reliable" is completely at odds with the nature of boating where complex small-volume gear will definitely fail at some point and a fix or a workaround made by YOU and not the AA (you'll be at sea, remember) is a neccessity.

More bad news: As a very very general guide, divide the amount of boatmoney by 10, and that's sort-of how much money you are spending in "car" terms. Yep, you'll be buying a £900 car. Which is fine, of course, lots of fun but the age will be such that you could find a really reliable weirdish renault/alfa or a hopeless wreck of a golf - the amount of loot isn't quite nuf to step up into naming a specfic brand. Brutally speaking, even a cheap american boat able to carry 8 with trailer and all speccd up with saftey gear and all will be £25k -£30k new , and you need to buy one that is probly 10 years old or more.

Even more bad news: even aside from the above, the S Wales coast is a wild place, even in uk terms, which itself is pretty wild in world terms. Many powerboats skulk and zip around in the the solent, protected by the isle of wight, and others use rivers as a base for weekend pottering - from which they can occasionally sally forth when the weather is right. No such option in S wales - out of the marina and Wham! - the first wave you meet came from across the atlantic. Not to say you can't have good times, but it is to say that you aren't in pussyfooting land. With a sports crusier, there may easily more weekends when you can't go thatthose when you can. Have a look at pilot books and it says the prevailig wind is SW4, winter and summer. That's not flat, that's a bit crashy, and frightening or even dangerous on a tralierable (under 25 foot) boat.


Okay that's out of the way. Now,

1. If you do buy a boat, BUY IT FROM THE MARINA FROM WHERE YOU WOUL LAUNCH/USE IT. I hardluy ever use caps, but this is important.

2 When looking at a boat, you'll get a sea trial - take the wife and kids. They need to be saying yeehah this is the life! and not ooer glad that's over.

3. If you are ballsy enough, a big RIB is very very capable - but means you sleep ashore.

4. rent for as long as possible: the more loot the better the boat.

5. If your house is nicer than the boat, the wife and kids will tend to say it's "your" boat, and often "let" you go alone after the first year. Divide the value of your house by 2 to find the amount of money you need to spend for a boat that is "nicer". Yeah, loads innit eh?

I am not at all sure that an enjoyable boat-ownership life is possible in south wales, with 9 grand, for a novice, with limited diy. Sorry!

My sugestion ios that you sign up for sailing courses and take holidays on flotilla holidays in the med with sunsail. Warm sea, happy hols, happy families.
 
Re: oh heck

Matt, I hope you have saved that post, I have never before seen it somed up that way, it beats standing in the shower ripping up ten pound notes /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
 
Re: oh heck

Lets not entirely put off newbies.

OK, having some basic knowledge helps, but if you get into the right circles, then lots of help and advice, and you can learn quickly if you see people doing the simple jobs and they are willing to teach.

He's looking at a trailer boat, so there are several options open even in S Wales for trailerable fun within weekend driving and boating. Even in S Wales itself, you don't always get F4, just look at forecast same as rest of country. Some times, Bristol Channel is as wonderfully calm as Solent in F0.

Lets talk him through suitable trailerable boat for his needs, then address other issues as they come. I'm sure he has lots of questions that can be addressed without dismissing all 9k boats as crap - know lots who boat with this sort of budget, and they go out a lot, and many have years of experience, but not the budget to buy 23m boats
 
Re: oh heck

Ooh, it's a bit marginal tho innit, mr molecular biology assumeseveryoneelse is also a cleverperson, innit? £9grand doesn't honestly buy anything pushbutton whoom reliable and trailerable cept a decentish RIB, really, does it?
 
Re: oh heck

Suspect you can buy a sea'erable trailerable boat fer 9 grand. But in South Wales?? For a start yer up against welsh men, or wimmin with big boobs. But to be fair, there is Milford Haven. Went there once. Cant say I liked it. But the Welsh and the sheep seem to???
 
Re: oh heck

Mainly sound advice, but I feel a little over gloomy, Im sure PJH can learn some basic maintainence techniques, and get himself the equivalent of the boating worlds AA/RAC ie a 5hp auxillary. South Wales can be a little hairy at times ,but with common sense a lot of sea boating can be had during spring,summer and autumn, even with a 18/20ft boat. Sorry for sea sustitute coastal !! I know you personally dont like Milford, but it has lots of good slipways for trailer boaters and 20 odd miles of sheltered deep water at all tide states for times when the sea is too rough for us baby boaters. I reckon £9000 should get a decent yank 20ft cuddy and trailer 5 or 6 yr old.
 
Re: oh heck

Lotsa peeps in the club I belong to started this way, and gain huge amounts of experience and confidence boating with other people. All that's needed is a nudge in right direction, and boat mending skills, choosing right conditions, and getting home when alone come with it. Loads of people out there willing to teach and take relative newbies along with them. Why does assuming people are intelligent to make their own decisions come across as so wrong, and wot's Mole Biography got to do with it?

9k can buy quite a good reliable boat if peeps here are willing to help and give advice. Rib is certainly an option to look at.
 
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