How Old is Too Old When Buying a Yacht?

How Old is Too Old When Buying a Yacht?

  • Newer than 5 years old

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Newer than 10 years old

    Votes: 11 9.3%

  • Newer than 15 years old

    Votes: 9 7.6%

  • Any age

    Votes: 98 83.1%
  • Total voters
    118
B

Baddox

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I'm looking at buying my next boat and have drawn up some simple criteria based on size, price, condition and age. This set me thinking about why I arbitrarily draw a line at a certain age of boat. So for no other reason than curiosity, if you were buying a boat just now, what age of vessel would you restrict your search to?
 
Well I'm completely biased but then we probably all are. I would say early seventies and if they survey well, then there are some brilliant boats out there.
I would go for what I have now. A Tradewind. Good size, go anywhere except creek crawling.
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...Yachts-think-I-m-going-to-sell-up-and-buy-one!

If budget wasn't a problem I would come a little into the 80's or 90's and look at Rustlers 36 or 42 or 44 or even an Oyster or similar.
If that's too big and too high up the budget then how about a Twister 28'


However, if that's well over budget, I know of a beautiful IF Folk Boat possibly for sale with trailer.
It's one of the swiftest of little older boats and immaculate to boot. :)

If this question is also to help you.....
We need to know all the criteria you are basing your own thoughts upon otherwise you'll get everyone coming up with their own favourites other than ones which just may help you in your decision making...... What size? What price? What condition?

S.
 
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A GRP hull will last a long time. So if you find a design you like that is old then do not let age worry you. Of course a newer boat might be a newer design and engines, equipment and sails do suffer from age but if you get an old boat for the right price then you can afford to re equip and repaint to end up with a fine boat. good luck olewill
 
If it is less than 5 years, you can expect to sail it away, with virtually no replacement bits. Over 5 years, you may(or will) need new sails and some running rigging, get near 10 years and probably new standing rigging, electronics, upholstery and some varnishing, and some things will be breaking. Older than that, and expect a major refit. If the boat has had high use, then all those times are shortened. you just need to factor replacements into the cost. Keep an open mind and view a few boats - you will soon work out what you can put up with and what you can't.
 
Baddox said:
I'm looking at buying my next boat and have drawn up some simple criteria based on size, price, condition and age. This set me thinking about why I arbitrarily draw a line at a certain age of boat. So for no other reason than curiosity, if you were buying a boat just now, what age of vessel would you restrict your search to?
Click to expand...

Thought this thread was about the age of the owner.
 
Baddox said:
I'm looking at buying my next boat and have drawn up some simple criteria based on size, price, condition and age. This set me thinking about why I arbitrarily draw a line at a certain age of boat. So for no other reason than curiosity, if you were buying a boat just now, what age of vessel would you restrict your search to?
Click to expand...

La Roca, a Seamaster Sailer 23, is forty years old, built before scrimping became the norm. No signs of osmosis but was epoxied some years ago. The Beta 16 has done little more than 200 hours. Roller genoa, stackpac main with lines led back to cockpit, modern instruments. What has age got to do with it if the design suits your requirements ?
Incidently if you want a floating holiday home in the Algarve I'm considering selling as I am more than twice as old as she. I still have a little motorboat to play in the Ria Formosa and potter down the coast.
 
Next month my boat will be 43 years young and is still going strong.
I would not change her for a new jelly mould that has been built by accountants as a 'disposable toy' that is more at ease when on a marina pontoon than in a heavy sea.
She will outlive me and then it will be up to my son to decide what to do with her.
 
A lot depends on what you want out of a boat. We bought a 1994 Bavaria 350 two years ago which ticked ALL the boxes for us.ie. It sails well, is very comfortable at sea or in port, it's big enough to liveaboard for a month or two at a time,well specced with gear both as standard and added on and most importantly has never given us a moments worry no matter what the conditions at sea. We didn't restrict ourselves to any age or design and when we bought her we had originally gone to look at something completely different but the broker talked us into looking at this one and the rest as they say is history.
 
Other than the general observation that older boats usually require more work to either get them up to scratch or keep them running well age per se is to really important. For some types of boat you can only get old ones so age is irrelevant if you want that style of boat. On the other hand for some styles of boat there are only recent examples on the market.

Boats particularly older ones are often for sale because the owners do not want to face the cost of imminent major replacements so it is rare to find boats in real sail away condition over about 10 years old. Replacement sails, engines, electronics etc can run into 10's of 000s for even modest boats.

To an extent your choice is determined by your budget and the type of boat you want. Small budget, big boat equals old!
 
I think the OP revealed his opinion on this topic by wording the poll so that anything over 15yrs would be 'old'.
I would have made the age brackets something like 10/20/30/40/older.
(Kelpie is 46 this year, by the way- a good bit older than me!)
 
You don't need replacement this that and the other. Check the boat is sea worthy and off you go. My boat is over half a century old and made of wood. She has the odd bit of rot but nothing important and any problems are easy to fix with 'My First Toolkit' (tm).

It is horses for courses. Get as close to what you are happy with inside your budget. An old GPS still tells you where you are. Old sails still fill with wind. And if the old donk still turns the prop then bobs your mothers brother. I replaced a for'sl after 2 seasons because it was unbalanced. 2 seasons of good sailing on original stuff with a rotten tiller and slightly unreliable donk. Refit over winter on year 3 to get donk and fuel system sorted and the worst of the rot out.

Last year came within a stones throw of St Kilda in big seas and 30kn winds. As for the skipper, my grandmother in her 90s still sails up the west coast of Scotland. Get what makes you happy and go sailing.
 
pmagowan said:
You don't need replacement this that and the other. Check the boat is sea worthy and off you go. My boat is over half a century old and made of wood. She has the odd bit of rot but nothing important and any problems are easy to fix with 'My First Toolkit' (tm).

It is horses for courses. Get as close to what you are happy with inside your budget. An old GPS still tells you where you are. Old sails still fill with wind. And if the old donk still turns the prop then bobs your mothers brother. I replaced a for'sl after 2 seasons because it was unbalanced. 2 seasons of good sailing on original stuff with a rotten tiller and slightly unreliable donk. Refit over winter on year 3 to get donk and fuel system sorted and the worst of the rot out.

Last year came within a stones throw of St Kilda in big seas and 30kn winds. As for the skipper, my grandmother in her 90s still sails up the west coast of Scotland. Get what makes you happy and go sailing.
Click to expand...

Marvellous !
 
Depends entirely how much you enjoy doing boat maintenance and projects. If that is part of the deal, and looking at a GRP boat, then anything under 40 years is probably viable.
But if you want a near new boat style "buy and sail" experience, try to get something under 5 years old and sell at 15 years - which should avoid the need for major replacements, and give maximum sailing time vs maintenance time - but at the cost of significant depreciation (albeit much less than buying new).

Also depends a lot on whether you think old boat designs are (a) much better than current or (b) slow, wet and cramped.

PS You are asking this on the PBO forum, where boat maintenance is a hobby - get a different answer on Yachting World perchance
 
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I thought it was about the age of the owner too

so on that subject

here is uncle david - aged 84, collar and tie - inspecting his new boat

uncle-daid-1.jpg


goodonim

as for the age of the boat....

risking your life in anything over ten years old seems highly dangerous to me

quickly lads.... sell those clapped out ten year old Rustlers and Southerlies as quick as you can

they will be worth next to nothing after they have passed ten

think of the expenses

new rigging, new sails, new engine, new upholstery

nothing short of floating liabilities if you ask me

D

PS - god bless you blokes who buy new boats and cars

without you guys where would I be?
 
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I've acquired a slightly skewed viewpoint on this topic. I've got two quite separate sets of requirements: one is for a medium sized fin keel boat to serve as a liveaboard, the other is for a small, cheap project boat.
For the liveaboard we looked at size and price and settled on a boat that was then 9 years old. For the project boat, it's tiny by comparison but 46 years old and only cost £400.
In neither case was age an issue. In both cases it was size and price which drove things. I'd have been content with a newer or older boat in both instances but wouldn't have wanted anything bigger.
But as others have said, it's down to what is driving your purchase. It may be that the particular boat you settle on is new or nearly so because that's all that's on the market or vice versa.
 
Tranona said:
Boats particularly older ones are often for sale because the owners do not want to face the cost of imminent major replacements so it is rare to find boats in real sail away condition over about 10 years old. Replacement sails, engines, electronics etc can run into 10's of 000s for even modest boats.
Click to expand...

This can be so true. If the seller has an up to date survey from a reputable surveyor (and the huge majority are), on a boat you are considering buying, then you are on to a good start.

So a tip to those selling a decent boat, have it surveyed and the survey available to the punters!

S.
 
Think how much usage is more important than age though obviously some things like hoses and seals do deteriorate with age. Many 30-40 year old boats have perfectly serviceable original engines, spars, sea cocks (blakes obviously) etc. One thing to watch on older boats is the original hardware supplier has long gone out of business therefore replacement involves a certain amount of fiddly adaptation rather than like for like replacement.
In that context 3 cheers for Plastimo for maintaining consistent hole centres on their bulkhead compasses over donkeys years.
 
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