Nick Burnham
Well-Known Member
You're very welcome. To answer your questions, the weight of my boat 'dry' is 1150kg according to Skibsplast, so about a third the weight of the Carrera. However it's not all about the weight of course (although that is perhaps the most relevant measure), things like wetted surface and how vee bottomed or flat bottomed a boat is will have an effect.
Worth noting also that my (single engine don't forget) boat will still easily pull 25 knots with the additional weight of a full tank of fuel and five people on board although acceleration suffers. (I'd considered 'gearing it up' with a larger prop as it hits max RPM so easily, but I fear it would then struggle to get on the plane in the first place with four or more on board and I'm wary of deviating from manufacturer specification in pursuit of extra performance, particularly given the engine is twenty years old, so I've left it 'stock').
This is my boat at speed, the single TAMD 22 pushes it along very well (shots of mine start at 1:15 - it's not the Cougar at the beginning, or indeed the Corsair in the intro sadly!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY8JqzXdI1o
I was a broker for twenty years and I (almost) always asked for a deposit for a brokerage boat prior to sea trial (there was the occasional exceptional circumstance where I would seek the owner's permission for a sea trial when the boat was viewed, normally if a client was coming from overseas where returning for a sea trial at a later date would be impractical and the fact that the client was going to so much trouble and expense proved that he/she was serious).
HOWEVER, the terms of most agreements (check yours!) state that the sale is 'subject to satisfactory sea trial' (if you've requested one - always make sure your offer is 'subject to satisfactory survey and sea trial'). Which begs the question, to who's satisfaction? In my view as a broker, if we were going to insist on an offer being accepted and a deposit placed, then it was only fair that it was to the buyer's satisfaction, since he was being placed in that position by our process. (Interestingly I only ever had one boat rejected just because the purchaser didn't like it on trial after a deposit had been placed 'subject to...').
Certainly when I bought my last boat (through a broker in Poole) I confirmed that this was the case because - for example - if the boat were much too noisy or a very poor ride, these wouldn't be deemed mechanical faults, but I still might choose not to proceed.
This is something to discuss with the broker, as Whitelighter says, these things are normally negotiable within sensible reason. I made a video for MBY about sea trialling a boat, and this was one of the points I highlighted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmwQYKuFhNo
Yes it is, and with good reason. My analogy was always, imagine you are selling a classic car. You know you've looked after it 'no expense spared' and it's near perfect and you have a buyer for it but he says 'I want to get a specialist to put it up on ramps and give it a thorough inspection'. If you're confident about the car then you'll be fine with that, but you'd expect him to pay for it wouldn't you? The inspection is for him, you don't want or need it, so he should bear any costs of that inspection.