Toutvabien
Member
We have finally bought another boat after about 18 months of searching the internet, brokers, and private ads, viewing boats all over the South of England at Boat Shows, new and 2nd hand, we finally sat on a boat a few weeks ago and quite quickly knew that it was what we wanted. Obviously the analysis and discussions of the last 18 months contributed to feeling that we had found what we wanted, and could afford! We learnt a lot about the sort of boat that we wanted in the process and when the time came the decision making process was swift.
Setting out with a budget of around £50000 for a 34-36 foot family cruiser we have looked at about 20 different boats, Westerly's Moody's, Bavaria's, Jeanneau's, Scanmar's (very nice boats), in a variety of conditions and at quite widely varying prices, which seem not to reflect the condition of the boat.
Brokers by and large have been useless, only Ancasta and Oyster kept us updated as new listings came onto their books. YBW website personal boat shopper sent me an email each week which was sometimes interesting, but trolling brokers individual websites and the website "Boatsandoutboardsforsale" for private sales, seem to be the best sources of up to date listings.
We have ended up buying an Oyster Mariner 35, a design that SWMBO fell in love with when we viewed one that had already beeen sold last summer, from Oyster Brokerage who have been a pleasure to deal with throughout the transaction. We will be moving our sailing base from Burnham on Crouch, to Ramsgate, after being based at Burnham for nearly 20 years, the new style of operation at Burnham Yacht Harbour is not to our taste at all.
We are staying with our insurers of 10 years, the excellent service provided by Traffords Ltd, alongside their ability to come up with a very competitative quote based on their detailed knowledge of my claims history, has meant that they are keeping our business.
Scuttlebut has been a wonderful source of information and opinion while we have been looking, thanks very much to all of you who have sustained me through this stressful time. I have emerged from the process almost unscathed, to those of you still looking good luck and good searching.
I don't know what I will do now to while away the time previously spent looking at websites of boats for sale etc, I'll have to do some passage planning!!!
In the meantime if anybody wants to buy our Hurley 30 details are listed at:
http://myboatdetails.com/toutvabien
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Setting out with a budget of around £50000 for a 34-36 foot family cruiser we have looked at about 20 different boats, Westerly's Moody's, Bavaria's, Jeanneau's, Scanmar's (very nice boats), in a variety of conditions and at quite widely varying prices, which seem not to reflect the condition of the boat.
Brokers by and large have been useless, only Ancasta and Oyster kept us updated as new listings came onto their books. YBW website personal boat shopper sent me an email each week which was sometimes interesting, but trolling brokers individual websites and the website "Boatsandoutboardsforsale" for private sales, seem to be the best sources of up to date listings.
We have ended up buying an Oyster Mariner 35, a design that SWMBO fell in love with when we viewed one that had already beeen sold last summer, from Oyster Brokerage who have been a pleasure to deal with throughout the transaction. We will be moving our sailing base from Burnham on Crouch, to Ramsgate, after being based at Burnham for nearly 20 years, the new style of operation at Burnham Yacht Harbour is not to our taste at all.
We are staying with our insurers of 10 years, the excellent service provided by Traffords Ltd, alongside their ability to come up with a very competitative quote based on their detailed knowledge of my claims history, has meant that they are keeping our business.
Scuttlebut has been a wonderful source of information and opinion while we have been looking, thanks very much to all of you who have sustained me through this stressful time. I have emerged from the process almost unscathed, to those of you still looking good luck and good searching.
I don't know what I will do now to while away the time previously spent looking at websites of boats for sale etc, I'll have to do some passage planning!!!
In the meantime if anybody wants to buy our Hurley 30 details are listed at:
http://myboatdetails.com/toutvabien
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