What do you expect to see when buying a boat

[Daydream believer]

Trouble is the boat just looks like every other 311 on the market and the only selling point would be a low price. I need a few points to make it attractive to a buyer. They are all clean & stark.
I am having it professionally cleaned & polished in & out in 10 days time. But that is all I have for it
It is on the hard & if it does not sell by November i will strip the mainsail & running rigging for the winter & put it back on the market next year.
.
I just wonder what a broker will use to sell it. When a salesman sells a car he might point to cruise control, sat nav and various gadgets to get the customers juices flowing. But in an empty boat there is nothing other than- here is a list of bits somewhere in a shed in st lawrence bay you can have FOC if you want

 

[Blueboatman]

Oh come on!
“This one owner boat benefits from a new engine and all the years of experience of a highly knowledgable owner, who has singlehanded this boat around Britain not once but twice.. It also comes with a simply stunning array of all those extras, tools and marine equipment essential to the true maintenance of a proper sea going yacht.
An outstanding opportunity to won one of these popular and versatile proven designs in prime condition. Available now and seriously for sale as the owner is hanging up his sailing boots due to family health commitments”

Job done
( copyright Blueboatman, you owe me a pint if that sells it)

 

[Daydream believer]

Oh come on!
“This one owner boat benefits from a new engine and all the years of experience of a highly knowledgable owner, who has singlehanded this boat around Britain not once but twice.. It also comes with a simply stunning array of all those extras, tools and marine equipment essential to the true maintenance of a proper sea going yacht.
An outstanding opportunity to won one of these popular and versatile proven designs in prime condition. Available now and seriously for sale as the owner is hanging up his sailing boots due to family health commitments”

Job done
( copyright Blueboatman, you owe me a pint if that sells it)

You forgot the new rigging
But apart from that it sounds very good.

 

[doug748]

Trouble is the boat just looks like every other 311 on the market and the only selling point would be a low price. I need a few points to make it attractive to a buyer. They are all clean & stark.
I am having it professionally cleaned & polished in & out in 10 days time. But that is all I have for it
It is on the hard & if it does not sell by November i will strip the mainsail & running rigging for the winter & put it back on the market next year.
.
I just wonder what a broker will use to sell it. When a salesman sells a car he might point to cruise control, sat nav and various gadgets to get the customers juices flowing. But in an empty boat there is nothing other than- here is a list of bits somewhere in a shed in st lawrence bay you can have FOC if you want

You have had a row with your son and now you are fighting a rearguard action against the opinion on here. Make a proper inventory and take you toolboxes home, give them to the new owner on handover. Cool boxes lashed in position with bungee cord never impressed anyone unless you are selling in the 5 grand range.
Read post 13 again, he knows.

.

 

[Egret]

Maybe take it to a broker's marina at the right time - we only looked at boats at brokers - all of them Essex/Suffolk but had the opportunity to see and sit in several similar boats and compare side by side - and for the final one, went to another broker's site which confirmed the boat we had just seen was the one - no trouble for brokers to let me see as many boats as I wanted and compare - no travelling for broker - Ready to sail at the time of taking - They wouldn't have let me go if they were not happy - dropped mooring and embarked on one of my longest sails for many years without thinking - confidence in the broker who offered to come with me on the passage if I was uncertain (an excuse for them to get out of the office and go sailing).

You can say your boat is equipped and ready to go across to Ostende again.

As Dan Tribe says #47 below - with the boats at their marinas, brokers didn't have to go out of their offices, just gave me the keys and let me look myself.

 

[xyachtdave]

Oh come on!
“This one owner boat benefits from a new engine and all the years of experience of a highly knowledgable owner, who has singlehanded this boat around Britain not once but twice.. It also comes with a simply stunning array of all those extras, tools and marine equipment essential to the true maintenance of a proper sea going yacht.
An outstanding opportunity to won one of these popular and versatile proven designs in prime condition. Available now and seriously for sale as the owner is hanging up his sailing boots due to family health commitments”

Job done
( copyright Blueboatman, you owe me a pint if that sells it)

That's good but needs the Berthon treatment....

'Hatched from the egg over a decade ago from the board of Jean-Marie Finot and professionally maintained since. She requires a new owner for further world girdling, complete with all the go faster gear for when you want to floor it, along with the cruising comfort essentials and of course an embarrassingly skinny ask.'

 

[DanTribe]

Maybe take it to a broker's marina at the right time - we only looked at boats at brokers - all of them Essex/Suffolk but had the opportunity to see and sit in several similar boats and compare side by side - and for the final one, went to another broker's site which confirmed the boat we had just seen was the one - not trouble for brokers to let me see as many boats as I wanted and compare - no travelling for broker - Ready to sail at the time of taking - They wouldn't have let me go if they were not happy - dropped mooring and embarked on one of my longest sails for many years without thinking - confidence in the broker who offered to come back with me on the passage if I was uncertain. You can say boat equipped and ready to go across to Ostende again.

You seem to have found an exceptional brokerage, not my experience when last looking for a boat, some years ago I admit. They seemed reluctant to leave their cosy offices.
On the other hand I had a friend who worked in a brokers office and said she hated weekends because she only got "sticky beakers" who liked to spend weekends looking at and talking about boats.

 

[Daydream believer]

You seem to have found an exceptional brokerage, not my experience when last looking for a boat, some years ago I admit. They seemed reluctant to leave their cosy offices.
On the other hand I had a friend who worked in a brokers office and said she hated weekends because she only got "sticky beakers" who liked to spend weekends looking at and talking about boats.

Well I am sure that being a Burnham boy you know who the broker is. I hope that you can suggest that I can have confidence in him

 

[Daydream believer]

Cool boxes lashed in position with bungee cord never impressed anyone unless you are selling in the 5 grand range.
.

Can we revise the Bungee cord business. I do install stuff properly. Strapped in place in a secure corner, with the 240v & 12 v cut off power units along side
I would also remind forumites that MY tool boxes are all clean & NONE of the tools are oily & rusty. Things like oil seals are all partitioned off as are the fuses etc.
So please do not get the picture of gooy messy bilges etc because nothing is like that. I pride myself on how stuff is stored.

 

[Refueler]

Sorry but I just cannot get rid of that Monkees song from my head :

Daybream believer and a home-coming queen !!

 

[RunAgroundHard]

Go for it. It's your boat, present for sale as you wish.

I hope you get a fast sale at the price you wish, and to be honest, if well presented, ordered, clean and accessible, but not rammed, I think that is more important. A bare, sterile boat can be rather off putting if there is nothing to distinguish it from the many other MABs tarted up to sell.

 

[ylop]

One of the tool boxes contains 2 complete sets of fuel & oil filters, anodes prop socket extension bar ratchet, allen keys & grease nipple for brunton prop. Cannot get it off without.
There are 6 prop anodes at £35 ea. There are 5 spare volvo impellors
All is neatly wrapped & nothing is rusty or greasy
If I was buying a boat & saw that I would not add it to the price --but be les inclined to knock it off-- but would certainly not discard it as trash. But others would possibly not apreciate its worth until they broke down

Where is that stuff stored? If it’s under a bunk where people only look once keen then it’s different from it it’s on display or in the cockpit locker which you see on your first 5 min tour of the boat.

Trouble is the boat just looks like every other 311 on the market and the only selling point would be a low price.

How many 311s are near to you? IIRC you are well connected in the local club and manage the moorings? Can you help a new owner get a mooring?
What you definitely don’t want is to be the least appealing 311 for 200 miles!

I need a few points to make it attractive to a buyer. They are all clean & stark.

Presumably brokers know what sells and like houses with plain walls like show homes, AWBs that look like the boat show are preferable to character?

I am having it professionally cleaned & polished in & out in 10 days time.

Make their job easier - take the stuff away. Otherwise they’ll clean around it and the stuff looks worse.

But that is all I have for it
It is on the hard & if it does not sell by November i will strip the mainsail & running rigging for the winter & put it back on the market next year.
.

I just wonder what a broker will use to sell it. When a salesman sells a car he might point to cruise control, sat nav and various gadgets to get the customers juices flowing. But in an empty boat there is nothing other than- here is a list of bits somewhere in a shed in st lawrence bay you can have FOC if you want

I don’t think brokers flog boats like that - in fact in my experience if you say “it’s no autopilot” they flip that round to “you can easily add that, and you’d be able to fit the latest technology”. Job 1 is to get them to view it that means good photos. Job 2 is to get them to consider putting in an offer. Job 3 is to negotiate a good deal. You are focussing on 3 but ignoring 1 and 2. Who is your likely buyer? I suspect could be a first time boater? They will love all the stuff you give them in the end but they will have zero appreciation of its financial value and probably no real world experience of boats being full of stuff only the other boats they view…

Can we revise the Bungee cord business. I do install stuff properly. Strapped in place in a secure corner, with the 240v & 12 v cut off power units along side
I would also remind forumites that MY tool boxes are all clean & NONE of the tools are oily & rusty. Things like oil seals are all partitioned off as are the fuses etc.
So please do not get the picture of gooy messy bilges etc because nothing is like that. I pride myself on how stuff is stored.

Perhaps post pics of the current arrangements, we can only imagine and infer why your son who has seen it says move it.

 

[KevinV]

Perhaps post pics of the current arrangements, we can only imagine and infer why your son who has seen it says move it.

Good idea - the list of things sounds a bit like "cluttered", but might in fact (as DDB says) be "well-set up"

 

[Gixer]

I think the ideal for selling a sailing boat would be for it to look like a charter boat inside, ready for you to set sail and go. Just add food....
Everything onboard should have a purpose and its stowed place. clean and tidy. You can have spares and accessories onboard but in clean Tupperware containers clearly labeled and stowed ready for sailing.

 

[dunedin]

Have you asked what the broker suggests?
The thing is that nobody sees their beloved in the same way that others do. So you son is probably giving a more detached / objective view than you can, being too close to the boat and been seeing it regularly for several years.

….
It is on the hard & if it does not sell by November i will strip the mainsail & running rigging for the winter & put it back on the market next year.
….

Personally I would leave it as is and keep on the market over the winter.
All the boats I have bought were bought over the winter - one we got the keys on 31 December.

And why go to all the hard work of removing mainsail and running rigging? We keep in commission all year round which saves a huge amount of work, and sail cover shoukd protect sail.

 

[capnsensible]

About 30 years ago, we looked at a yacht in Moodys yard on the Hamble that coincides with the Southampton boat show.

What I didn't expect to find, framed, were some photographs of the owners wife....or whatever.....posing naked on the foredeck.

 

[xyachtdave]

About 30 years ago, we looked at a yacht in Moodys yard on the Hamble that coincides with the Southampton boat show.

What I didn't expect to find, framed, were some photographs of the owners wife....or whatever.....posing naked on the foredeck.

Did you buy it?

 

[capnsensible]

Did you buy it?

The picture?

No. Nor the yacht.

 

[Daydream believer]

And why go to all the hard work of removing mainsail and running rigging? We keep in commission all year round which saves a huge amount of work, and sail cover shoukd protect sail.

I have never allowed the sails, cover & running rigging to suffer the uv over the winter. I bag all the halyards & running rigging is removed. Sails & cover go to the sailmaker if necessary. I actually have a spares so main & cover can be repaired mid season if needed.

 

[Daydream believer]

Good point re mooring.
I could sort a good deep water one no prob
I will advise the broker