OK, Charlie Brown.
You've been actively searching for a catamaran on the internet, and you probably have a wish list of what you'd like on board. Maybe you've narrowed it down to two or three brands based around your own budget — let's say your budget is €450,000.
Back to the search. There's a lot of choice out there at the moment, and before you start eating into that budget, think it through. Say your shortlist has one boat in the BVI, one in Spain, and one in Croatia.
Airfares, car hire and hotels for three separate viewings soon add up, even flying budget airlines like Ryanair, easyJet or Jet2. Add in the airport queues, the wait at the car hire desk, and the inevitable hassle of handing the car back with a kerbed wheel or a scratch (which always seems to happen to me).
Then there's the survey that goes disastrously wrong — the surveyor finds osmosis in a five-year-old boat, or major issues with the engine. You've just spent another three grand on the survey, lift-out and so on. You wanted to be there in person, so that's more flights, more car hire, more travel. Do you get the picture? You either accept the boat as it is, or you start over.
If you went to view 50 boats, chances are the one you liked back at number 42 will already have sold — if it was any good.
Comparing the Options
Let's compare an ex-charter boat, say seven years old (nothing wrong with that), fitted out with the bare minimum for charter use. Chances are it has plenty of stuff you don't want and not much of what you do. Now compare that with a privately owned boat equipped for circumnavigation or ocean passages, kitted out with all the latest gear — that boat may well be worth far more than the ex-charter option.
Even some older boats — ones that were far better built and sailed much better in the first place — have been completely refitted and offer a much better buy.
An owner who has spent money on a watermaker, upgraded electronics, a generator and so on has put those items on board for a reason. So when someone comes along with a lowball offer, comparing his precious catamaran to some ex-charter boat in outer Mongolia on YachtWorld, it doesn't go down well.
OK, so you buy the outer Mongolian one. It may be fine, but now there's another problem: getting a yard to fit everything on your wish list, and dealing with marine engineers who don't turn up and parts that take forever to arrive.
The 42nd catamaran — the one you left behind in Greece, for instance — everything was working, tried and tested. The owner had prepared the boat for sale and it was ready to go.
All that time and money spent travelling — and time is the most important part of all. Time you could have been sailing. Time you could have been enjoying your boat with your family. Time wasted waiting in a hot, dirty, stinking boatyard for someone to turn up and fix your watermaker, who never does.
Sometimes, if it's within your budget, it's worth paying €50,000–€60,000 more for a boat with the right feel, age, history, equipment and maintenance records, compared with everything else on the market at the time.
Sure, you can buy or sell your boat yourself. But a good broker, believe it or not, can save you money.
If you find the catamaran that ticks all your boxes — go for it!
Offers
How much should you offer? This is a tricky one. Why do people insist on doing this dance? The normal, acceptable offer is within 10% of the asking price. Anything more than that and most sellers will feel insulted, as if you'd slapped their mother. Some people do try it on and open at half the asking price, which just creates bad feeling from day one.
When buying a boat, goodwill goes a long way. It's useful to keep the seller onside, so to speak — helpful for the handover, and for any technical questions that come up later.
Then comes that horrible wait to find out if your offer has been accepted. It drives you crazy. You've found the catamaran you want, and in your head you already own it. The owner or the broker doesn't call back. You wait and wait — but no call.
All sorts of thoughts start racing through your head: maybe he's got another buyer, or maybe the seller has decided to keep it after all. When the call finally comes, it's such a relief — and that relief goes both ways. Buyer and seller feel exactly the same thing.
And then, a while later, you start wondering if you paid too much — while the seller, the next morning, wonders if he could have held out for more. The games we play!