Buying Used Yacht » Yachts & Boats

A yacht is your house, a favourite toy, family, a symbol of your life attitude or at least presumptive source of income. Therefore it's necessary to chose it as careful as possible, like when purchasing a car.

There are two essentially different variants. A charter yacht and a private one. A charter yacht is leased out, and, accordingly, the more active it is exploited, the better it is for an owner. I shall not explain whan it is fraught with, simply draw an analogy with purchase of used car. If you do not have experience of used yacht purchase, the analogy with the car can help you to avoid many mistakes.

What should you pay attention at purchasing an ex-charter yacht? The most important is duration of its use in a charter. A standard practice of the charter companies is use of yachts during five years and then sale them. Companies use a yacht in charter for no longer than five years because yachts older than five years require more financial investments, and cost of their rent essentially falls. Thus, if you buy a yacht today it should be made in 2002-2003. But don't buy a yacht younger than that, it 100% has latent or obvious problems.

Serious companies like Vernicos or Sun Sail as a rule watch their yachts, and it is possible to buy from them quite good yacht of 4-6 years old at a quite good price. Some yachting companies cooperate with yacht charter companies and they receive actual lists of yachts. You can find this companies in the internet and ask them for help. Whether you buy a yacht yourself or with their help, the price will be the same, but you'll have less problems. The work of this yachting companies is paid by the seller, and not by the buyer.
Buying Used Yacht

We have approached smoothly a question of price formation. The most widespread question is "Why does a private yacht of 2-3 years old cost as much as a new one?" But actually why should she cost cheaper? The owner has made on her somewhat 8 one-week-journeys, cared for her and coddled, bought different carpets and barometers for her, gilted door handles in the latrine, so her condition is ideal. Moreover, he payed local taxes. There is a sense to buy such a yacht only if this model is not present ready on the factory right now, and you don't want to wait for 4-5 months. If you don't believe, here's an example, a company was selling a new Gib'Sea 51 for 248,500€, and the same yacht on the EYB costed 255 000 €. The ex-charter yacht of 2002 costed 6,500€ more than absolutely new one!

Buying Used Yacht

Therefore it makes sense to search for a yacht which was actively exploited, but reliable, well serviced and at acceptable price. Interesting moments appear here. I know a lot of people, engaged in a yacht brokerage, but I never heard a story, that a used yacht was sold and there were no problems with her. Therefore try to minimize losses, estimating possible risks beforehand. For example, scratched table in a cabin or a whoop, beaten with a block, are minimum and easily determined risks. It's clear at once how much their liquidation will cost. But doubts about the engine, or especially about the hull, are serious already. It's possible to estimate the investments, required for removal of these things, only after careful examination.

It's almost useless to ask an owner why he sells a yacht, only for the sake of starting a conversation. Because, if a tower crane fell on the yacht, and she was then restored from the pieces, you will not be told about this anyway, so the legend will be decent in any case. It can also happen that an owner, he is the captain also, came to the point of sale because he doesn't feel like sailing a yacht back home, while he sailed round the half-globe here, and transportation will cost him dear. This case is verified easily, and if there were no global breakages during the marine, such yacht is undoubtedly interesting to us.
Buying Used Yacht

There are honest people who don't hide the history of a yacht. If there was a hole in the hull, they outline the place of repair with a marker, and don't even put a top paint coat, so that a buyer could estimate the quality of renewal. This can be met somewhere in England. In Greece, Turkey, France and generally on the south this cases happen rarer, people are cunning there, if one doesn't find it they will not point him with a finger.

The most frightful is not that a yacht has some problems, but when you don't know about them. Any problem with a yacht is possible to decide, even a hull cut in half can be restored. The main here is to know about this problem on time, and to take it into account during further exploitation.