There is plenty of advice available on how to buy a sailboat. Unfortunately, much of it is written by those in the sailboat building or sailboat selling business – in other words, someone with a vested interest in steering you one way or another. If you have read those articles, you will quickly realize that this article is different. The suggestions contained in this article (and subsequent ones) are written from the perspective of a sailboat buyer and are the collective wisdom of someone who has purchased 8-10 sailboats and discussed sailboat purchases with dozens of other sailboat owners. The lessons learned apply to both new and used sailboat purchases. I hope you will learn from all our mistakes!!
There is a multi-step process that involves answering a series of questions. Successfully answering those questions will lead you to choose exactly the best boat for you. In the course of this series, I will discuss all those questions and cover the whole process. This article covers only the first step in the process because in my view, the first step is by far the most important.
The first – and again, most important step – is to answer the question “How will I use this sailboat?” When I say this, I don’t mean a general answer like “to race” or “daysail” or “to cruise.” If you can only answer the question to this level of detail, you have a very high probability of making a very large (and probably very expensive) mistake – buying the wrong boat. When I say “How will I use this sailboat?,” I mean in extensive detail. Here are some examples of questions you should be able to answer immediately and without any thought BEFORE you consider buying a sailboat: