Boat Shopping

As I said in some of the earlier posts, over the winter our conversations started noting how "live", "dynamic" one might even use the term "uncomfortable" the Yacht(ette) felt out on the bay compared to the way we felt in the Navesink or out on the bay on the larger boat.  Getting from those conversations to deciding to purchase a new boat is a process I won't spend a lot of time on here.  I will note that the justification involved both of us knowing that life is short... we both have good jobs and can do this... we can always find reasons to hold off, but we will also rapidly reach a point in our lives where it's too late to jump into this.  

This is sort of a "carpe diem" sort of thing... we even watched "Dead Poet's Society" at the end of the process.

So how do you buy a boat?  What do you look for?  Where do you go to buy it?  How do you go about making all the necessary decisions to get from where we are to "new boat owners"?  

I knew from the course and chatting around KYC that I wanted something in the 30' to 35' category.  Vicky wanted new (and I wasn't going to complain on that too much).  Being new to this, we weren't set in our ways, and weren't looking for esoteric stuff.  

Quickly I settled on Catalina.  We wanted to cruise and contemplate an overnight or weekend trip.  The 27' might be great for day sailing, but it's interior space wasn't set up for anything more than a simple overnight.  We wanted two cabins in case guests came along.  We're not planning to cross oceans, though we might venture out on one, so their "Cruiser" series seemed better than the "Ocean" series (larger boats) or "Sport" series (smaller boats).  Once that decision was made it was either the 315 or the 355... the extra $50K for 3 more feet, an extra table in the Salon, and a slightly sexier bathroom just didn't seem worth it.

We then had to decide on a dealership... only one in our area was stocking this boat so we could go and see it.  Evidently you don't go to a "new boat lot" and choose the one you want... some dealerships don't even stock and just custom order boats of this size.  We compared prices at a couple of places and in the end, the difference wasn't enough to justify going to a non stocking dealer.  The one we went with - G. Winter Sailing in Riverside, NJ is a family owned outfit that seemed friendly and fair.  For the slightly higher price, they offered much more extensive training on the new boat.

So we went there and looked at the example boat they had in their yard.

It felt weird boarding a boat in the middle of winter (not to mention climbing ladders in the snow to do that).

While there we also checked out the Beneteau sailboats, but while they gave us more boat length for the $$$, the interior felt less well made than the Catalina.  

So we ordered it.  New boats are generally made at the factory for each buyer, that meant making another 50 decisions or so.  We set ours up for sailing, and eliminated a lot of the electronic and electric gadgets... no $1000 radio or $500 12v microwave and definitely no TV (if we want to watch a move, we can take an iPad or laptop).  We did include features that we think would enhance the sailing experience - a spinnaker for light downwind sailing, an electric windlass for help with anchoring, and a full suite of navigation electronics and instruments.

Now we just have to wait for our ship to come in...