Adventures in boat shopping

I went with the Sea Ray 420 Sedan Bridge. 6CTA 450's with 900 hours. Very nice boat. Hoping the survey goes well Survey is on the 13th. If it fails survey it will be something not easily noticed. I spent a good hour crawling through every hatch and compartment I could fit into. Bilge and engine room could pass a white glove test. We have a surveyor and Cummins tech lined up for survey and sea trial.

The only thing it's missing is the aft bridge enclosure. The isinglass got foggy and the owner felt he didn't need the aft enclosure so only had the forward part replaced. I get to bust out the sewing machine. It's been a few years since I've done canvas work. Should be fun.

Maiden voyage will be Greenwich CT to Chesapeake Bay. Thinking about taking the East River/Hells Gate to NYC and do a little sight seeing then heading down to Cape May on the outside. NJICW would be fun, but it looks like there's not much water through most of it. If we get beat up too bad on the outside, might give it a shot. The depending on weather, either outside down to the Bay Bridge Tunnel and back up the Chesapeake to home base. Alterative would be round Cape May and head up the DE bay to the C&D canal and over to the Chesapeake which might be the most economical route.

I've seen his website. His tracks cover Norfolk to FL. Getting through NY doesn't look to difficult. I've done it on the outside, just never done the East River.

So the 420 deal is dead. Made an offer a week ago. Seller agreed, signed contract, found a new boat and signed contract on that one. This morning the broker calls. Seller canceled the contract on his new boat and the contract on this 420. So dewal is dead and we are still looking.

Might go look at a 44 Sedan Bridge this week. Nice boat, 2006 vs 2004 but at $335k more than what we wanted to spend. Just need to make sure this is our forever boat.

Standard contract through my buyers agent, who works for a prominent brokerage. It was by the book. Offer accepted, signed, deposit wired and boat and engine surveys scheduled. My broker said he would see what he can do, but I decided to move on. This seller is too flakey. Just glad he didn't pull this after spending money on a survey. I'm not sure what can be done. If the guy doesn't want to sell, best not to force the issue and move on. My gut tells me that he's been looking at similar listing and decided he can get more for the boat. I wouldn't be surprised to see the boat listed with a higher price in the next few days. He tried to shake me down for another 10K after I offered 1K over asking.

I really want to stick to a budget, but we want a boat we won't want to sell in 6 months. The budget is a moving target, but $300k is pretty much the upper limit. I'd prefer $250 or less. Market in this segment doesn't seem to be getting much softer.

This weeks contestants.....

1999 Eagle Trawler 40. Pretty nice boat but cazy high engine hours (7500) on a single BTA. Interior was nice with the classic trawler look and teak/holly floors. The interior is too compartmentalized for us. Seems like a collection small spaces. We prefer an open layout. Asking $215k. Not for us.

2008 Mainship 400. Single Yanmar with bow and stern thrusters. Nice looking boat outside. They had just cleaned the carpet and you couldn't tell. Carpet needs replacing. Also smelled a fairly strong diesel smell when entering the interior. Usually means fuel tanks in these boats. Asking $229k. Moving on.

2005 CS Power Cat 42. Twin Yanmar V Drives. Some leakage around windows, other wise really nice boat. Spotless interior. Recent paint, but needs a little touchup. Nice layout but we have big dogs and the ladders going down to the staterooms wouldn't work. Ladder to the flybridge was not ideal either. Prefer stairs to the flybridge. Asking $325. Moving on.

2002 Azimut 42 Flybridge. Cat 3126's. Terrible layout and bit of a project for the asking price. The hull has a vinyl wrap which makes a guy wonder what's going on under the wrap. Asking $249k. Moving on.

2006 Regal Commodore 3880. Yanmar V drives. Decent layout but no storage other than the guest cabin. Good boat for 2 people with minimal gear. Boat was kind of a turd. Looked like a few years of pretty serious neglect. Outdoor upholstery and isinglass not really even usable. Boat was on the hard getting detailed. Been on the market for a year. Owner is in CA. Boat is in Hampton VA. Asking $197k. Hard pass. Moving on.

2008 Sea Ray 44 Sedan Bridge. Cummins QSC500's. Boats is rough for the asking price. Sea Dek on all decks starting to peel and discolor. Filthy engine room. Stinky bilge. Exterior needs a comprehensive detail. Isinglass is rough. Hard wood floors are a little beat up and discolored from the sun. AC's working but not very cold. Boat lives in the water full time and it shows. No service records to speak of. Asking $349. Moving on.

2006 Sea Ray 44 Sedan Bridge. Cummins QSC500's. Nice boat. Spotless bilge. Clean engines. Clean interior. No odd smells inside the boat or bilge. Electronics 3 years old. Older KVH sat dome, but was told that Dish and DirectTV no longer support the older KVH domes. Bridge upholstery is usable but to be perfect, needs replacing. Some of it might clean up OK. Isinglass probably has one more season left. Minimal service records. Owner did most of the maintenance stuff himself, as would I. After coolers and heat exchangers were supposed to be serviced by previous owner 3-4 years ago but no records to back that up. Owner is aware that the engines could use a full major service, although claims they run fine and strong with no issues. Asking $334k. Made offer and didn't get the door slammed in my face. Waiting for a counter.

Scheduled next week if the above Sea Ray doesn't go anywhere...2004 Carver 444. Looks nice. Not crazy about the Volvo engines.

So asking on the 44 Sea Ray is 334k. I offered 290k. a couple days goes by and broker calls and says owner won't take less than 300k. OK, so counter at 300k. A day goes by and no counter, so we submit another offer at 300k. Broker calls today and says owner wants more than 300k but still no counter. So it appears we are moving on, but my agent says not go give up, buyer still may come around.

So we looked at a 2004 Carver 444 today. Very nice boat. The only thing I don't like is the Volvo engines. We have also kind of decided that we like the sedan bridge style better. Not off the list, but not high on the list.

Tomorrow we look at a 2000 Maxum 46 SCB and it appears that the 2007 391 Meridian might be back in play again. It seems the broker is now willing to co-broker. This broker has the Maxum also.

The Maxum and Meridian are dead, mostly because they are both listing by this odd ball broker. He will not accept nor present any offer to his seller that is submitted by another broker. We made an offer on the Meridian a few weeks ago. It was never presented to the buyer. The only thing I get from the broker is that sellers bottom line is $239k and I'm at $230. We are 9K apart and he won't present the numbers to the seller or accept an offer to that effect from my broker.

As a side note, the Maxim failed survey recently for soft stringers.

Yes. We walked away from this boat a few weeks ago because of this nonsense, then he called my broker to ask if we were still interested. My broker said, "Yes, but you have to go through me." They chatted a bit and it sounded like he was coming around so I paid him a visit in person. He wanted to give my broker a small finders fee and not give up any commission. His argument was that it was his listing and his customer and he didn't feel like another broker should get half of his commission. He also ******* at me for making a low ball offer. I don't think 230 on a 248 asking is a low ball. He thinks he can get asking and is holding out for that.

He even went of a little rant about how he has been reported to YachtWorld for not allowing co-broker on at least 25% of his listings. Didn't know that was a rule, but evidently YachtWorld frowns on brokers who don't allow co-brokering. I would be pretty pissed as a seller to know that offers are coming in and not being presented just because my listing broker is too greedy to share the commission. I would guess that this is not mentioned in his listing agreement. If it is, then it's on the owner for listing with this guy.