How far would you go . . .?

[Golfman25]

. . . To buy a boat. I have pretty much tapped out of my current market (southern lake Michigan). Pickings are slim. Boats available are either way overpriced or in questionable condition (or a combo of both). The interweb searches show boats on larger inland lakes and rivers which seem in good condition and priced much better.

So how far would you go? 2 hours, 4 hours, 6 hours, 8+?

 

[JPGator]

That’s a subjective question for sure but I drove 4 hours to pick up the boat then 3 days on the water to bring it back.

Well worth it for us even though there were plenty of boats more local.

 

[Stee6043]

I'm in West Michigan. I bought my first Sea Ray from Port Clinton, Ohio. That was roughly a 4-5 hour drive one way. I bought my current boat from Sturgeon Bay, WI . That drive was 7 hours one way.

Each time I made multiple trips before buying. Lots of time to contemplate the meaning of life and boat ownership.

Wayyyyy back in the day I drove from West Michigan to Sioux City, Iowa to buy a 24' Baja I found on eBay. At the time it was my absolute dream boat. There and back, same day, with my dad as copilot in a Chevy Tahoe I borrowed from a friend that had breaks that were 50,000 miles past needing to be replaced. Man we laughed a lot...and drank a lot of terrible coffee. Now that....that was a great road trip.

No distance is too far to find that perfect boat....unless it's salt water of course!

 

[markhpc]

I've been getting the feeling there are a lot of overpriced and questionable boats out there everywhere right now. Maybe the coasts are better. I've read that between hurricane damage and foreign buyers the pickings are a lot slimer than they used to be. Hard to say. In any event I don't think you are alone in that feeling.

 

[JPGator]

Personally speaking when we bought our ‘07 we first looked down in Miami as there were quite a few boats. We quickly encountered sales people who knew conveniently little about the boats they were selling, the boats had multiple owners or had lots of accessories or hours. A cursory look revealed rats nest with electrical, dirty engines bays and lots of thru hull lighting. It simply wasn’t worth it. The one incredible sales guy we used helped us find something on the west coast where ownership was less questionable. It boiled down to buying the tuner street racer or the boring sedan that drove to the store and back.

 

[Todd320]

I flew to Panama City beach, then drove the boat home across the gulf back to St. Petersburg. Ended up taking 8 days! Sat an 2 hours away from home due to a bent prop.

 

[markhpc]

For you guys that traveled significantly before you found your boats, how did you make the determination when it was worth actually traveling to look at something? Given the condition of many of the local boats here and the willful ignorance of some (not all) of the brokers, I'd be really worried about verifying the condition remotely.

 

[KevinC]

We were prepared to look on the whole east coast. Fortunately we found one locally. Even though the drive dock to dock was maybe 1/2 hour by car I had to bring her around LI by going to NYC for about a 4 hour ride. I considered it a good shake down cruise.

The right boat may be next door or a thousand miles away. Just take all costs into consideration. While I paid a little more locally I saved a lot of other expenses by not visiting boats out of state and then having to bring a boat in from a distance.

-Kevin

 

[JPGator]

For you guys that traveled significantly before you found your boats, how did you make the determination when it was worth actually traveling to look at something? Given the condition of many of the local boats here and the willful ignorance of some (not all) of the brokers, I'd be really worried about verifying the condition remotely.

It’s a bit of a judgement call but we developed a relationship with our broker. We drove south to look at his inventory but decided against buying. Regardless he spent a considerable amount of time explaining all the pitfalls of this type of purchase so when we expanded our search area he helped review every listing. When a solid listing finally manifested we put in an offer sight unseen. The deposit was refundable so there was no worry of losing any money. This provided time to get to the boat to take a look and it all worked out.

 

[Gofirstclass]

We live in SE Washington state and found our boat in Harrison Twp on Lake St. Clair. Found her on Yachtworld and after 2 months of phone calls with the broker (no discussions of price at that point) I flew back to Detroit to look at her, have 2 surveys done, and do a sea trial.

Good survey results and another month or so of phone calls to come to terms on price and my wife and I flew back to Detroit so she could see the boat.

I cautioned her to be real nonchalant about it, don't smile, frown a lot and act disinterested. She blew that within the first 20 seconds with an ear to ear grin. Fortunately we'd already agreed on price or the negotiations would have likely started all over again.

We already had a shipper lined up, they disassembled the boat for shipping and she was on her way to Portland, OR to be reassembled.

It was worth it. Here she is 9 years later in her new home on the Columbia.

 

[JVM225]

For you guys that traveled significantly before you found your boats, how did you make the determination when it was worth actually traveling to look at something? Given the condition of many of the local boats here and the willful ignorance of some (not all) of the brokers, I'd be really worried about verifying the condition remotely.

I started out willing to look anywhere on the East Coast and made several trips, some of which were about 8 or so hour drive away. I became increasingly unwilling to drive any great distance to see the “cleanest one on the market” because they usually were not what they were represented to be.
My advice is to narrow it down to a model and year range, become as familiar as possible with that model, learn the questions to ask about that particular boat, and ask for lots of pictures of specific items and areas based on what you learned about the model.
If it’s a Sea Ray, you’ll get all the info you need here.
I wound up buying a boat that was about a 2 1/2 hour drive away through a salesperson I had become familiar with. He knew exactly what I would be asking and the pictures I would want and he got them all for me. Once satisfied, I made the trio and did a personal inspection, then arranged for a surveyor, closed on the boat and brought it home on it’s own bottom which was on'y about a 6 1/2 hour trip.
It can be a frustrating process and it may take longer than you think at times because you could very well have to kiss a couple of pigs before you find the right boat.
But the right boat is out there.
Make the most of the search and have a good time with it.

 

[JVM225]

We live in SE Washington state and found our boat in Harrison Twp on Lake St. Clair. Found her on Yachtworld and after 2 months of phone calls with the broker (no discussions of price at that point) I flew back to Detroit to look at her, have 2 surveys done, and do a sea trial.

Good survey results and another month or so of phone calls to come to terms on price and my wife and I flew back to Detroit so she could see the boat.

I cautioned her to be real nonchalant about it, don't smile, frown a lot and act disinterested. She blew that within the first 20 seconds with an ear to ear grin. Fortunately we'd already agreed on price or the negotiations would have likely started all over again.

We already had a shipper lined up, they disassembled the boat for shipping and she was on her way to Portland, OR to be reassembled.

It was worth it. Here she is 9 years later in her new home on the Columbia.

Geez.....what I wouldn’t give for a covered slip. Your boat is gorgeous!

 

[330DA]

Golfman25,
I am in southern Lake MI too. I drove to Sturgeon Bay, WI for 2 boats (370 and 310). That was 4:30-5 hours. It’s crazy, bought from the same Sea Ray dealer.

I asked for as many pictures as I could get. Spoke to the salesperson to be comfortable with all of my questions before I made the drive. The second boat was found on Craigslist, so I spoke to the owner and got a feel for the boat and how he took care of it.

They have a shorter season up north, so lowers hours possibly.

What are you looking for?

 

[Nick70]

I am in Boston. First boat was from SC. Second from Indiana.
Cost some money getting them shipped, but they were the right vessels.
Now maybe a third, from Maryland.

 

[MiLoII]

When I purchased my current boat, '05 320 Sundancer I was not in the market per se for a 320 and was initially looking at 30 foot boats. I had previously owned a 30 foot Doral, which I liked but knew the drawbacks of a boat of that weight and size on Lake Michigan but decided I could live with that based on my budget and could likely get a newer 30 footer than what I could afford in a larger boat. I live in Northwest Indiana and so my closest markets are Chicago, Indiana and Southwest Michigan. I began my search initially extensively online and then started looking at boats in the area. I had decided I wanted a Searay or something of comparable quality so I made an appointment to view a 300 Dancer, maybe it was a 07 or 08. As I was about a block away the broker called me and said he was at the boat and it was in much rougher shape than the owner led him to believe or that he recalled and he wasn't sure I really wanted to look at that boat but that he also had a 320 in the same yard if I was interested (likely a bait and switch) but having driven an hour already I said sure I'll look at both. Sure enough the 300 was rough for its age, more than well used and under cared for.
BUT, what happened is I fell in love with the 320, the extra beam, layout everything and then that's the model I had to have. So I made a contingent offer price appropriate based on my impressions of the boat and the seller accepted. I hired a reputable honest surveyor and the overall rating came out as fair and my lender said no go, had to good or better condition. So I tried to work with seller broker to have the seller make the corrections (around 5k) to meet the lender requirements and I would adjust my offer price accordingly. There really wasnt anything in the survey that I didn't already know, i.e. new canvas etc. We couldn't come to terms so I ended bailing and continued to look locally at brokers etc but couldn't find what I wanted. So I expanded my search except for west coast. I made a spreadsheet to consider all factors, condition, location, hours, asking price, estimated travel cost, survey costs, estimated shipping etc. Long story short I live in Indiana and bought my boat in Texas. It was the right boat for me at the time (still happy) given all factors and costs. So I recommend if you are going to look outside your immediate area make sure you are factoring all travel and shipping costs into your consideration as well as additional restorative potential maintenance cost if you purchase a salty.

 

[Golfman25]

Golfman25,
I am in southern Lake MI too. I drove to Sturgeon Bay, WI for 2 boats (370 and 310). That was 4:30-5 hours. It’s crazy, bought from the same Sea Ray dealer.

I asked for as many pictures as I could get. Spoke to the salesperson to be comfortable with all of my questions before I made the drive. The second boat was found on Craigslist, so I spoke to the owner and got a feel for the boat and how he took care of it.

They have a shorter season up north, so lowers hours possibly.

What are you looking for?

Yeah. I bot my first boat from Holland, MI. Drove it down and around after we closed. I had a little more time back then. Wasn't too bad.

Looked at several between the 310 and 370 sundancer. She likes the 370 but agrees with me that its "too big" (as if that could even be an issue). I think I (we) have finally (at least today) settled on the 330/340 sundancer. The admiral is tough to please and I think these give us the best combo of size and features. I struggle between waiting for something close and going thru the hassle of a longer distance purchase.

 

[GnrlPatton]

I live in the Seattle area, and knew exactly what I wanted - 370EC with Diesels, a hard top and the L-shaped lounge seat in the cockpit. Daily scans (OK, 2x-3x per day scans ) of Yachtworld took me about 18 months until one showed up. I immediately put an offer on it, subject to a visual inspection by me as well as a full survey and sea trial. We came to an agreement on price after just 2 rounds, and I found a surveyor in the Baltimore, MD area where it was located. I paid him to go do a cursory look at the boat to make sure it was as clean and well-maintained as described. He spent about an hour on it and reported back that it was very clean and that I needed to jump on it.

I booked my tickets and made a long 4 day weekend of it, full survey and sea trial over 2 days, and then a day in DC sight-seeing. I would definitely do it again, but it helped that I knew exactly what I wanted.

The only challenging part was the shipping, I selected a less than reliable company and had a few nightmares getting it here. It cost me $14k to get it all the way across country, but it was still less than another one that I found here that didn't have the hard top or lounge seat.

Hope that helps, and good luck with your search!
Kevin

 

[ROTYDE]

Found mine on a 2 hour and 30 min car ride away from home on Kentucky lake. Took me 11 hours @ cruise speed between 20 and 25 mph to cover 165 miles on the Tennessee river locking through 2 dams. And 1 stop for fuel.

 

[BOB TYSON]

All who have boat shopped realize it's an education, albeit a fun one. It boils down to time. Often, the shorter your time line the larger the compromise. That said, during my "education" I changed brand, size, models, several times.
Don't forget about "FaceTime". I learned to have sellers take me through their boat via FaceTime and focus on areas that I knew could be problematic, avoiding an expensive and often dissapointing trip. Stay tuned to this site. I ended up buying from a contact on this site. I paid top dollar but I feel like I bought a better boat. In addition the previous owner helped me become knowledgable about the systems. Enjoy!

 

[Todd320]

All who have boat shopped realize it's an education, albeit a fun one. It boils down to time. Often, the shorter your time line the larger the compromise. That said, during my "education" I changed brand, size, models, several times.
Don't forget about "FaceTime". I learned to have sellers take me through their boat via FaceTime and focus on areas that I knew could be problematic, avoiding an expensive and often dissapointing trip. Stay tuned to this site. I ended up buying from a contact on this site. I paid top dollar but I feel like I bought a better boat. In addition the previous owner helped me become knowledgable about the systems. Enjoy!

I did this, but be sure to ask the seller/broker to put the boat in the water or on a work rack. He tried to FaceTime me with the boat in the barn, hardly any natural light, and the canvas still on.