Sad Commentarty
Aprilr 28, 2000
By Tom

Well, the boat is safe in the slip at its new home (Fort Washington). This is the only boat I have ever bought that required things like mortgages and surveyors, so I cannot be certain and at the risk of sounding rather crude, I will say that it is my opinion that the entire boat buying process "sucks ass".

Every conceivable problem that could be had, was. Let's see, where to start.....

I first saw this particular boat on the market over a year before I actually called about it. When I finally did call, I left a message for the listing broker and she called me back, two weeks later. Ok, no problem, what ever. From the first conversations with the broker however, I got the impression that something was wrong. She made me feel like I was bothering her or somehow wasting her time. (Much later I found out that selling a boat in this price range was beneath her and she had only listed the boat as a favor). After listening to her description and reviewing the packet of information she faxed out to me, we decided to go ahead and look at the boat as it was right in our back yard here in D.C.

Well, perhaps it was my ignorance, but I assumed that the broker would come out and show us the boat. Apparently thats not the way it works. This broker gave me the number of the owner and suggested that I call and arrange an appointment with the owner as she was going to be busy for the next several weeks with other clients.

Ok, again - what ever. We went out and met the owner, who had not thought to pick up before our arrival. He met us half an hour late three sheets to the wind (5:30 pm on a Tuesday) and did not exactly make a good first impression. The seller had been living aboard the boat for four years. Taken by itself that isn't necessarily a bad thing, but when coupled with his apparent inability to clean, it amounted to a boat that looked more like a floating garbage scow than a sailing vessel.

We tried to make ourselves look beyond the mess and to atleast determine if we liked the style of the boat model. We went away from the encounter laughing about how bad the boat had looked. When the broker called me back later that week to find out if we had gone to look at the boat or not, I commented on the sad state of the boat, and suggested that perhaps that might be the reason the boat had been on the market for so long. When I told her we were going to continue our search and that we had arranged to head South to look at other boats, I could almost hear her eyes spin little dollar signs right through the phone. She asked us if we would like her to use here "professional resources" to look elsewhere on our behalf. We told her no that we could do it ourselves and we didn't want to take up any of her precious time.

We continued searching, looking at several other boats. About a week later we got a call back from the broker and she said the owner was desperate to sell and would reduce the price by $10k. I wanted to tell her he could reduce the price to 10k and I still wouldn't give either of them the time of day, but fortunately Amy has a cooler temper than myself.

Back we went to look a second time on another self made appointment(no help from the broker) and we gave a more considered look to this vessel. To the owner's credit, this time he had picked the dirty underwear off the floor and he appeared to be sober as well.

It was about this point in time that the owner started telling us of his sailing exploits in this vessel. Up here, over there, across that twice and back were just a few of the feats of this master sailor. While we took all of his stories with a grain of salt, we had assumed that he had atleast sailed the boat. Well, thats what we thought until the survey anyway.

After the second look, we began to gather more information on the OutIsland 41's. We knew the one we were looking at was is poor running shape, but in relatively good structural condition. Also In the boats favor was a brand new 100hp Perkins Diesel with only 55 hours on it. Apparently the owner had blown the original engine and tranny bringing the boat up the Potomac river 12 miles. Fortunately, we were able to verify through a reputable shop that they had in fact been the contractors to replace said engine and tranny.

Anyway, we slowly came around to the idea of this being our boat. The only offer we were willing to make on this boat would come in well under what we had originally budgeted for our boat search, and the excess would hopefully be enough to see a complete refit through. We also both likes the idea of becoming intamately familiar with the onboard systems during the rebuild. Together Amy and I decided to move forward, submit and offer, and upon acceptance, have the boat pulled for survey.

What a fiasco the process became at this point. Just hitting the highlight of the surveying process: we had to schedule the surveyor three times, the haul out twice, wait one extra day when the travel lift broke with the boat in the sling and then wait 2 weeks for the surveyor's report when he knew we had a one week time limit on the contract. Do I sound bitter ?

Getting back to the previous owners stories. After pulling the boat and going over it with the surveyor over the course of 6 hours or so, it came time for a sea trial. Back in the water we went and out into the channel. We turned up into the wind and prepared to lift the main and mizzen. I say prepared, because once we got out there and actually tried to raise the sails, it became apparent that something was wrong. After about 20 minuets of deliberation between myself and the surveyor, we came to the concensus that the main boom and the mizzen boom were on upside down. Further inspection led us to the conclusion that the last time the boat had actually sailed was 1995. Oh well, I shouldn't be surprised.

In the end, the condition of the boat was such that we reduced our offer another $10k and said take it or leave it, thinking it was time to start looking again. Imagine our surprise when the owner called us back ten minutes after we made our final offer and accepted. Oh, I did finally get to meet the broker in real life. She showed up about half way through the survey and somehow managed to get me to pay for her lunch. (Still trying to figure that one out).

So here we are. We have a new(old) boat that needs a mountain of repairs. In the end, the only thing I can say I took away from the experience was an idea of what a sorry state the marine industry is in. I think I will start a list of all the marine related companies that I will never use or recommend.