Yacht Purchase

For the past few months, a big project has been running in the background for us: finding our own long-distance cruising boat.

Buying a yacht is complex: there are not only countless different boat types, but the paperwork is also challenging. On top of that, the used-boat market is opaque. There are many shady characters and opportunists operating in it. Boat buying is by no means as tightly regulated as house buying. Besides, a house does not sink right away if it has a hidden defect.

For all these reasons, we brought in professional support: Johannes from ShoreCrew is advising us and guiding us through the whole process. He knows the yards, the typical weak points of the individual models, and above all the used market much better than we do. We know Johannes from Blauwasser.de, where he works as editor-in-chief. Johannes has already sailed halfway around the world, worked as a boat tester at Yacht.de, was marketing director at Sirius, and has written several books. And that is not even all of it. In short, he knows his stuff.

We told Johannes our budget, our requirements, and our “deal-breakers”, and he then put together a long list of candidates for us, around twenty catamarans and thirteen monohulls. Some of them are for sale in the Mediterranean, others, unfortunately, are listed for sale on the other side of the world and are therefore mainly to be understood by us as inspiration for a certain catamaran model.

Among the catamarans, our clear favorite is the Prout 45. We like the open living concept with the galley in the hull. That gives you a huge saloon without the feeling of living in a cave. The Prout design with its low bridge deck is also proven and seaworthy. Close behind are the Nautitech 40 Open, but probably out of reach price-wise, the Fountaine Pajot Belize 43, which we will soon be testing extensively in Greece, the Leopard 43, and the Privilège 435. Maybe we will also like a Leopard 39, which is currently for sale in Greece. We are happy to be surprised when we hopefully get to view one soon!

Among the monohulls, the Vilm 117 surprised us the most. Enclosed cockpit, great steps, and overall a very well thought-out cruising yacht; the big downside is the missing bathing platform, which would be a problem for our dog Charly. Our second option is the Nordship 40 DS: the helm station and winches are behind the cockpit, so Charly would not be in the way there, and with two separate living areas it offers an astonishing amount of space for a 40-foot boat.

One criterion runs through all the evaluations: Charly has to be able to manage the steps safely, without putting strain on his joints over time, and we need a way for him to get back on board from the water. Charly really is not the sporty daredevil type. Just as important to us is open, spacious living on deck, which is why catamarans and deck-saloon yachts regularly rank higher on our list than classic cockpit monohulls.

Once we have found suitable candidates, depending on location we will go and look at the yacht for the first time either alone or together with Johannes. If the boat is a hot contender for purchase, Johannes will inspect it thoroughly and prepare an expert report. If the boat passes the tests, we will negotiate the price with Johannes’ support. The listed prices, with only a few exceptions, are not what will actually be paid, because we are in luck: it is a buyer’s market right now.

During corona, everyone wanted to buy a yacht and the market was cleaned out; after that, boatbuilders ramped up their capacity. Now the market is flooded with those boats. According to Boat24, sales figures in some months are down by more than 40 percent compared with the previous year, listings remain online much longer than they used to on average (from around 34 to over 50 days), and almost every second seller now has to lower their price, on average by around 15 percent.

Bad boats are hardly finding buyers anymore. Good boats still command high prices. But today you no longer have to buy such a boat unseen, you can take your time and inspect it properly, and if there are defects, insist on a price reduction. So it is much more relaxed than it was a few years ago.

That relaxed starting point is exactly what gives us confidence that, with Johannes’ help, we will find a boat that really suits us relatively quickly, without having to make compromises. If we’re lucky, as early as spring.

*This blog post has been automatically translated by a Large Language Model.