NEWS & UPDATES

HOW NOT TO BUY A BOAT

August 20 2020

Greetings Tax dodgers
After two years of research, 18months of searching, and several false starts, we finally found a boat that is suitable for our needs and wants.  However, I digress, firstly let me point out my five unbreakable rules for purchasing our preferred blue water yacht.
# Authors disclaimer these are my rules based on nothing but personal preference and beliefs. I follow the sailing forums,  I know these rules are controversial, and I also know you can sail around the world in anything you want.   Shit people have crossed oceans in bathtubs, kayaks and canoes. With the correct planning and sensible sailing, a new keel fin lightweight modern production yacht with a spade rudder is capable. Having said that I do question the comfort and risk profile.   I personally wonder their ability to heave to and importantly lay a hull in stormy confused sea states and the higher risk profile a non-protected bolted-on fin keel and exposed rudder yacht is exposed to. Keeping in mind Luna is not doing a single circumnavigation but ten years of remote sailing. Now before anyone writes to call me a knob and tell me all the reasons Im wrong.  Let me remind you I started  this diatribe by stating  that its all about personal opinion.  Its all about what floats your boat and what risk profile your happy with.  But then again there may be that bloody sunfish sleeping on the surface just waiting to ruin your day.
So here are Moppa's Rules for  buying a Bluewater yacht
Rule 1:  A  blue water yacht must have a full, 3 quarter of half, fully encapsulated keel.
Rule 2:  It must be a centre cockpit
Rule 3: It must have a keel hung or at least a full-length skeg hung rudder
Rule 4: You must personally inspect the boat
Rule 5:  You always get a professional survey done and attend the survey to observe and ask questions
It's not that complicated
Soooo did we break any of the 5 rules? Yes, we did, because of strict border restrictions and the lack of the kind of boat that we wanted in Australia,  we had to buy a boat sight unseen.
We had to forgo the centre cockpit because we just could not find a boat that met all our criteria in a reasonable knick. As I often hear, people say there is no such thing as a perfect boat, and our experience supports this. We learned buying a boat is all about compromise. I think this is more so when looking for a liveaboard, that will be you're home for the next ten years as you take the long way sailing around the world than say buying a yacht to sail around the cans on the weekend.
So Tax dodgers we now commence the dreaded refit.  This should be fun to watch as two nobs with bugger all trade skills refit a 30-year-old yacht that recently completed its previous owners own 10-year journey around the third rock from the sun.