October 28th 2016
After months of searching, looking at boats and visiting brokers we’ve finally bought a boat! It’s a Dufour 31 from 1977 and she is wonderful!
Funny thing is that we already knew that we were in love with this boat the minute we set foot aboard. But it took a bit more than that to finally come to this decision.
Buying a boat is no sinecure. It takes an enormous amount of research, visiting brokers, looking at boats, and lots and lots of comparison.
Depending on your budget and general wishes, in the Netherlands you will get approx. 500 hits for entering sailboat and a certain price range on an average website offering boats for sale. 500 different boats, from different brands with different specifics. Definitely a lot to choose from, and if you’re a newbie in the wonderful world of boats (as we are) you don’t know the difference between a Beneteau, a Hallberg Rassy and a Bavaria (errr…isn’t that a brand of beer?).
And what to look for in a boat? How you’re going to use the boat is quite important in the decision making process. Do you want to race, to play around on inland waterways, cruise the oceans or liveaboard? And then there are so many brands, some are specifically built to race, others to cruise and each brand has so many models that might serve different uses as well, that you can’t see the forest for the trees. There is some useful information to be found on the internet to point you in the right direction, but in the end it mainly comes down to budget and taste.
Apart form browsing the internet, you could also ask people with first-hand experience what they would consider a good choice. Some then say that you must have a Hallberg Rassy. They’re so sturdy, compared to them other boats are so flimsy they will disintegrate once you hoist your sail. Other people swear by a Westerly or a Contest (mainly because they can’t afford a Hallberg Rassy). There is also lots of advise on what you shouldn’t buy, asked or unasked. Apparently Hanse boats have such long masts that they are top-heavy and will topple over. Benetaus are only built to look good for drinking rose in the cockpit, but the bulkheads will break free from the hull on open sea. And Bavarias are the worst: don’t bother leaving the marina, because it will sink the minute you untie the mooring lines.
So many people, so many opinions. Just as Bavarias are burned to the ground by critics, you can find movies on youtube of people sailing happily with 7 beaufort or crossing the Atlantic in a Bavaria single handed (on their own), and posts about delaminated Hallberg Rassies (delamination is a severe state of osmosis, which basically means that the epoxy hull is coming apart). In the end the truth is in the eye of the beholder. Apparently comparing brands doesn’t give you an decisive answer.
So let’s look beyond the brands, what are the features you are looking for in a boat? Size is something to consider of course, but what about type and capacity of the engine? Do you prefer polyester, wood or steel? What’s the draft, water displacement and the capacity of fuel and water tanks? Should we go for a steering wheel or tiller? Is a sail drive necessary, and last but certainly not least, what about the looks and layout of the interior?
When you start your search and you’ve never owned a sailboat before, you really have no clue which features are important. So based on assumptions, advise from different sources and gut feelings you create a list with specifics you’d like the boat to have. And then you compare that list to the specs of the boats of your search result.
Chances are when you disregard all the boats that don’t match your preferences, you’re left with approx. 30 boats to choose from. Still quite a lot. But since we were looking for a sailboat to travel with and live on it narrowed down our choices quite a bit more.
An image on a screen only says so much, thus our next step was to get in the car and drive to the various marinas to survey the boats in real life. And that meant hours and hours in a car, kilometre after kilometre to remote townships you didn’t even knew existed. You find yourself wandering over docks and climbing on wobbly ladders to survey the carefully selected boats. Well, survey…It’s hard to look for possible defects if you don’t know what defects look like, or what even a possible defect could be. And some red flags we know we should be heeding are not directly visible, like osmosis if the boat is in the water, or how the engine runs if she’s on the hard. So after the first surveys it was back to the great hive mind to find out how to look for signs that your dreamboat might be pig in a poke.
One thing we soon came to realise during the first surveys, is that standing height is probably the most important aspect if you want to spend a prolonged time inside a boat. Secondly the sleeping area, often the forward cabin, should be big enough to comfortably sleep in for the two of us (and of course our cat Captain Fluffy who doesn’t like to sleep alone). Thirdly, the sitting area and table need to be spacious enough for both of us to work at. And we need space for Captain Fluffy’s litter box.
All and all we had a lot of other major and minor wishes to add to our wish list after our first surveys.
We looked at boats that needed work, boats above our price range, boats that had just one of the major elements on our wish list to compare and come to a thought-out decision. Chances are you probably won’t find the perfect boat, especially if you’re dealing with a tight budget like we were. Along the way we learned that some wishes were more important than others and some were downright unrealistic. But the most decisive element is the feeling you’ll get when you enter the boat for the first time. Some boats had it all on paper and looked spectacular on photographs, but felt cramped, were totally impractical to move around in or smelled really bad (later on we learned that such a foul vinegary smell might be an indicator of severe osmosis). Or some just didn’t feel good, without any specific reason. Just like with people, with some boats you just don’t have a connection.
We’ve spent months looking for the right boat. Based on our wish list, our budget and our gut feeling we made the final decision. It didn’t have an oven, which was one of our major wishes. It needed quite some work like new electronic equipment and wires, new trough-holes, new upholstery and new sails to name but a few. And it was on the small side for a liveaboard vessel. A lot of reason for doubt, therefore we’ve surveyed the boat 3 times before we decided to buy her. But in spite of all the disadvantages we steadily grew more fond of her, and she seemed to look more warm and happy with each visit.
So in the end we choose this boat. It just felt good.
So here we are, proud owners of a 31ft. sailboat, named ‘De Kim’ which means horizon in Dutch. A very promising name.