We Bought a Boat!!

We have finally closed on Kanaloa.  Our beautiful 38' Beneteau who will take us around the world and beyond.  We wanted to share with you our boat buying process, including some sites, how we found her, and the costs to purchase her and refit her.  Hope this helps inspire any of you other dreamers out there...

Our Criteria:  Although new to this process, we knew we wanted certain things in a boat.
          1.  The first being, a blue water vessel.
          2.  Under $70,000 (we did not want to take out a boat loan)
          3.  Monohull (many reasons, but also Catamarans were just not in our price range)
          4.  Length between 37' and 42'

The blue water requirement is pretty self explanatory, and the under $70,000 requirement would just allow us to leave sooner and have enough money to refit her to circumnavigate.  The length comes from our comfortability with handling a boat larger than 42' as well as living on a boat smaller than 37'.

So, we started our search from there.  We went to blogs upon blogs of people who were sailing and took note of what type of boat they were doing it on.  The following websites also provided a wealth of information for comparison:

Yacht World - fantastic resource.  I set it up to alert me when boats within my criteria came up and this is how we were able to jump on our boat (more of this below).
Boat Trader - another resource if in the US, but I found the boats to be overpriced.  Personal opinion.
Cruising World - article on best boats to sail around the world.
Boat Dealerships - we are fortunate enough to live about 30 minutes from Annapolis, MD which has a wealth of boats.  We wanted to get on some, feel the difference between a 36 foot and a 42 foot.

After a few weeks of searching and research, we had decided on Beneteau or Jenneau.  Jenneau actually went under a few years back and the French government had Beneteau take them over, so that is why they were both in the running.

From here, we went to a boat dealership in Annapolis and climbed on some 38', 39', and 40's.  To be honest, I could not tell a difference when I was on one or the other, so I knew we could stick with our length parameters.  Now, onto price.  We found one we loved in Annapolis, a 39' Beneteau...she was a beauty.  As soon as we walked on her we were in love.  She was having a new mast put on and was ready to sail.  When we left the boatyard that day, I would have given my left arm to be able to buy her...but at a "bargain" price (according to the dealer) of $115,000, we would have to work for another 6 months and then be left with nothing to refit.  So, we had to let her go.

I began thinking that there has to be other places to buy a boat, and that is when I looked to yachtworld.com.  The US is expensive when it comes to buying a boat.  In Croatia, you can get 100 Beneteau 40's for $60,000.  Now, these are used to charter, and when done chartering they sell them.  I was not comfortable with taking a former charter boat around the world due to high engine use and wear and tear on everything else that comes with a 100% charter.  So, we began focusing our search on the east coast of the US and the Islands.  I was able to set up an alert on yachtworld and every week it would send me an email with the new boats posted that were within my parameters (Beneteau or Jenneau between 37 and 42' and under $80,000).  Week after week I would get boats that were great, but there was something about it that would ultimately push us over our budget.  We never lost hope, but began to wonder if we were going to need to go up in price or change something else....

Then, one day, my weekly email came with one boat in it.  She had just been posted that morning and we knew that this was our boat.  Her name was Kanaloa and she was a gorgeous 38' Beneteau in St Maarten.  Her owner managed a boat yard down there and had done many upgrades to her in his years of ownership.  He had to go back to the UK where he was from, and because of that, the boat was priced to sell.  She had a water maker already installed, which we had priced out between $8 and $10k.  She had 9 solar panels, a wind generator, new rigging, a new dinghy and outboard motor, a rebuilt engine with only 256 hours on it, and had been loved her whole life.  This boat, which was even better than the Annapolis boat to us, was $49,900.  We knew we had to jump on it.  We called that morning and put down a 20% deposit pending survey.  Our offer of $49,000 was accepted, and on August 15th, Kanaloa joined our family.

Yes, we bought her without seeing her.  Yes, this gave me a few panic attacks along the way, but every day I feel a little better.  She is out of the water (on the hard for you sailors) for hurricane season until we come down at the end of Nov.  In the meantime we are getting a ton of work done on her so she is ready to go when we get down there.

One of the main things we wanted to know when starting this journey was, how much did others spend on their boat and how much did it cost to get "stuff" done to it.  This information is not easy to find, so I figure while it is all fresh in my brain, I will share it with you guys.  Mainly because we want to inspire others to get out there and do this and let you know that once you make the decision to do it, it really is possible.  The pricing is below and could be lower if you did the work yourself.  However, we wanted the boat to be as "homey" as possible for my girls upon our arrival.  We did not want it to be trashed upon our arrival and they get totally discouraged from the start...so that is why we are having someone else do the work initially.

Boat:  Listed for $49,900, purchased for $49,000 (no taxes in St Maarten :) )
Closing/Registration/Flagging costs:  $400
Deep Cleaning of Boat:  $260
Spraying for bugs (preventative): $275
Deep Cleaning of Cushions and Cushion Covers: $370
New Teak Flooring inside the Galley:  $1,000
New Offshore Headsail and Main sail (old sails have 2 years left so we will use as spares): $5500
Engine maintenance to address Surveyor finds: $270

I hope this helps anyone else who is thinking of purchasing a boat, in the boat buying process right now...or even just you dreamers who are putting your feelers out there.

Please feel free to email us with ANY and ALL questions you have.  We will answer, as well as have a Q&A session via video soon.

Love,
Renn, Rob, Elle, Berkeley