By Mongo Torr
If you are interested in buying your own sailing boat or yacht and cannot really afford the price tag on a new one, then if you have a lot of time to spare rebuilding an old boat might be a much better decision. There are pitfalls however and here are some of them, writing them all down could fill a book! These are just the major Gotchas.
Firstly have a plan before you even set out to buy. Are you renovating the boat for yourself (time no object, could take years) or for resale (time 3 months max maybe)
Consider how are you going to do the restoration in order to set aside enough budget for its completion since it is very likely that you'll need to buy some parts, materials, and hire a space for you to work. Maybe you will need specialist labour for some parts of the job especially if it is a big sailing boat.
Don't forget that you may need a good clean working environment while doing the restoration and for a big boat it could possibly be challenging if you have to travel far.
Look at the different aspects of the boat yourself, rate it on its seaworthiness and visual appeal. Remember if you're doing it for your own personal use and you do not really care about the overall look then practically how it performs on water is a higher priority as opposed to making it look great and magnificent. If you are looking for resale then it may well be the other way around! Many fabulous gin palaces never leave harbour.
Before you buy check the boat out - DO get a professional marine survey done even if it costs a few hundred dollars it could save you thousands, the result can be used to argue the price down if its bad, if its good then grumble but keep it to yourself! Make CERTAIN the seller does actually have legal title to the boat especially if its a really good deal. Dont just take the receipts and run, ring the person he bought it from and check them out. Get the seller to sign a waiver saying that the boat is not held as security on a loan or partly owned by somebody else.
The truth is, expect you'll take some hard work in locating the various parts for the old boat and there are many means you can find what you are searching for for instance by posting in your regional publication, asking around, looking on Ebay and so on. Sometimes lumber for older boats such as mahogany is prohibitively expensive unless you buy an even scrappier donor boat.
Even the best made plans go wrong. Allow a contingency in both money and time, I would suggest 20% in money and 80% in time. Many things will take longer than you think!
If you use a carpenter try to use a good house carpenter especially on the boat interior rather than a specialist shipwright since they will be about half the price!
Learn more about sailing boats for sale.
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