CHOOSING THE BOAT
THAT BEST SUITS YOU
By Bert W. Quay, AMS #204 ©2001
One distinct and likely possibility is that the boat you think will suit you best will be an absolutely miserable creation. That's about as tough a message as anybody should have to deliver. But people make horrendously stupid and expensive mistakes about what they want in a boat every day. In fact, bad choice is the norm. Most boat choices are mistakes. Very few people know enough about both their true needs and boats to be able to match the two up for a satisfactory, practical choice. The universal judgement of experienced skippers is that each boat they buy is better for them than any of the previous ones, no matter how different the boats are from each other. So clearly, experience with owning boats is the best teacher about choosing what will work best for you. And the best that we can do here is for me to offer you the benefit of my experience owning a variety of boats and my 20 year perspective from 200 skippers a year who are selling their boats when I survey them for the new owner.
Picking a boat is something that you get to do for yourself. In fact, it's something that you have to do for yourself. Even if somebody did try to pick it for you -as brokers, surveyors, and a lot of acquaitences will- you probably aren't going to pay much attention to their opinions. Because you don't want to own the boat that suits somebody else best. You want the one that suits you best. Which means you get all the fun as well as the frustration of choosing.
Rather than telling you flat out what to buy, this section will offer you some factors to consider that experience has shown will have an important impact on your ultimate satisfaction with your choice.
Learning about and thinking through what features you want aboard is one of the great joys of shopping for the next boat. Once you get a list -either on paper, or in your mind- of what you want, the anticipation really builds. Because the next step is to try to go find all, most, or enough of the features in an actual, "fir reel" boat.
The days of wooden construction when every boat was a custom design that would meet you desires are gone. Now, your choices are essentially among the variety of stock, manufactured boats, none of which will incorporate your concepts exactly or completely.
Olin J. Stephens, II --the premier American yacht designer of the 20th century-- observed about our current era of mass-produced boats,
"The biggest influence has been what the builder (entrepreneur) and the designer (adviser) think will sell. What will appeal to the widest possible audience of potential buyers. . . Behind most standardized boats is the wish to please the whole family at dockside rather than on open water."
Our tendency when we look for at a boat is to stand in the cockpit and see if it is maximized. Then we go to the interior and judge if it is maximized, forgetting that the cockpit competes with the interior for a share of the space. We look through the interior to see if it has maximized ammenties and equipment. And we check engine room, where we want the maximum of working space, and are surprised that it is full of tanks and mechanical equipment for the accommodation luxuries. Then we go to the helm station and evaluate how it approaches the maximum, again forgeting that it depends on the arrangement of everything else. And finally, we go to the foredeck, hoping that it is the max foredeck for anchor and sail handling and maybe dinghy storage.
A boat is very different from a house. You can't just add on here and there, or convert the attic and basement into a playroom. Laying out a boat is an exercise in precise spatial engineering. All boats are rectangles with at least one pointed end, ususally between 3 and 4 times longer than their width. As people have demanded more space and more luxuries, boats have gone from single level layouts to "split-level" arrangements, then two or even 2 1/2 story accommodations, so that on mis-conceived motoryachts and trawlers, the height of the superstructure is significantly greater than the beam.
Today, inexperienced buyers want way too much house in their boat. They can't see any reason not to demand way too much of condo sorts of things out of the boats they really intend to use as weekend and vacation resorts. If a houseboat is what works best for you, then get one. It's mostly house and very little boat. And nobody will slight you for striking your compromise that way.
The primary conflict for the weekend and vacation stay-aboard owner is between the boat part and the house part of their resort property. THE RULE IS: Boat and House vary in inverse proportion to each other. So that a whole lot of House features leads to very little Boat characteristics.
I know that this is America, and You Want It All. But a boat is a finite space, which means that every desirable characteristic competes for space with every other feature. And eventually, your boating budget will become finite, even if you don't quite know exactly what it is during the looking process. You can only get so much House and/or Boat for a fixed amount of money. The bottom line is that money buys space and equipment. There is only so much money, so there is only so much space, and therefore only so much equipment.
As long as all you expect is for the boat to float the house, the designer's and builder's challenge is not too great. But if you add in that you want the boat-house to go through rough water at 20 knots and stay together, then you've greatly complicated the problem. Because speed changes everything. And reliability at speed is the highest of all standards.
Working under the realistic restraints of limits on money to spend and space to fill, the concept of "too much of a good thing" begins to have a cutting edge in your boat-choice logic.
A boat that's broken up into multiple small cabins and outfitted with all sorts of equipment or toys is silly. There's no room to walk, change clothes, store personal gear, The left over space feels short and narrow. Cramped both visually and physically. The boat is simply over-stuffed. The least expensive thing to get on a boat is empty space. Just don't expect it to do much but just sit there until you ante up a lot more money. Which is why the whole sales pitch of a "lot of room for the money" won't satisfy you for long.
Buyers usually spend most of their looking time in the accommodation. Novices are not threatened by the layout. They can relate to the spacial arrangement the same way they do to shore-side space. And on the basis of the accommodation alone, most buyers make their choice of boat. Builders and their ad agencies have figured out that maxi-interiors sell better than maxi anything else. So the typical approach to designing and building the boat is to maximize what sells it best --the enclosed part.
Every part of the boat competes against every other part of the boat for space, weight, location, visibility, and utility. Sometimes the compromises are easy and you can have some of the conflicting desirables. But other conflicts come closer to a zero-sum decision where one feature is sacrificed or severely cutback in order to have more of another.
The configuration of the boat you choose reflects your priorities for its intended use, whether you are conscious of those judgements or not. But however you work it out, you can't have it all!!
Most of the trade-offs in a boat come from wanting it all and then fooling yourself into thinking that you've done some magic
TWO OUT OF THREE IS BEST YOU CAN GET
The renowned naval architect, L. Frances Herreshoff, wrote that for a given size boat, the three opposing corners of the design triangle were economy, speed, and quality. And that you could get any two but never all three of these factors. His idea was that every design incorporates trade-offs among these primary factors.
Today, we recognize that high speed and high quality is very expensive. If you want low cost and high quality, the boat is going to be real slow. Or if you want high speed at low cost, the boat is going to be so lightly built that it will come apart under you.
Yet many buyers don't accept that, in either new or used boats. They expect to get high quality and great performance at a low price. And they are always frustrated in their search, or set themselves up to be fooled in the marketplace by boats that aren't what they hoped.
PRICE
The first (and often the last) practical consideration in choosing a boat is price. You need a budget, or at least a range to work in. What you are willing to spend is likely much less than what you can spend.
The problem at the start is that you probably don't know how much boat your budget will get you. So you have to look in the magazines and on the net for listings that will educate you toward a ball park notion of what boats cost.
Remember that price of a used boat is related to its original cost, its current age, its current condition. An older boat didn't cost as much per foot as today's new boats do. It's old, so even if it's held its value, its cost is still relatively low in today's terms. And since it is old, its condition has deteriorated in ways that may -or may not- be already discounted in a reasonable asking price. The point you should get is that you can't expect an old boat at an old boat price to be in new boat condition.
The biggest mistake that new buyers make is to spend all their money on their initial purchase, and leave nothing left to maintain or operate the boat. My first clue of that mistake comes when the buyer wants to get a minimal survey (at the lowest cost) or when he tries to beat the price down over every $50 deficiency.
SIZE IS THE WORST MEASURE OF A BOAT
To novice or naive buyers, size is the most important or only criteria of choice. This is America, the land where way too much is never nearly enough. Where we take everything to excess. Where we don't know when to say when, about anything. In boats, up to a point, bigger is better. Until we reach the stage of diminishing returns, and additional size actually becomes a detriment.
Our real quandry is that we want a boat that is BOTH:
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As big as possible down below for while we're at the dock
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As small as possible on deck to be handy while it's underway.
We seldom see it that way, but when you add all the conflicting demands of size and hanlding up, that's what it really amounts to.
Everybody wants as much interior space as possible. Wide beam creates the feel (and reality) of tremendous interior space. Carrying the cabin sides to the hull edge creates extra width/spece below, as is often done with a raised aft deck motoryacht or trawler to provide a huge aft stateroom.
The space is very seductive, but too much accommodation distorts the rest of the boat, by taking room away from other uses and areas that need it too.
Many boat-like products look like space ships, with a swim platform grafted on the back end.
For sailboats, 37 feet is the point of diminishing returns, because the sailplan and ground tackle is too big, even with roller furling and a windlass, for an average person to sheet and haul.
Power boats have a shorter lower limit of adequate size because their hull shape is boxier than sail boats. Because there is adequate power and control for manuevering, a person can handle a much larger power boat, so the upper limit of manageable size is higher. 36 feet in a trawler, sport-fishing boat, or express boat is about the lowest point of the optimum range. 40 feet is plenty big enough, since a variety of added power requirements and handling factors start to diminish the return on the extra footage above that.
The most common pattern of ownership up into the 1990s has been to start small and move up 3 to 5 feet a couple of times. But with the widespread affluence of the late 90s, many first time buyers are choosing big (37-40 foot) interiors with no consideration of the fact that they can't handle the boat underway.
Please visit the Surveyor's Choice section of this site for more information on the size question as it affects the several types of boats discussed there.
Whatever size you see that you think you absolutely "have to have," you can probably get by with something smaller than that, especially at the start when you are still exploring the sport and deciding if you like it enough to continue it. Remember it is a boat (rhymes with float!) and not a condo. There's more to it than square footage. So when in doubt, stay as small as you can.
No boat is forever. Whether it's too small or too big, you can always sell it and go the other way. . . although trading up is always easier than coming down. So, again: regardless of what type of boat you want, start small and work your way up as your experience grows.
A BOAT FOR LOCAL WATERS
Once you've got a tentative price and size range set, you can start firming up your choice criteria with some thought about where you're going to be using the boat and what impact the local waters and weather will have on the configuration of the boat's features.
At the risk of belaboring the obvious, let me state the obvious for the folks who don't have enough experience yet for the obvious to register.
The water you are going to operate in has a tremendous impact on the specifics of the boat you should choose. A boat for one locale may not work well for a different weather and water combination somewhere else. This fact has been lost in the mass marketing of stock boats that are offered as being good everywhere.
For sailboats, the local water depth will affect the draft. A boat for southern sounds can't draw as much as a boat for the west coast or northeast. You may have to consider a shoal keel, and accept all the performance drawback of that arrangement. Masthead clearance under fixed bridges may put an upper limit on the size of the boat, so that you are not blocked from access to some excellent sailing or cruising grounds.
Powerboats running shallow and narrow inlets, as opposed to having open ocean access, may require a different bottom shape and power package to handle steep seas resulting from a tide running against the ground swell that's driven by the afternoon sea breeze. A bottom that's good going into the waves may be uncontrollable going down sea. Shallow water chop and current can be additional factors in choosing the boat for your locale.
Local knowledge of water and wave conditions can be vital to your making a good choice, especially if you seriously intend to go beyond the sea buoy. That information is available if you take the time to walk the docks and ask the local captains what boats seem to work best in difficult conditions.
MATTERS OF STYLE
Style is so much a personal choice that not even a reckless consulting surveyor ought to intrude on this area. Chances are that you know from your introduction to boats what exterior look and interior decor you like.
DOES QUALITY COUNT?
Value is the result of weighing quality against price. Many inexpensive boats are found to be cheap because their quality is even lower than their price. And some expensive boats turn out to be cheap because their quality doesn't match their high price. And some boats are extraordinary values because their construction quality is high for their moderate price.
There is more to a fiberglass boat than its shine. Quality hull and deck construction is a matter of both material choice and lamination practices. High quality in the layup is hard to demonstrate, but it results in a toughness under years of hard use and extended longevity of both cosmetic and structural condition.
New boats are being built much lighter now than in the past. Removal of material is the first step toward keeping the price down. And when a builder is in financial trouble, it has not been uncommon for a layer or two to be omitted from the laminate to turn the monetary tide back toward the black.
Many boats are purposely built for light duty use and sale at a low price. They don't age gracefully. And their cheapness shows up as gelcoat crazes and fading, core failures, laminate flaws, flex damage, vibrations and rattles underway, and deteriorating performance. Cheap boats don't inspire great care from their owners, so the maintenance often gets delayed or avoided completely. A lot of the interior will we worn, and the convenience systems will have rusted components, all of which once looked shiney new and clean.
At one end of the spectrum are the folks who don't know or care about quality, as long as the object looks more or less boat-shaped.
IT ALL STARTS WITH A HAPPY VISION
JUST LOOKIN'
Most folks start off by knowing only that they want a boat--to go fishing, riding around, cruising, sailing, or just hanging out near the beach--and they know it's gonna be fun.
Most buyers do not follow a logical purchase path. Not because they're illogical, but because they're starting from some still-hazy notions that aren't supported by any actual experience or concrete, practical knowledge. It's understandably hard to know how to start intelligently or gracefully when you don't really know where you're going.
The obvious first step is to visit some boat stores and look at some boat toys. Just look. Look at as many as we can, to see what we like and "sticker shop" to find out what it costs to play. Brokers will always admit that their most difficult task is to help a novice prospect who knows only that he wants "a boat." And who doesn't have a clue yet what his budget will get him. The first days of floundering around just to get an initial sense of the possibilities can be embarrasing and ego-deflating. It is the common thing for a broker to educate a customer about size and cost, then lose him to the broker down the street, where the buyer can walk in and appear knowledgeable about his interests.
Most buyers visit and evaluate possibilities while the boat is tied to the dock, on ashore at the dealer/broker. We can't just go out on whatever strikes our fancy for the asking. So we are left to look at and sift through the possibilities "in the lot." We can only imagine or presume that they boat will behave or perform the way we hope or the way the salesman tells us, without being able to actually prove it before we get excited about the boat.
The novice can choose a boat on the basis of the SPAAS criteria of evaluation: Size, Price, Accommodation, Amenities, and Style.
When we go aboard, we are trying them on for size, to discover how the arrangement would work for our family or expected guests, how the amenities or equipment supports our imagined usage of the boat, and how the decor suits our tastes.
As long as you're happy to stay tied to the dock, that approach will work fine. And you don't need to have much experience or knowledge about boats to settle on a model that'll do the job.
WHATCHA GONNA DO WITH IT?
THINK REALISTICALLY ABOUT ITS PURPOSE BEFOREHAND
I've noticed over the years that people tend to buy "A Boat" on impluse the first time. Later, when they've accumulated some time afloat, their next boat is not only a little bigger, but it also fits their needs a lot better than their starter boat. And they take longer to find it. Ultimately, they figure out a realistic pattern of usage, and start to look for "The Boat" that will be as right as any stock boat can ever be for them. And armed with more exacting stardards, skippers find that the search can take a longer time.
Except that then their lives, interests, and financial strengths change, and they get to work their way through the progression again on a different type of boat that they have no experience with. All of which delights the brokers.
The more thinking you can do early in the game about what you realistically expect from the boat, the better your choice will be. You can even get a purchase consultant involved as a professional source of the experience that you don't yet have yourself.
HOW WE SEE BOATS
There's more to the "static condition" vs "under way" contrast than you might suspect. Because when we go to look at boats for sale, we go onboard the boat at the dock or in the boatyard showroom. And our only judgements are about how it feels when it's tied up.
As the result of this un-realistic perspective, people look at boats the same way they look at houses or condos. They choose on the basis of all the characteristics that have nothing to do with the boat part of the boat. You know, with the float and move part of the boat.
Buyers who envision entertaining aboard, expect the interior to provide privacy for owners and guests or the children, as well as open space for all to party. And they expect the exterior to offer additional entertainment centers for swiming, fishing, diving, sitting, sunning, drinking, snacking, and talking. The interior ought to be executed in a high-style of luxury and elegance that is radically different from home life. And the exterior ought to have a look of either modern sleekness, reckless speed, or traditional strength.
Buyers who envision fishing will not care much about the interior on a small boat since they will be sleeping ashore. But some folks want a fishing yacht, with luxury accommodations for their fishing buddies when they go on the tournament trail away from home port.
Several criteria work together and against each other to narrow your choice of a boat. Comfort, speed, space, interior arrangement, initial cost, operating economy, style, and serviceability are all important. But the first, and most important, of these is purpose.
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