Sometimes buying a yacht is really hard!

This is a tale of a bumpy boat brokerage sales cycle that no doubt we can all learn from in some way.  I would be interested in comments from  super experienced yacht brokers.

 The names, locations and boat types have been changed to protect the innocent.

In October 2024 I helped "Joe" sell his 40’ sailboat which was kept in Rhode Island.  It was one of the easiest brokerage transactions I’d ever been a part of as a broker.  The buyer and seller were super nice, and both of them made this transaction super easy from start to finish.

In April 2025 Joe reached out and said that he and his wife wanted to make the move to power, and that he wanted me to help them find his next boat.  He favored a sort of downeast style, and we started off looking at and climbing on a number of boats in the Rhode Island and Connecticut areas.  We saw several boats that didn’t really hold up to the way their listings portrayed them (sadly this is more common in this business than you would think).  Inventory for these types of boats was tight.  So it was slow going.

In late May I came across a boat that was in the shed having some deck work done on it, hatches rebedded etc. The boat was a mess but to me she checked all of Joe’s boxes.  It was kind of far away so I did a video tour for Joe and his wife, they liked what they saw and we drove 90 minutes to look at her again.  The listing broker was super nice; Joe and his wife spent a good hour or so on the boat and they seemed really happy.  This was on a Friday.  As the boat was a little over their budget, they needed a few days to discuss it and we agreed to get back to the listing broker over the weekend.  They came up with a number and I reached out to the listing broker on Saturday.  My calls and texts went unanswered for a couple days.  I finally got a hold of him on Tuesday and he said the boat was under agreement.

Pretty sure he stonewalled us as he had another buyer without a broker, meaning his commission would be double what he would get if he did the deal with us. Joe and his wife were disappointed, but we vowed to continue the search. I know this happens a lot but in this case it was super annoying.

We came across another downeast boat even further away than the first one.  So, we arranged for a showing and drove the 3 hours to see her.  The boat was great, showed really well, and was everything the buyers wanted. 2 days later we made an offer which was accepted and survey and sea trial were scheduled for a week later.  Now it’s mid-June.  The survey and sea trial went great! 

The last thing was waiting on the oil samples, which came back…terrible.  The lab results showed high glycol content, meaning coolant was leaking into the oil.  The next two-three weeks were spent with the seller having mechanics looking over the engines.  They looked at the block and head gasket, oil coolers, etc.  They changed out some parts, took another sea trial, and even with new oil (which should’ve been fine with 30 minutes engine runtime) the results were not good. After discussing whether to make a low-ball offer and do the repairs himself, Joe and his wife decided to pass. 

Now it was early July.

A couple weeks later Joe sent me another listing to check out. This time it as a downeast/coupe style boat but it was far away from us in Rhode Island, on the mid-Atlantic coast.  The listing broker was a super nice guy and did a virtual tour for us.  Afterwards Joe went down with a friend of his who was also a surveyor, and they checked the boat out. He came back and enthusiastically asked me to write up an offer, which I did in mid July.  The sellers accepted the offer and survey/sea trial was set for early august.

I was wary of this boat as it had been sitting on the hard for a year. The owner was selling because he was in his 90's and couldn't really use the boat any more. Nothing good ever comes from a boat sitting around, no matter whether it's on the hard, in the water, sail or power.

Survey/Sea trial went OK, except that the following issues were identified:

-Anchor Windlass didn’t work

-Trim Tabs didn’t work

-Autopilot didn’t work

-Part of the canvas top had been ripped open

-Steering system was leaking hydraulic fluid

There were other minor things that I am sure I’m forgetting.

For me, this would've been enough to walk. However, over the next 4 weeks, the seller agreed to pay to have these items repaired.  There were back and forth items – the original trim tab maker didn’t have this model tab anymore, so the seller’s boatyard had to source it elsewhere.  Then the new manufacturer sent the new tabs but with the wrong control module, so that caused further delays.  In the meantime, Tropical Storm Erin was forecast to potentially cause issues in that area.  It ended up veering offshore but not before high winds one day tore the recently repaired canvas up.  At one point I told Joe that he and his wife should consider moving on.

But they loved this boat! 

Eventually the work all got completed.  Over time we had to write FIVE extension amendments to the P&S to accommodate the time needed for these repairs.

Finally on October 2, 2025 – eight weeks after the original survey/sea trial, (and 6+ months after we first started looking at power boats) we closed on the boat.  Joe hired a captain and mechanic and they took possession of the boat and made the journey back to Rhode Island, I think it took 4-5 days.  Even then, there were still trim tab issues; Joe had to pay for local repairs but in a stroke of good luck (probably the first good luck in this journey) the company who installed the new tabs several weeks before agreed to reimburse him for the expense.

So all these delays basically cost Joe and his wife their 2025 boating season.  But now the boat is in RI on the hard, and they’re looking forward to many more seasons with her.

But it was a bumpy ride to get there. I would be interested in you, the readers' thoughts. What would you have done differently as a buyer? Broker? Surveyor?