A little about buying a used boat

I think it must be time to tell the tale of working to buy a boat. A used boat certainly, since we choose to not afford a new one.

I've been looking at boats for at least a year and a half now. Doing my research, checking out the ins and outs and such. Trying to figure out what we're most likely to be happy with since we're in the middle of a largish country and there aren't many blue water sail boats around here.

Everyone says to try out lots of boats before you buy one. We're not built that way. So this is how the current deal is going......

Started talking to the owner last November (It's now March) about this boat he has that looks like something that will work well for us. Understand that there is no perfect boat, each one is a compromise of features, price and location. I have good conversations with the fella, then family stuff happens on both sides and we can't get down to look at it.

Flash forward to February of 2020 and the owner emails me to let me know he's dropped the price by 17K. I think about it for about 3 seconds and write, then call the broker in Mexico to make a full price offer. Not usually what you do but when a 75K boat is now 32K you jump. 2 days later Crystal and I are headed to Mexico to look Contigo over. Oh, during that time neither the owner nor I was hearing back from the broker so the owner stepped up and pledged the boat to me even if it got him in trouble :D. Turns out that was fine with the broker.

So we've looked at the boat. No one actually asks for the 10% down they're supposed to. This is OK with everyone. Odd. I get with the broker and schedule an inspection (Survey) and set up to have a mechanic (apparently THE mechanic) look over the motor. Motors cost about 25K to replace, it's worth a bit to check them out.

The survey comes back, with a crack in the fiberglass on the keel and rudder. I freak out a little, and contact the broker, the surveyor and the owner. All say fiberglass repair is easy and relatively inexpensive. The owner notes that the Marina cracked the keel and pledged to repair it and the owner also had paid to have the rudder re-glasses. We're still waiting to see how that turns out.

The motor was supposed to get looked at yesterday. Looks like Friday is more realistic. It seems the storage yard and work yard have decided you can no longer start an engine on the hard and it'll take $250 to move the boat over and back. The owner has decided to pay for that (I already paid for the survey and the mechanic) and that's really cool since he doesn't have to. So we'll find that out on Friday.

The boat papers (crucially important) got lost in transit but then found again. It's kinda nutty.

Updates as conditions warrant.