Hi All,
Long time lurker, but figured I would start to post and become more active. I am looking to plan a journey, well transparently less of a journey and more a new phase of life. I've been fortunate to consider a yacht purchase within the next year or so. I will do my best to share aspects of consideration, and I would appreciate all of your feedback on how to make the best decisions on this purchase (what vessel) and the surrounding nuances (insurance, operating costs, maintenance, storage etc.).
A bit about me: I live in Massachusetts and am an Engineer by trade with some experience in the marine industry. In short, I can fix things and enjoy mechanical type projects. I do not, however, have experience on any boat larger than 20' (grew up with RIBs and Whalers).
Intended use: I want a go anywhere! Yes I'm talking about an ocean worthy vessel as I'd like to travel from the North Eastern US to the Med (okay if that's via Greenland & Iceland). I very much enjoy the design elements such as hull form and system redundancies found on such a vessel. My Wife: would like comfortable accommodations and and a cruising speed of 15-20 knots so we can make weekend trips within the northeast in a timely manner. I know that cruising speed and my own desires potentially conflict! Likely use is for me to go on more adventurous journeys and for my wife to join me there after traveling via plane in many instances, but still think ocean ability + higher cruising speed will be the hardest spec to meet (full displacement vs. semi displacement when I truly want both).
Design elements that I am interested in in order of most importance:
Shopping Parameters:
Long time lurker, but figured I would start to post and become more active. I am looking to plan a journey, well transparently less of a journey and more a new phase of life. I've been fortunate to consider a yacht purchase within the next year or so. I will do my best to share aspects of consideration, and I would appreciate all of your feedback on how to make the best decisions on this purchase (what vessel) and the surrounding nuances (insurance, operating costs, maintenance, storage etc.).
A bit about me: I live in Massachusetts and am an Engineer by trade with some experience in the marine industry. In short, I can fix things and enjoy mechanical type projects. I do not, however, have experience on any boat larger than 20' (grew up with RIBs and Whalers).
Intended use: I want a go anywhere! Yes I'm talking about an ocean worthy vessel as I'd like to travel from the North Eastern US to the Med (okay if that's via Greenland & Iceland). I very much enjoy the design elements such as hull form and system redundancies found on such a vessel. My Wife: would like comfortable accommodations and and a cruising speed of 15-20 knots so we can make weekend trips within the northeast in a timely manner. I know that cruising speed and my own desires potentially conflict! Likely use is for me to go on more adventurous journeys and for my wife to join me there after traveling via plane in many instances, but still think ocean ability + higher cruising speed will be the hardest spec to meet (full displacement vs. semi displacement when I truly want both).
Design elements that I am interested in in order of most importance:
- 3 cabin layout
- Portuguese bridge
- Bow thruster
- Dual Engines
- Forward sloped pilot house windows
- There are many others, but much of that is likely standard on vessels we are likely to discuss
Shopping Parameters:
- Budget is ~$1M, but flexible depending on what's on market
- Used with an age of 5-15 years old (flexible, but needs to be insurable)
- I've been browsing YW looking at KK, Nordhaven, DeFever, Ocean Alexander, Selene, Flemming, and Marlow
- Note: I like the idea of the Dashews FPBs, but their narrow beam means they don't have the cabin arrangement I'm interested in having
- Am I looking at the right types of vessels (I know desired cruise speed is going to be a difficult one to obtain for trawlers), I saw the NightHawk (made by Lyman Morse) and was amazing by what seems to be a high speed trawler - what other makes should I be considering? Anything on the market now that particularly fits the bill?
- Will I have issues obtaining insurance on the vessel given my lack of yachting experience?
- I hear that operating expenses are roughly 10% the cost of the vessel, does this remain true for a used vessel in generally good condition? Is it 10% the original cost or used purchase price cost?
- What are current market conditions given recent stock market decline and the high costs of fuel - are pricing dropping (does the yacht market follow the stock market generally?)
- What else should I be considering?