The pros and cons of buying a boat

You’re probably only reading this in the first place because you are interested in buying a boat. We are, after all, trying to sell you a book about exactly that!

So you might be surprised to hear that the first piece of advice in that book is this:

Don’t Buy a Boat!

Boats are expensive, both to buy and to maintain. They are notoriously time-consuming to keep up. If you spend any time at all reading books or websites by boat owners, you have surely come across some of the most common jokes about expenses:

  • BOAT stands for Break Out Another Thousand
  • 1 Boat Buck = $1000
  • Boat: A hole in the water that you throw money into.

Or you may have decided to take the advice of many a burnt-out boat owner to duplicate the experience of boat ownership: go stand in a cold shower while your significant other blasts you with a fan and slowly tear up twenty dollar bills.

Of course, boat ownership is not all bad. There are the golden sunsets, the big fish, the gorgeous days out on the silky sea, watching dolphins dance in your bow wave.

But not every day is like that and many boat owners are in for a shock when the bad days come!

To guard against this, you need to do your homework. Yes, buying a book about boat buying is a good step! But so is actually going out and getting some boating experience under your belt before you decide to buy.

This will help you figure out if you really care that much about owning a boat, while introducing you to some of the alternatives to consider, such as:

  • Chartering boats for vacations
  • Becoming a fractional owner in a shared boat
  • Making friends who have boats and getting invited along on their trips!

If you don’t expect to spend a great deal of time out on the water, you have to consider whether or not a boat is a good investment. If you can only get out for two weeks a year, a charter boat will cost less and give you more bang for the buck (at the cost of being unfamiliar and perhaps poorly maintained).

Don’t believe us? Okay, then… check the book out and see what it takes to buy the best boat for you!

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