Page 9 - How to Go Boating Flip 1
P. 9
uying a Boat
By comparison to buying a boat, buying a car is simple. night. A few years ago Tim decided he wanted to buy a boat. He’d had
Take it for a test drive (the road will always be flat and plenty of experience and time on the water but had never purchased
it doesn’t matter if the wind is blowing 20 knots), get a a boat for himself. The eventual outcome was a new boat for Tim and
mechanical check, choose the colour (if it’s new), get the a series of magazine articles I wrote that tracked the whole process.
warranty, pay the money and it’s done. A boat purchase At the time Tim insisted I should follow it up with a published checklist
looks positively frightening if you haven’t been there on what to look for. I never got around to it but I’d like to think that this
before. And it can be. But it doesn’t have to be. You just book will more than make up for my negligence.
need to know the right questions to ask …
Before I started this book I acquired a second-hand boat in order
Where to Start? to demonstrate the many procedures and products covered in this
book. There is a delicious irony to it; after a couple of decades of
This chapter is designed to help you begin the journey to your first using new boats I now have a small craft that was built only a year
boat. There are many decisions to be made. New or second-hand? or so after our original family boat was built — 1974. And I’m loving
Fibreglass or aluminium? Inboard or outboard? Private sale or dealer? it because it returns me to a size and style of boat that is still very
Length? Horsepower? Each is a decision that has to be made with popular after 40 years.
good information, although this can be the problem: many boat-buying
decisions are made with poor information and/or help from friends who Before we get into the specifics, here are some questions you need
often have a bias; it’s a guy thing — I don’t know any boat owner who to develop honest answers to. They are the same ones I asked Tim
will admit they bought the wrong boat. when he started his boat-buying process:
The potential problem for me writing this section is that my • Why do you want a boat? Will you really use it as much as you
connection to the industry over more than 30 years could mean think?
I forget some of the basics — things that I take for granted but
someone new to the game has yet to learn. I don’t believe I have • How big do you want it to be?
forgotten anything, though, and for that you can thank my good friend,
Tim Curran. • If you want it that big, will you a) have a suitable tow vehicle?
b) have regular crew to operate it? c) be able to afford to pay the fuel
Tim manages New Zealand’s largest dive distributor, Aquanaut bill? d) have enough space to park it securely?
NZ. We went to school together and both learnt to dive during the
late 1970s, a time when Jacques Cousteau was on TV every Sunday • What will you do with the boat? Is it for mixed use — fishing,
51
By comparison to buying a boat, buying a car is simple. night. A few years ago Tim decided he wanted to buy a boat. He’d had
Take it for a test drive (the road will always be flat and plenty of experience and time on the water but had never purchased
it doesn’t matter if the wind is blowing 20 knots), get a a boat for himself. The eventual outcome was a new boat for Tim and
mechanical check, choose the colour (if it’s new), get the a series of magazine articles I wrote that tracked the whole process.
warranty, pay the money and it’s done. A boat purchase At the time Tim insisted I should follow it up with a published checklist
looks positively frightening if you haven’t been there on what to look for. I never got around to it but I’d like to think that this
before. And it can be. But it doesn’t have to be. You just book will more than make up for my negligence.
need to know the right questions to ask …
Before I started this book I acquired a second-hand boat in order
Where to Start? to demonstrate the many procedures and products covered in this
book. There is a delicious irony to it; after a couple of decades of
This chapter is designed to help you begin the journey to your first using new boats I now have a small craft that was built only a year
boat. There are many decisions to be made. New or second-hand? or so after our original family boat was built — 1974. And I’m loving
Fibreglass or aluminium? Inboard or outboard? Private sale or dealer? it because it returns me to a size and style of boat that is still very
Length? Horsepower? Each is a decision that has to be made with popular after 40 years.
good information, although this can be the problem: many boat-buying
decisions are made with poor information and/or help from friends who Before we get into the specifics, here are some questions you need
often have a bias; it’s a guy thing — I don’t know any boat owner who to develop honest answers to. They are the same ones I asked Tim
will admit they bought the wrong boat. when he started his boat-buying process:
The potential problem for me writing this section is that my • Why do you want a boat? Will you really use it as much as you
connection to the industry over more than 30 years could mean think?
I forget some of the basics — things that I take for granted but
someone new to the game has yet to learn. I don’t believe I have • How big do you want it to be?
forgotten anything, though, and for that you can thank my good friend,
Tim Curran. • If you want it that big, will you a) have a suitable tow vehicle?
b) have regular crew to operate it? c) be able to afford to pay the fuel
Tim manages New Zealand’s largest dive distributor, Aquanaut bill? d) have enough space to park it securely?
NZ. We went to school together and both learnt to dive during the
late 1970s, a time when Jacques Cousteau was on TV every Sunday • What will you do with the boat? Is it for mixed use — fishing,
51
