Jupiter, FL - The Good Idea

[Kevin's Post]I spent the weekend jet-setting around the east coast looking at yachts.  Trust me, it's not nearly as glamorous as it sounds.  We have pretty much narrowed our possibilities down to one particular make of sailboat - a Manta catamaran.  There aren't a lot of them out there, only about 120 have been made in the last ten years.  They are specifically designed for long term cruising, whereas most of the other catamaran builders design boats primarily for the charter business.  There are only four on the market right now, two on the east coast, and two in the Caribbean.  I told our broker that I was willing to fly out to look at the ones on the east coast.  The salesman that he is, he said that I shouldn't fly out to see anything unless I already had a signed contract on it.  Car salesmen have nothing on boat brokers.  He reasoned that without a contract there was no guarantee the boat would still be available when I showed up at the dock.  It would require just a small 10% transferable deposit (about $25k) and I could walk away for any reason.  Uh, OK. Where do I send the check?  A wire transfer would be better.  Of course it would.

So I made a reasonable offer on a 1998 Manta in Annapolis, which to my surprise was accepted, and I went to take a look.  I also made plans to see a 1996 Manta in Jupiter, FL, just so I would have a basis for comparison.  The Annapolis Manta had been to Australia and back and it looked it.  It was pretty tired looking and didn't appear to be very well maintained.  It also had six inches of snow on the deck which made me wonder if it had been properly winterized for all the winters it had spent in Maryland.  I spent about an hour looking through the boat and taking pictures of everything.   I knew in a few minutes I wouldn't be buying this boat.  The listing had some significant errors in the equipment list, and the interior was a mess of half completed projects.

On to Florida to look at boat #2.  I wasn't too excited about looking at the 1996 Florida Manta because it looked ridiculous in the listing photos.  It appeared the owner had painted the sailboat to make it look like a speedboat and the result was hideous.  It had wild graphics in every color of the rainbow down both hulls with the boat name in 2 foot high bubble letters - 'Good Idea'.  Repainting a boat this size could cost upwards of $20k, so that wasn't something I wanted to consider.  But, when I saw it in person I could see that the graphics weren't painted on, they were just vinyl and could be removed.  Not only that, the rest of the boat was in immaculate condition.  The gelcoat was bright and shiny, the waterline was clean, the interior was in nearly mint condition.  I never would have guessed it was a ten year old boat.  The owner had only used it two months a year and never went farther than the Abacos.  I spent a few hours peering into every nook and cranny of the boat and taking pictures while our broker patiently answered my questions.  I told our broker that I wanted to withdraw my offer on the Annapolis Manta and make an offer on Good Idea.