Buying a Boat Overseas Part 1

Hold on! Things are about to get crazy!

photo from 2012

Originally, when we started our boat shopping mission, we figured we would buy in Croatia. There is a rather large charter industry there and lots of boats for sale. The prices were attractive as well. We even went as far as having a friend who happens to live there take a look at boats for us (thank you so much, Jack!).  Lots of boats, good prices, and who wouldn't want to start out in the Med?

As how stories usually go, this was all too good to be true. Yes, the prices are low, but it is because the commission for the broker is not included. When you figure that cost into it, the prices are comparable with everywhere else. On top of that, the seller requires a deposit be sent directly to them, instead of using an escrow account. THEN, they will only release the boat AFTER the charter season, which is usually around November. For us, that would mean sending an unsecured deposit (hoping the seller didn't run off with the money), wait around for November to conduct the sea trial, haul-out, survey, and then finally take ownership. Wintering in the Med, potentially spending more money down the line, and putting our adventure on hold at the same time? No bueno. Thus, our search for the boat shifted down to the Caribbean, where our broker also happens to live. We have to pause for a sec and give props to him, for his patience with us during this process. He was super supportive of our goal to start in the Med, but also cautioned us against the concerns mentioned above (much love to you, Clive, for putting up with us).

So, we diligently searched online for our new home. We bookmarked a few, kept an eye on the prices, and analyzed the data. We picked out our top three and waited. Not that we didn't want to buy right away, but we had to get the house sold first. Let me tell you, that itself was a whole other process...

 Keeping the house spotless with three kids, a dog, and two cats? This girl was going to lose her damn mind. On top of finishing up a school year with a wiley class of 5th graders with summer on their brains, and packing up my classroom, things were just a teeny bit stressful.
**disclaimer: I love my job and my students, but ask any teacher how they are feeling during the final month of school and you will get an eye roll followed by an earful! ;)

Thankfully, we didn't have to deal with it for long, as we went into escrow on the house days before school let out (insert a huge gigantic sigh of relief here) and it meant we could FINALLY make an offer on a boat! Jared and I made a list to compare our top three. We looked at the condition (best we could based on the photos), inventory list, hours on the engines and generator, system upgrades needed, etc. After making our decision, we spoke with Clive and set things in motion. We offered, received a counter, countered-back, and finally arrived at a number all parties were happy with.

So, at the time of this writing, we have sent our deposit, scheduled the survey/haul-out/sea trial date and are researching plane itineraries.  We are hoping to charter a boat for the duration of our stay in the BVI instead of staying at a hotel, so we can take the kids exploring (hopefully on our exact boat, if we can swing it) and provide a little taste of the cruising life for the kids.

After the survey, we will fly home, pack/ship all of our stuff to Tortola (where our boat is located), and then slowly make our way to Florida, where we will then fly out to move aboard. Our stuff will take about a month to arrive anyway, so we are using up that time by driving across the country on an epic road trip! It will be a lot of fun and we will get to see some of our homeland that we haven't before. All in all, a good way to kick off this traveling adventure.

The next post will update on how things went with the survey, introduce you to our new home, and talk about the intricacies of shipping stuff to an international destination.