HOW NOT TO BUY A BOAT...A GUIDE TO GETTING IT WRONG

When Dominic Fohnson’s dream of owning his own boat finally became reality, the litany of errors he made when purchasing and maintaining her sapped both his energy and his bank balance. Here he explains how you can avoid the same fate...

Just about every middle-aged man dreams of buying a boat and going on a sailing adventure. The sense of freedom, the wind blowing across your balding pate without a care in the world. At least, that’s what any conversation at a 50th birthday party will lead you to believe. When I was £10,000 and two broken engines deep, I realised the reality was very different.

On the way back from another unsuccessful trip to fix my boat, my unsuspecting daughter called. After enduring at least 30 minutes of me ranting about my boating woes, she interrupted, joking that she wanted to record the call and give it to her friend whose husband wanted to buy a boat. Listening to my misery was surely enough to make anyone think twice.

Short of recording that call, this article is the next best thing. If you or anyone you know is looking to buy a boat, this is a story of how not to do it.

My boat-buying started with a simple plan: buy a cheap boat, sail around the UK, get 3,000 miles done, pass the Yachtmaster, and then sell the boat for roughly what I paid for it. In the words of the eternal optimist, what could possibly go wrong?

The advice I got from a sailing instructor was to buy a cheap 22ft Sonata with an outboard. I was told it would be an easy boat to sail and that there would be plenty of them up for sale.

After sailing as crew and being told exactly what to do, I felt I needed to be a skipper in order to be a good Yachtmaster. My first stop was a boat yard in Rye where I’d seen loads of tired old boats. A quick jet wash and I’d be away, I thought. I was thinking no more than £3,000. There was only one boat for sale, a Contessa 32 as old as the hills and twice as tired, a snip at £15k. Thankfully I passed.