Moving On Up!
By Jordan Balbresky
What to ask and answer before purchasing your next boat.
They say the two best days in a boat owner’s life are the day they buy their boat and the day they sell it. In between, you’ve got time on the water, memories made with family and friends. Whether you have a fishing boat, pontoon, sailboat, dayboat or cruiser, if you’re lucky enough to be able to spend as much time on the water as you want, then you have made good use or your investment. Well, what if you are ready to get a bigger boat, then what? There are a lot of reasons to make the move to a bigger boat. Whatever your reason, there are a few things to take into consideration.
First and foremost is the intended use. Ask yourself what a larger vessel will do for you that your current boat won’t be able to. Are you looking to turn day trips into long weekends? Are you looking for a liveaboard or long distance traveler? Or are you looking to accommodate more passengers? Are you interested in entertaining and if so, how many guests? Will the guests need seating, food or separate sleeping quarters? All of these questions will lead you to the type of boat for you and what features are necessary or nice to have.
The next consideration is where will you be going? If you currently have a center console and want to take a long trip down the coast to the Florida Keys, in the immortal words of Chief Brody, you are going to need a bigger boat. However, with a bigger boat comes the next two considerations: storage and cost. Right now, your boat may fit on a trailer that you can keep in your driveway, but a 55-foot trawler probably will need a marina slip. If you are doing an extended trip down the coast, you’ll also need slips along the way. Which brings me back to cost.
Sure, a larger vessel is going to cost more initially, unless you can find a good deal on a used boat, but everything is going to cost more as well. You’ll probably have a larger fuel capacity, meaning more diesel or gas. Provisioning for longer trips will be more involved. Marinas usually charge by the foot. Maintenance gets more complicated as you add more systems to a vessel. Even haul outs and bottom paint will cost more based on the size of the vessel. If the boat is big enough, you might need help operating it, which means a crew. Don’t forget that insurance goes up as the value of the vessel increases.
There are several pieces of equipment that you didn’t consider needing before, but now become vital such as stabilization systems, security and monitoring systems and equipment that makes a larger vessel easier to handle like remote control docking systems. Whatever kind of boat you decide to upgrade to, here’s a few additions you might want to consider.
