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How to Buy a Boat Part IV

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Sailing off Long Island at sunrise. By T. McQuade @ Shutterstock.com

Money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you a boat. So with that in mind, Skip and I planned out our road (and sea) trip to Long Island.  We chose Long Island because there were about five to ten boats of the specific make and model we were targeting for sale at various boatyards and dealerships there. Also, Skip summered on Shelter Island, NY and knew the area well.

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After looking at the first couple of boats, Skip suggested we come up with a back-of-the napkin scoring sheet. We graded each boat based on overall condition, hours on the engines, and an assortment of other factors. For example, one category was radar. Skip could tell within seconds how much value an open array radar system added compared to a closed array. He turned one unit on that happened to be a closed array and said “that’s not working right, it’s off balance, it will need to be fixed,” and made note of it on our scoring sheet. At the end of the day, we had about six boats scored and had an idea of what our final price would be for each.

We made an offer on our favorite one. There was some back and forth and a final price was accepted. But the deal was contingent on the boat passing a marine survey.

That’s a good thing, because it failed.

Read the entire series here.

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West (RIP JB) and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.

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