Unlike most boat purchase advice, written by manufacturers and designed to persuade to one brand or another, the suggestions in this article are written from the perspective of a sailboat buyer and are drawn from the collective wisdom of my dozen or so sailboat purchases as well as conversations with many, many other sailboat buyers.

The buying process
Buying a sailboat is a multi-step process that involves answering three questions: a) how will I use this sailboat?; b) what sailboat characteristics are best for this type of use?; c) what sailboats have those characteristics? Successfully answering these questions will lead you to the vessel that can provide years of joy, while failure to accurately or honestly answer the questions may steer you to the wrong boat, little usage and no fun.

The most important question is “how will I use this sailboat?” The answer can’t be a general one like “to race” or “cruise”. If you can only answer this question generally, you are not yet ready to buy a boat and run a high probability of making a large and expensive mistake.

Answering properly means knowing the details of where you will sail, the weather conditions in those areas, the length of the trip you will take, the number of passengers on board and how far you will be from assistance.

Vessel characteristics
Once we know how we will use our new boat, we can determine the vessel characteristics best for our use. Vessel characteristics can be divided into three categories: sailing, safety, and living. Sailing characteristics include speed, stability (tendency to heel), ability to point, ease of steering (tendency to sail straight), and balance. A racer, for example, will want a fast boat that can point close to the wind and may be willing to sacrifice some stability and ease to get it. A long-distance cruiser on the other hand may be willing sail a little further off the wind to get more stability and balance. Sailing characteristics will be determined by the boat design; specifically: sail plan, keel type and depth, sail area to weight ratio, and displacement.

Our next consideration is safety equipment. The need for safety equipment is primarily dictated by the conditions we will face and how far away help might be. If we are to carry life rafts, EPIRBs (distress beacons), offshore first aid gear and emergency water and rations, we will need places to securely store these items when not in use. In addition, other safety gear may include advanced communications devices (SSB radio, satellite phone, email or fax) power generation (wind generator, genset, and/or solar panels) and items like sea anchors and drogues, radar and navigational gear. Again, the safety equipment list can be generated based on distance away from help and likely weather conditions to be faced. The key vessel consideration is to assure any boat purchased will have a place to safely store everything.

Next, we must consider living space. Again, based on our usage we should know the general number of people to accommodate and the length of time of the voyages we are likely to be making.

This information is then used to determine the required living conditions and space. For example, a boat cruised away from shore for weeks would need to have a much different energy management system, provisioning ability, and cooking equipment than a boat sailed for weeks, but doing short hops between ports. This seemingly small change in sailing usage can mean large differences in vessel necessities. Consider power generation for example.

Extended cruising means high output alternators, larger battery banks, external voltage regulation, and potentially alternative energy generating – all things avoided when short hops between marinas are the plan.

Sailboats are the stuff dreams are made of, but buying the wrong boat can be a nightmare – expensive, unpleasant and dangerous. The most important way to avoid making a mistake is to know exactly how you will use the vessel in great detail before you go anywhere near a boat show.