I had a college professor who used to say that people are more comfortable talking about their sex lives than their finances – and they don’t like talking about their sex lives! That may be true, but when you buy a boat, it’s pretty clear you didn’t get it for free, and a few clicks on Boats.com can tell everyone about how much you paid for it - so in this series, we’re going to lay (sorry . . .) out all the numbers to explore the actual cost of buying and owning a boat. While my wife and I are fortunate enough to be able to buy a boat, there certainly are financial reasons why we were looking at J/35's – rather than newer (sexier) boats like Beneteau 36.7's, J/109's, X-35's, or even J/105's.

Any boat looks different as soon as she is yours - especially outside the dark shed.



The Initial Offer
I spoke with Ed again on May 22nd, over 2 ½ months after looking at the boat. It was still available and had been moved outside and cleaned a bit. There had been some interest, and the asking price was still $39,000, but no offers had been made on the boat. I decided to email the following offer the next day:

Hello Ed,
As I mentioned on the phone, I'd like to submit an offer for the J/35, but the offer certainly needs to be accompanied by an explanation. I'm sure the number is lower than what the owner would like, and I don't mean to offend him or you, but I just think that the boat is at a point where it needs some rejuvenation, and that will require some significant investments beyond the purchase price.

The offer is for $28,000, and is contingent only on one more visit to power up the electronics and run the engine. It is not contingent upon another survey - I feel that I have surveyed the boat already.

The reason for the 28K number is that there are three significant areas that I think will need attention almost immediately.


  1. The deck has wet core in the cabin top, and at the chainplates. The cabin top did not yet have signs of delamination that I could find, but there was a dull-sounding area on the starboard side deck just aft of the chainplate there. I think it would be important to open up the deck in the chainplate areas and re-core them before going through another winter of freeze-thaw cycles.

  2. The mast and standing rigging are showing their age, and I think will need to be renewed fairly soon.

  3. The sails are reaching the end of their lives for any racing purposes.


There are other, smaller issues, but every 20 year-old boat has an ongoing list of things to do, and I can handle that. It may well be possible to get a better offer for the boat, but then the boat will get surveyed, and the items above, plus the smaller things, will start the bargaining process all over again. I'm willing to take the boat "as is, where is" as long as we can put the batteries on, and show that the electronics power up, and the engine & alternator are operational. As for the things we can't test onshore, like the wind instruments, I'm happy to take the owner's word that they were working last summer, and go from there.

Thanks for considering this, and again, I don't mean to be disrespectful of the boat in any way - the offer just reflects the follow-on investments that I think would be needed, and our budget at this point.  Thanks - Paul

Some Cash Needed
Ed responded promptly with a Purchase and Sale Agreement, and a request for a $2800 deposit. For a few seconds, I thought we had bought a boat! But he was just following the professional course of bringing a signed offer and deposit to the owner for consideration. I hadn’t expected the need for a deposit right then, and we had a bit of a scramble, but thanks to the miracle of online banking, were able to email back scanned copies of the signed agreement and a check.

And the Counter Offer
As you might imagine, we didn’t get the boat for $28,000. Ed sent a cordial note back:

“Despite the issues you raised correctly about sails, moisture, and overall condition, some things such as portlights, the stern rail, and a roller furler were added by the owner and add value.”

The owners had made a counter offer of $34,000, but Ed suggested that there might be some more movement if we raised our offer.

Cleaned of all the bird poop, the deck looks much better.



What next?
While we were dealing through Ed as the broker, one underlying consideration was that we had met, and liked, the owners, and certainly didn’t want this to become contentious. Maybe that’s a good rule for any negotiation; I can’t imagine any advantage to angering the owner of a boat you’re trying to buy. We didn’t want to spend more than 30K, but (rightly or wrongly), we reasoned that if we offered $30K, we might get the boat, but more likely, the owners would offer to “meet us in the middle” at $32K – and then we’d be stuck. At worst, our second low offer would be seen as obnoxious, and they would dig their heels in at $33K. However, if we offered to meet in the middle at $31K, we might end up with an agreement.

So we sent Ed another email:

Sorry for the slow reply. Kim and I talked it over, and we really don't want to go above $30,000. However, we also don't want to get into a protracted back-and-forth, so we're willing to go to $31,000 to meet in the middle if that helps. I'm afraid that is as high as we would go, however - I'm just very wary of the overall cost of ownership.

Also, I hope that a good part of the value we can offer is in the simple transaction. I've sold two boats in my life, and one sale was simple and friendly, but the other one went on forever - from February to the end of May. I think this could be quite straightforward and easy for everyone.  Thanks - Paul

Offer Accepted

We had an agreement! Hopefully, it worked well both ways. I think we got the boat for a good price, and the previous owners got to walk away from the boat without further storage bills, negotiations, surveys, and the repairs that another buyer might have required.

What about sales tax?
Earlier in the process, I asked Ed about any sales tax that would be needed on this transaction. The boat was being sold in Massachusetts, and would be registered in Rhode Island. This was his reply:

“MA has a sales/use tax amount of 6.25% but if you are registering in RI you will have no sales/use tax at all. In either case, in a brokerage deal such as this one, we would not be collecting a tax as we are required to do on new boats or inventory we own.”

If I were buying and keeping the boat in MA, or buying it in RI and bringing it to MA, the MA sales/use tax ($1937.50!) would be due when the boat was registered. Since RI has no sales or use tax on boats, there would be no taxes due on this purchase. This is a key thing to check on for boat purchases anywhere.

Next up: Choosing a Name

Editor’s Note: This article is part 5 of an ongoing series about buying a used sailboat.

Read part 1, To Buy a Boat or Not to Buy a Boat

Read part 2, Used Boat Ads

Read part 3, How to Talk with the Broker

Read part 4, Looking at the Boat

Paul Grimes is an engineer and marine surveyor living in Portsmouth, RI. Read his detailed reviews of the J/35 and Hobie 33.