So you're considering buying a sailboat...

East Antarctica news, some interesting black hole science, and in the "This really should piss you off" department...

Buying a boat these days is not exactly the sort of thing I'd wish on my worst enemy. For instance, being in the Caribbean, I see a lot of boats for sale and almost all of them have, hmm, let's use the word issues.

The most common issue is simply that the boats concerned are just too fucking expensive.



It's really depressing to compare prices of boats available in the USVI/BVI to boats stateside in better shape/condition and I'd put the offset at something like 30% but it's not unheard of seeing boats going for twice what the the same boat in better condition would cost stateside.

Of course, having had a couple of major hurricanes in the not too distant past there are a lot of "H" boats for sale, albeit not all are being advertised as such, for surprisingly high prices considering that most have major issues which may or may not have been repaired/rebuilt by someone who has a clue.

Still just about every week I get emails from folks who want my advice on great deals on boat for sale down here because everybody knows the islands are just full of awesome deals. Have you ever got the feeling that "everybody" is just code for a vast pool of moronic thought process?

A friend happens to be selling their Tartan 42 (a turnkey boat very much worth checking out) and the first thing I did was check what a similarly equipped and priced reasonable facsimile would cost down here. It was a difficult search. Most of the boats that sorta/kinda fit were "H" boats and even they were quite a bit more expensive needing lots of work to even get on the same page. Beware of "great boat with all the toys but needs a new mast and rigging" deals.

Which is a roundabout way of saying that when looking at boats one really has to do the required homework, do the math and not pay attention to what everybody says.

Oh yeah, lose those rose-coloured glasses while you're at it.

Listening to The Rats

So it goes...