Back Again (insider tips)

I have to expose now some "secrets" about assessing brokers and boat owners, when approaching them to buy your first boat. Doesn't matter at this stage if you buy a motor boat or a sailing one. Let's presume you don't have the minimum budget for a brand boat, like the samples exposed in my previous posts. They can be "custom" made, definitely no name brands, like a few that I'm going to show you here.

 This is the boat, as real as it could be. Seeing the name is no help in a better society. 

  This is what you got. No name. You depend exclusively on the broker. Please click on each picture to see the difference. In a better organized society, if the broker spoke beforehand with the boat owner, they'll have at least an agreement, if not a "concrete molded" contract, so he will not start negotiating with you, the client, to "cut off" the broker. What is happening when there are no brand names involved? For example, in a country like Turkey, a foreign customer, and believe me, the farther away he is, the "better" he'll be "treated", there is no way for him to find the real price a boat owner will be happy with. That is the "not written law". If you act alone, you will be told a bunch of lies. The broker has his own price, not even the owner knows. Of course, the owner "agreed", verbally agreed to an asking price when contacted by the broker, but if you, as a customer, try to contact directly the owner, you'll be told a different price, maybe bigger than what the broker will tell you. In Turkey, this is called pazarlik, and they, the Turks think of themselves as "good" traders. If you accept the asking price, you're done. It is always more than he expects, because he expects from you to try to down the price automatically. If you come from a highly civilized country, you'll accept maybe just a little reduction from the initial price, a 2% perhaps, which is actually with something between 40 to 50% more than what the owner told the broker. And it's done.
If a broker is not experimented, he won't have an answer for any question. He'll lie, and lie, and lie some more, just to close the agreement, to have some 10% of almost any price, (as advance payment, or deposit, or whatever it's called) money you'll lose in any good designed contract if you change your mind to buy. If he has some experience, he'll know the real price of the boat (the owner will be happy with any sum close to the real price), he'll put separately the commission and start negotiating with the boat owner exactly in your name, because he represents you. In reality? There is no such a broker in Turkey. Also, the bunches of owners dream to big money for their boats, even if they worked them up to more than their value, sometimes without refitting, but pretending the contrary. 
In Turkey, you will be advised from the beginning to not survey the boat. "It's not necessary" you will be told. And it's right, in a way. The greater majority of the boats for sale in Turkey, don't have what is called Class Certification. If the surveyor is Turkish, he'll be in an agreement with the broker, 99%.
If he's foreigner, he'll advise to not buy that peculiar boat, but if you made your mind, he'll know of another one, with a "positive" survey as recent as possible done, so you "will save the money for surveying this one". If this is the case (and I've seen plenty), he'll absolutely have a commission from that deal, even greater then the broker's, from the surveyed one. The difference between the two boats is minimum, the second one maybe dearer, being "freshly surveyed" and all.
Unfortunately, I've seen brokers in other countries who are the same. Check this:

"Part of our offer will be to have a marine survey completed with the findings to your satisfaction.  I know many certified surveyors and I’ll recommend several that are “top shelf” and ask that you interview and select the one you prefer"- this is part of an American broker presentation. It continues with some Q&A style : "I've heard that surveyors and Brokers team up just to sell a boat?"

"I've heard of that happening but I do nothing of the sort.  I know surveyors from a professional standpoint". That is a lie. It is better for you to come to buy with a specialist you know from before, a guy you trust, and it is not a local, that of course, if you are new to anything related to yachts, boats, and the stuff... To be continued... 

Sailing Yachts 3

Today, I'll present two models from Germany, this time, The Hanse Yacht Building Company.

The sources of the success of HANSE yachts which include ultra-modern developments, originate in Wedel at the Elbe. In 1981, times were changing and Michael Schmidt had to make a major investment into the insolvent Schwarz shipyard. Motor yachts had been built there. Sailing yachts were to be the future of this yard. Rolf Vrolijk, the designer of the America`s Cup winner “Alinghi” and now one of today’s most successful yacht designers in the world, was still at the beginning of his career. He, as well as Wilfried Reiners were assigned to design and build a boat in Wedel for the Admiral`s Cup which was sponsored by the Düsseldorf exhibition. This project determined the future. The big bang of Hanse`s history was the HANSE 291. This boat was an unbeatable offer which caused great fuss and excitement comparable to that of a big bang. That was in the summer of 1993. All workers of the old shipyard in Greifswald were unemployed and coincidentally in Sweden, Karl Baier, the builder and owner of all of the rights to the “Aphrodite 291” was willing to sell and Michael Schmidt bought the tooling and name.

Now it was time to take the chance: the shipyard together with the Swedish boat builder Bent Elgaard, was ready to take-off. After four weeks of taking up the work in Greifswald, the HANSE 291 was exhibited at the “hanseboot” as a best buy offer of only 44.444 Deutsche Mark. There was symbolically a big hammer hanging above the yacht so that obviously there was something special going on at this exhibition booth. The HANSE 291 offered all the basics of a sailing boat: good sailing features, auxiliary engine, bunks, pantry, and pump toilet. Being so well equipped for the price, the boat gripped the hearts of sailors and Michael Schmidt drew up thirty contracts at the show. From then on the motto was “Evolution instead of Revolution”. The HANSE 291 was developing from the experience of its owners and the shipyard evolving into the HANSE 292 and 301. Of all the models, I choose the 545 and the 630e. First, the 545

The master cabin, a sample of comfort.

Still from the en-suite bath.

Still of saloon.

You can drink your own water.

Galley area, classic and stylish..

Another caption from the beautiful interior.

The standard layout.

The deck. Below, a visual of the aft.

The Hanse 545 has a LOA of 16.20 m / 53'9", a LWL of 14.60 m / 52'10", the beam of 4.91 m / 16'1", the draft of 2.80 m / 9'2", a displacement of ~18.7 t. An approximate price in USD is 350,000 for the newborn.

It is just gorgeous, and most of all, economic. They have a M/E of 110 HP/80.9 KW.

The 630e is a high luxury item, counting the prices requested by some brokers. I've seen a 900,000 Euros quotation and I've seen a 770,000 Euros quotation, for the same year, 2011. One can easily estimate it at around 700,000 Euros.

Doesn't look different, but it is, I assure you.

At a LOA of 19 m / 62'4", a LWL of 17.10 m / 56'1", a beam of 5.20 m / 17'1", and a draft of 2.95 m / 9'7", the displacement of just 23.7 t makes her suitable for any boat lift.

The interior is as any luxurious yacht can provide. Below are more captions, from almost all the parts of this magnificent boat.

The master bedroom.

Work area, which is provided also in the cabins.

The functional galley.

Dining in style.

The super functional interior layout.

The spacious deck.

The navigating equipments are exactly what you need.
I'm impressed by this German company. At a series models production rate, they offer quite a lot. This is not advertising here, it's only a presentation, a personal one to be more precise, for any specialized consulting in the matter, your requests are welcomed.