Experience in buying boats in the med?

[PeterGade]

Hi

I am looking into buying a boat next year, and have a budget on approx. max 70.000 $. In the Danish markets boat prices are almost double comparing to Greece and Croatia e.g. by the broker e.g. Selymar Yachts.

Because of that i have thought of buying one from the med, and sailing it home. Anyone heard about experiences about this? Is it too good to be true? Or do i need the double like 140.000 $ to buy a proper blue-water cruiser? like the pricing in DK (Have been looking at a Hunter 466 2002 and Bavarian 49 2004).

Kind regards Peter

 

[Jackdaw]

Greece has a flourishing charter industry. Like other places that do, there are lots of used boats for sale, which keeps prices down. Buy from an established dealer and you'll be fine.

 

[Gunni]

You get what you pay for. Boats that have been idled for thousands of hours to charge their batteries, inexperienced charterers who drag their sails up and down the spreaders, bang the boat into docks (and one another), and just generally abuse all systems.

Years ago we did a charter in the BVI. About one hour out, I came on deck and someone noticed that my hair was white with powder. Turns out the cabin overhead was coated with a layer of fine white dust. I assumed that there had been a fire aboard and someone had discharged a dry chem extinguisher. Within a day we were having electrical systems problems and had to return to the charter base. I suggested that the systems problems may be related to the fire. A dock hand told me, "no mon, she was holed on a reef and sunk". The dust was from finish work on a hull patch big as a basketball, completed in the 3 day lay between charters. The electrical system had not been addressed. That is just one example of the abuse charter boats endure.