Expert Yacht Guides

Which guide to read first

Most buyers read these in the wrong order, which is why the third year of ownership often costs more than the first. This is the sequence that works:

1. Start with financing, not the boat. What you can borrow, over what term and at what rate sets the real budget — and marine lending is not structured like a mortgage. Read the financing guide while you are still deciding what you can afford.
2. Then the buying guide, in full. It covers shortlisting, the sea trial, the pre-purchase survey and the negotiation, in the order those steps actually happen. It is the one guide worth reading twice.
3. Then maintenance, before you sign. A boat that costs $40,000 a year to run is a different proposition from one that costs $120,000, and the difference is usually visible at survey rather than in the asking price.

What the guides assume about you

They are written for a first-time or second-time owner, not for a professional skipper. Technical terms are explained where they appear, and where a decision depends on your own circumstances — flag, cruising area, whether you will charter — the guide says so instead of pretending there is a single right answer. Prices are stated in the currency and year they were checked, so you can see how stale a figure is.

The rest of the library

Three guides cannot cover everything, and the blog carries the detail: a pre-purchase survey walkthrough, what insurance actually covers, how a yacht depreciates and what holds value, the selling process when the time comes, and the seakeeping numbers that tell you how a hull behaves before you buy it. The category pages start from the type of boat rather than the type of decision.