The sea trial can definitely sell the boat. When I sea trialed my 24 Superboat for the buyer we got into some pretty rough water. The buyer was probably thinking, either this is a GREAT boat, or this guy is crazy!

I sold my 30 Superboat to a guy in New Zealand. He hired a surveyor and we made a deal once he got the report. I told the buyer that under no circumstances was I delivering the boat to the shipper until ALL the funds were wired into my account. He was taking a considerable risk, not something I would of been comfortable with.

The guys over seas are pretty easy to deal with. I had one from Germany who bought my old arabian. He had a broker with pop yachts who did all the work. Everytime I would get a paper or contract I read it 3 times to make sure I didn't miss anything. Once I singed the contract and sent it back they asked where the titles were. I told them the titles and boats location will be given to you when the funds are in my account andetails verified to be good by my bank. They were perfectly fine with it. Then he needed it taken to Baltimore. The guy from Germany set everything up and sent me 700.00 to deliver the boat to Baltimore. I couldn't believe how relaxed he was and Okay with the way I handled the sale. I was just skeptical someone from Germany would want an 83 century. It was by far the easiest sale I have ever had on anything.

Overseas buyers have very few options because their boat markets are so limited compared to what you have in the U.S. I am constantly amazed at the number of boats on the market in America and how cheap they are. Overseas buyers can often take advantage of favorable exchange rates at the time to help with price also.

For me to visit the U.S. to inspect a boat is a 24 hour trip to get there, accommodation, transport, look at a few boats, probably turn it into a holiday for a few weeks, I'd end up spending 20k just to visit. Much better to take a chance on buying unseen and have the 'holiday funds' intact for any work required on the boat.

My next boat will probably be an unseen purchase. Hope It works out as well as the last two.

Overseas buyers are probably a minuscule percentage of the market but if you get an overseas buyer, take him very seriously, he hasn't got lots of options like a local buyer has. Can't consider craigslist, eBay, Facebook etc, he needs a broker or at the very least, a helpful OSO member!

RR

I bought the Sonic with no personal sea trial and was very happy with the outcome.

All I really did was look the boat over on a Sunday while it in a high and dry rack. My surveyor did the rest for me and it was exactly what he stated in his detailed report.

Funny, basically the same thing just happened to me but on a smaller scale. Just bought an ebay boat (Donzi 16) that is about 700+ miles away. Even though we summer vacation about 15 miles where the boat is it just didn’t make any sense to go up there to inspect or even pick it up. Just cost too much for what I have invested. I guess it is all relative to how much you plan on spending.
Sea trials, sold a boat one time that the new owner was out of state and could not come here to look at it. At my insistence he hired an independent inspector who spent over an hour looking at it (a 19’ boat) and then I took him out for a test drive. Put it through its paces, dropped him off and then waited for the new owner to get the report. Boat was picked up by a transporter and it was gone. I still see the new owner here now and then and all went just as well on his end.

i recently purchased a boat sight unseen(boat was located in Canada,i am in Ohio).fortunately for me ,a fellow OSO member was kind enough to check the boat out for me,gave a very accurate description and sent pictures and videos of the boat.seller did have a engine scan performed .when the boat was delivered there were no surprises,the boat was exactly was i expected .buying a used boat i knew there would have to be dollars spent to get it in the condition that i wanted it to be in.

No Sea Trial for my last Cig, I bought it flew to Miami and headed to key west. with zero problems
But I Bought it from Phil at lipship so i wasn't even worried

Would you get married without fuking her first !!!!????

Well, yeah. It's Phil of course.

I recently learned a bit more about Phil and how he takes care of his customers.
I won't repeat it, and it's not public information, but needless to say, he's got it down.

also forgot he bought a new trailer too for $3500