Why is it, that when you are looking to buy a boat, you can 
never find one that suits your needs. This is what has happens 
to many people every year and in particular to ourselves. It’s 
just like buying a house. When you are selling, it is a buyer’s 
market and when you are buying it is a seller’s market! This 
year my husband and I decided that it was time to buy our first 
boat.

Now we have been boating with our friends on their Bayliner for 
many years. They pay for the boat expenses and we bring the food 
and drink in exchange. Not a bad deal we figured, until we got 
the boat bug ourselves. Now we want to own our own boat. After 
six years of boating and as many seasons of boat shows, we 
decided to take a boating course. So a couple of winters ago, 
we signed up for a rather lengthy boating course of 16 weeks. 
We decided that firstly we wanted to be safe boaters and 
secondly we wanted to protect our very expensive boat 
investment when the time came.

Week after week of classes, lesson after lesson of plotting 
and tying knots came and went and finally it was time to 
graduate and try our luck at boating with all this new found 
knowledge. We decided first to try out our expertise on our 
friends’ boat, but discovered that was like having two cooks 
in the same kitchen. Things don’t really run as smoothly as one 
would like. Tie a knot. Have someone retie it for you. Hang the 
fenders over the side. Have someone reposition them. So after 
several weekends of unsuccessful attempts, the decision was made 
to buy our own boat sooner rather than later where we could tie 
our own brand of knot and observe the channel markers the way 
we had been taught!

So we started to look. What happened to all the “For Sale” 
signs that we had seen only weeks before in every marina that we 
cruised by? Where were all those perfect boats that we had seen 
in every cove and tied up to every dock? They were no where to 
be found. Finally after perusing the yachting magazines and 
journals, talking to several boat brokers and searching many 
internet boats for sale sites, we found what we thought to be 
the perfect yacht for us - right in our own backyard. Only five 
minutes from our home there is located a marina with lots of 
power boats. Last year there were many for sale. But as luck 
would have it, we were not looking then. This year, there were 
few boats for sale. But on this one particular morning as we 
drove through the marina parking lot, we spied the perfect boat. 
We hopped out of the car and walked over to take a closer look. 
The boat had been pulled out of the water, so we were able to 
look it over from all sides including the bottom.

The information that was posted beside the boat looked very 
promising. Just the right length. Just the right age. We had 
already agreed that this boat make was good quality. An 
inflatable dinghy with motor and seawise electric lifting 
{ http://www.boats-anchors-and-more.com/inflatable-boats.htm )
system was also included. The boat also had a GPS and all the 
trimmings. But the price, could it be correct? It seemed a bit 
low for this particular yacht. You guessed it! The twin engine 
system was gas, not diesel. This was the reason for the 
excellent price.

We thought that we had found the perfect boat! In fact we had 
except for one very expensive item. For those of you who own 
your own boat, you can related to the expense of a gas engine 
yacht. Gas engines are fast and great for skiing and lake 
touring in small boats, but on the ocean and in a large yacht, 
the cost can be prohibitive.

So once again, our search begins in earnest. And once again, 
there are no boats for sale. Or is that just our take on the 
situation? Surely the boat for us is just out there waiting 
to be discovered!