Buying a boat can be as easy as buying a car. A quick handshake, a wad of cash and Robert's your father's brother, you are set for a life on the waves. Or not. This could be a way to emptying your bank account quicker than engaging in a bid to purchase Tower Bridge from a gentleman with serious connections to a banana republic. There are plenty of things to consider when buying a boat, some of which are maybe's and some of which, in my experience, most definitely aren't.

Finance - you can get finance on boats, but since there is always the possibility of it sinking and losing the vast majority of its value, marine mortgages are often very expensive and over shorter terms than a house mortgage. We didn't go down this route as we had sufficient savings to purchase our first boat and we didn't really want to be a slave to a monthly payment. With the prescient words of "neither a borrower nor lender be" ringing in my ears I feel it is truer nowadays than at any time before. Unless you owe billions in which case you pretty much own the bank anyway and there's nothing they can do to you...

Survey - yes, yes and yes. Always, always get a survey and ensure that any offer you make is caveated that it is dependant on a satisfactory survey. No ifs, no buts. You might save yourself a grand (or about £3000 if you buy a barge the size of ours in Holland) but it gives you an absolutely clear picture of the state of the vessel prior to purchase. We did it on our first widebeam barge and it threw up a few minor points but ultimately we knew that by making a purchase with the survey in mind we were not going to be stung with any horrendous unforeseen bills. I remember talking to our surveyor who surveyed a narrowboat for someone and it was essentially a collander held together with chewing gum and spit and would have been incredibly costly to repair. The individual was most put out that he had "lost" about £600-£700. You just can't understand some people...

The big barge on the left in the picture below came in for a hull repaint. As they were blasting the paint off with high pressure water they started blowing holes in the hull. After investigating and cutting out a large section of the hull as it was utterly rotten the owner was left with a €60,000 bill. If you don't get a survey done, you are playing Russian roulette with your entire savings.

Surveys in Holland - the process in Holland is a little different especially if you are buying through an agent. If you agree a price with the vendor they will often draw up a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) which says you will buy the barge if the survey is ok. You will then have to transfer about 10% of the purchase price to a notary in order to safeguard the sale of the barge. The MOA will also state who gets what out of the 10% should the barge be a floating deathtrap. It covers you (the owner will pay for welding to be done should the hull thickness fall below a minimum of 4mm - the legal insurance limit) and also the vendor should you just get cold feet. As and when you get the MOA, ensure you read through it carefully. They may not survey elements like the engine or sails unless you specify the surveyors to do that and even then the MOA may state that it's only the hull survey which will be a 'go/no go' item. Be wary of paying money direct. The notary is there as a safeguard and you have to employ one to carry out the legal changes to the Kadaster (Dutch Barge Register). Costs for something the size of our barge (23.1m x 4.7m):

Notary - €1300
Survey - €2250 (not a full mechanical survey)
Liftout - €1000 ish

Welding for patching etc can be expensive too. The L shaped piece at the rear of the barge cost about €500 to repair.

Insurance - obviously. In Holland once you have agreed to purchase the vessel post survey the vessel is then yours for risk purposes and you must insure it, even though you may not have the deed of sale yet. If you want to get work done on the barge while she is in dry dock, you have to accept her (and hence the risk) otherwise you will not be able to carry out work on her. It's an ownership, risk thing. If you are getting insurance from a UK agent, you must make sure the surveyor you are using is accepted by the UK insurer (some aren't) and make sure they get a copy of the survey in good time or get the surveyor to call them. The last thing you want is for your barge to be accepted whilst still in dry dock and then worked on before you have insurance in place. If you are a member of the Barge Association (www.barges.org) some insurers will give you a discount and don't forget to tell them if you want to cross the channel. You will need to up the insurance with a special premium and have certain restrictions imposed.

Money - the Euro is up and down like a yoyo at the moment and you certainly won't get a good exchange rate from the high street bank who seem to take about 5-8 cents per Euro over what specialist ForEx companies will offer. Barclays do offer a Euro account but you need to have a current account with them and they seem to be one of the only UK banks that do and they will charge you each time you make an overseas payment. However, they won't charge you to take large sums out in cash. We deal with HiFx and can recommend them (other Forex companies are available and we have no relationship with them). Last year I booked €50,000 on a 1 year forward contract while it was trading at €1.42 to the pound. I got a rate of €1.385 saved for a year and all I paid was a 5% downpayment. This turned out to be a pretty good move as the Euro has recently strengthened and become about 10% more expensive. It's good to have a Euro account ready before you want to buy so you can make spot trades with Euros and get a better rate. I probably could have got a €1.40-€1.41 if I had made a trade straight away.

Black Money - you can always pay some black money and keep the tax man away from the deal (although I obviously do not condone any form of tax evasion, it says here). A low agreed value and the understanding that before you get the keys to your new, surveyed, insured and ocean going dream palace, you settle up with the vendor in a dark pub somewhere with a brown paper bag stuffed full of used notes. If you are going down this route, just be advised that the limit across the border into the Netherlands is €10,000 before you have to declare it. It can often be used as a sweetener and means more money into the vendor's pocket, less to the agent and less to the taxman. You might also get a slightly better deal...

VAT - a thorny issue in an of itself. A blog post for another time I feel.

Anywho, must dash. I have a central heating plumbing system to design and cost.

TTFN