I don't know the entirety of the story, or all of the details involved, that being said I think I'm going to side with the seller on this one. You already mentioned the hauling of the boat to and from the water, of which the company would be responsible for that in the event of an issue, and their insurance would take care of everything. That's something that is understandable in that neither you, nor the seller, really have any control over and the seller shouldn't be responsible if the hauling company dropped the boat on the ground for example. If you personally are driving the boat on the sea trial run and hit the dock, run aground or run into something else, you should be the one liable for the damages and costs to repair said damages. Same goes for when you purchase the boat and all monies have exchanged hands and the deal has had the final handshake. It's your boat at that point, of which you should have insurance on it as well as hopefully a Sea Tow membership or similar company in the event that you break down. Every time I've ever sold something of a moderate price like a car or a boat, etc... I've always put similar verbiage in the bill of sale where the buyer is fully responsible for the item after the sale has occurred. The item is being sold as is, where is, unless some other arrangement has already been made, and with no return or warranty or anything else implied that the seller is responsible for. It's solely the responsibility of the buyer at that point, especially as mentioned above, if all monies and everything else have been signed and agreed on. I say this for multiple reasons, of which the main one would be that people aren't paying attention or don't always know what they're doing. If you as the buyer bought the boat, ran aground on the way back to your home port, that wouldn't be the fault of the seller. If he doesn't put that language into the contract, he would be liable for your negligence. I give a buyer as accurate of information as possible about the condition of the boat, maintenance history and so forth, but there is always a possibility that something could happen right after purchasing. I honestly wouldn't let the boat go for those reasons and from what you've said, I think the seller has been very accommodating and/or at least reasonable, especially since you said he ultimately agreed with you in the long run. The idea of a unicorn boat, car or any other toy imo is just silly in that you're likely going to talk yourself out of the situation, and usually for little to no reason, because you're going to look for something that is "perfect" to you, that in all likelihood you might not ever find. That's just time, money and emotions wasted imo. But hey, it's your money and your decision, though you are asking for the opinions of an online forum, so those are my opinions on the matter.
Ultimately it’s your money so you must feel confident in the condition of the boat for the price you have offered. Let’s face it that all used boats are risky to some degree, the owner should have gone with you on the sea trial and assumed all the risk and cost to get it in the water. My 2 cents.
Your correct about not knowing all of the details and I'm not going to get into all the weeds here. I would have finalized the deal on the water with a bank check, the seller would have the title and bill of sale ready to finalize. I would most definitely have had a policy/coverage ready to go once I own the boat, not before. I have a Seatow membership & they would have been in the loop on this transfer as well. If something happened to the boat on the sea trial, even through no fault of my own, I would be screwed. The chances of anything of the sort happening are so small I know it seems ridiculous. Regardless, seller should have his own insurance coverage while he owns the boat on the water.
I guess I just wouldn't let a boat or any other deal go south because of something like this. I mean what does a boat insurance policy cost for the year... $500-$600? If you could get a 6 month policy or even pay by the month, it would be considerably less as most insurance companies, or at least mine, prorates their coverage. Even if you bought an insurance policy for say $200-$300 just for yourself being out on the water with the sea trial run, imo that's not worth potentially losing the boat over. And if you did go through with the purchase of the boat, you'd already be covered for the trip home, and could extend the coverage out for the entirety of the year, broaden the coverage, etc. As you mentioned before, if you're spending what I'm assuming must be at least $50k-$60k on a boat, why let the deal go south for a couple hundred dollar insurance policy? I know I wouldn't. Based off your comments above, it seems to me like you might very well be overthinking the entirety of this just a bit much, and/or maybe talking yourself out of the deal. Oh well, moving onward.
is it even possible to get insurance on a boat that you do not own? at the time of the sea trial, it is still owned by the seller and should be covered by his policy.
This is how I understood it, but it does not matter at this point. I'm past the point of being able to work with this seller. I am confident I will find a boat. The Gulfstream is still at the top of my list but there are others that meet my baseline criteria.
I imagine that if you called up your insurance company and explained the situation, they'd be able to make some sort of coverage for you. Either that, or at least with myself trailering my boats across the country when purchasing them, I called to make sure my car insurance policy covered the boat/trailer and everything else until I got back and was able to purchase a boat policy. I have Progressive, and that's how they work, at least for me. I also can't imagine that this is the first time that this has ever happened before in the history of selling boats, cars, motorcycles, rv's, homes and so forth. In fact, something similar happened with the previous owners of my house where they had until I believe it was October 13th to move out of the house but were behind schedule and needed a few more days to live there and move their things out. They called up their homeowners insurance company, extended their policy out for another 3 days, even after they'd cancelled it, and voila. I called up to verify that this had been done as I didn't want them living in my house without any sort of homeowners insurance policy, and it was a non issue.
Not trying to argue at all... just giving my opinions on the matter, which you asked for and is kind of the whole purpose of having an online forum. My thought process would be that it sounds as though you've been looking for a boat for some time, as well as Labor Day weekend is in a few days. I believe you said you're in Cape Cod, MA and have to imagine the weather is somewhat similar to here in that there are seasons for boating/fishing, etc, and that those aren't year round. That would make me wonder, even if you did find a boat in the next couple weeks, how much will you be able to use it before fall/winter gets here? If the rest of the boat checked out and it was a simple matter of having a "difficult seller", I wouldn't let that get away just for that reason alone. Yes, there are a good amount of 232 Gulfstream's on BT and other sites, lots that have also been for sale for quite sometime, hopefully there isn't a reason for that, but typically there is. Either way, this will be my last response so as to not further derail the thread, good luck and we all hope you find the boat you're looking for.
I had an 04 Gulfstream and will tell you it is a great boat and handles like a much bigger rig. The boat I had was powered by a F225 and I had no complaints. I am on the south shore of Ma and used the boat extensively on Cape Cod Bay and several trips to Nantucket and Martha Vineyard. Twins would be nice for docking and I'm sure the 300 would be plenty of power to satisfy. Good Luck!
Sounds like a good move. When your personal radar is screaming stop, wise to be mindful right? Mine has never failed me in professional and private deals, the only failures have been from dismissing the bleeping warning lights and sometimes that means passing on an opportunity. Good luck finding your boat, it will turn up.
