White Paper for Boat Buyers: 10 Must-Check Details in a New Boat
When buying a new boat make sure that you don't buy one with an inherent problem, one that cannot be easily fixed. And don't assume that just because you are buying a boat from a famous or highly regarded builder that it does not have a serious design defect that might well diminish your enjoyment of the boat or cost you money at resale time. Over the last 10 years BoatTEST.com has tested nearly 1400 powerboats and from that research we have identified 10 important details that will help steer you to the right boat. This White Paper is for boat buyers only.
They all look pretty at the show, but how do you find the one that will be as good on the water as it looks in the showroom?
1. Solid Decks. When walking aboard a new boat you want to feel a solid deck under your feet, and you usually do. So much so, in fact, that it is easy to take a solid deck for granted. Good boat builders know how important this is and are sure to use the proper stiffeners in the cockpit, cabin and on the foredeck to make sure there is no flex or deflection.
We suggest that you walk on any new boat you plan to purchase with your shoes off so you can better feel what is happening under you. Sometimes hatches don't lay properly or are warped. Sometimes a panel in the deck has not been adequately stiffened, or has not been designed for your weight.
Never accept a deck that feels soggy, flexes, squeaks, or deflects under your weight. In addition to the annoyance to you personally every time you feel the deck or hatch flex under your weight, it will be an embarrassment when you have friends aboard, and it will make the boat more difficult to sell when that time comes.
When you are on board any size boat and the deck feels solid you know that the company has properly engineered it, is not skimping on stiffeners to save money, and knows what its customers expect.
2. Good Visibility from the Helm. Well-engineered and designed boats will have good visibility from the helm. Every boat has compromises here and there, but visibility from the helm is a place that you don't want to take chances.
The ABYC (American Boat and Yacht Council, which sets U.S. industry standards) has parameters for both vertical and horizontal visibility from the helm, both standing and sitting. The horizontal standards require that one's field of vision be unobstructed 15-degrees to port and 15-degrees to starboard of the straight ahead line through the hub of the steering wheel. Beyond that, one should have 90-degrees of visibility to port and 112.5-degrees of visibility to starboard. The rule makers understand that your boat will have mullions, doors and other structures in that horizontal sweep, but requires that you be able to see around them with the normal movement of your head.
Sitting visibility. Vertical visibility from the helm in a seated position is to be 27" (63.5 cm) above the seat surface (when compressed) to 33" (83.8 cm) above the seat from a point 16" abaft the rim of the steering wheel.
If you sit at the helm and you are staring straight at the top of the windshield frame, you have a problem. Unfortunately, this often occurs in sportboats, including ones built by prestigious brand names. In some boats with tube-type pedestal seats, often an inch or so can be taken off the height of the pedestal by the dealer to solve the problem. But before you do this make sure the seat will not be uncomfortably low.
Standing visibility. If the boat's helm is designed to be used when standing, the ABYC standards require that you have vertical visibility from 58" (147.3 cm) to 68" (172.7 cm) above the deck where you stand. When helm consoles are high, the chances are it is because the designer was trying to get headroom in the space below it. All boats are a compromise, but this is one you don't want to make.
If you can't see over the helm console a solution is to fabricate a platform on the deck that will raise you to the desired height. Some express cruisers are not designed for standing at the helm, unless a sun roof is open.
3. Proper Cockpit Depth and Rail Height. When you get aboard any boat other than a jon boat, skiff or other open boat, you should expect the cockpit depth to be 24" or greater. This will help keep small children aboard, and keep adults from tumbling out as well. Boat builders that incorporate deep cockpits have given careful consideration to their design for safety and comfort.
For boats that are NOT open boats, the ABYC standards require lifelines, coamings, rails, gunwales, bulwarks or seatbacks at least 24" (61.cm) high around the periphery of the boat on all weather decks.
The ABYC also states that "The outside periphery of flying bridges shall be provided with coamings, life rails...at least 30 inches (76 cm).above the deck...or seat backs... no less than 24" (61 cm) above the deck." Ahem.
4. Can You Stand at the Helm? In almost any boat except small fishing boats and dinghies, there are times when it is comfortable or advisable to steer while standing at the helm. The skipper's visibility is usually best when standing, and it is certainly easier to turn to see what is behind. But can you stand, and can you do it comfortably?
With the helm seat pushed all of the way back is there enough room for your legs to be comfortable and unencumbered? Is there enough room between the rim of the steering wheel and the front of the seat with the bolster up, if it has one? If so, then you are on a boat that has been carefully designed. If not, then you need to ask the dealer if there is anything he can do to adjust the seat or the wheel.
Remember boats are designed for standard ergonomics. If you are etxra tall, short or portly the boat you like may not have been engineered for your body.
The fact is that many boats are designed to look low and sleek which eliminates standing headroom at the helm if they are express cruisers with hardtops. In some cases one can stand at the helm, but the top of the windshield is so low the skipper can't see out. In other cases, with the sun roof open the skipper can pop his head out and have very good visibility as long as it is not raining or too cold.
5. Does the Boat's Ergonomics Match Yours? Boat designers must take ergonomics into consideration for almost every aspect of the boat. But which body size to use? That is the question that is hard to answer, and designers do their best to accommodate as many people as possible, but it is unfair and unrealistic to expect every boat to fit everyone.
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) 34% of Americans are overweight, 33.8% are "obese" and 5.7% are "very obese." That means 73.3% of the American population is overweight or worse. But even if your body height and weight is in line with that chart on your doctor's wall, you may be shorter or taller than the "average" person the boat designer had in mind when your dream boat was created.
For that reason there is absolutely no substitute for you getting on the boat and placing your body in every conceivable location -- including the engine room. If you are overweight (and chances are if you are an American you are) you simply need to find a boat that fits your physique. They are out there. (We are not picking on just Americans. Europeans are also getting bigger.)
6. Can You Easily Reach All Seacocks? This is not something that most new boat buyers check, but they need to because it will tell a lot about the boat builder. Good builders make sure that all seacocks can be easily reached by owner/operators. Today every NMMA or CE certified builder uses double hose clamps on all through hull fittings below the waterline. Most also use double hose clamps on the other end of those hoses which may be above the waterline as well. A below-the-waterline hose that comes off its fitting at either end may have the same result: a full bilge.
Why is this so important even on well-built boats? The marine environment is harsh. Boats that go fast get a lot of pounding, easily jarring things loose. Engines by their very nature create vibration. Temperatures go from very hot to very cold in many places during the year and temperature changes affect materials in different ways. Salt water is tough on metal fittings, such as hose clamps. Heat, age and some chemicals degrade rubber hoses with time.
While failure of a below-the-waterline system is not common, it does happen from time to time, particularly in older boats. If they see water rising in the bilge boat owners must instinctively know where the boat's through-hulls are and be able to quickly shut them off. On large boats that may mean that the owner/operator needs to be able to get through a hatch to reach a seacock.
Conscientious and experienced builders know this and will do a good job of providing for seacock access and shutoff. If you find a builder who has not made access to a seacock reasonably possible, then you have discovered a reason to look elsewhere.
Caveat: Do not rely on certification or build standards to make sure your specific boat has been built right. Generally, individual boats are not inspected, only the model. Further, both NMMA and CE certification of standards are meant more for smaller boats where most of the accidents occur.
Many of these standards don't apply or are impractical for large powerboats and motoryachts. Internationally accepted standards bureaus such as ABS require in situ inspection, among other things, which render certification too expensive for most production and semi-custom building. Typically, a builder may say that it builds to a certain standard but is not certified for that reason. This is common practice in the boating industry and has worked fairly well. Obviously, it places an emphasis on the integrity and experience of the builder.
7. A Large Foredeck Hatch. The primary reason for a foredeck hatch in virtually all boats is to have an emergency exit. Yes, it is nice to be able to open it and receive a cooling breeze, or to admit sunlight in an otherwise dark space -- but never forget the primary reason is to provide an escape hatch. To that end, boat buyers should make sure that they and their guests can actually get through the hatch.
ABYC standards state that if the primary exit from "an accommodations compartment or a sleeping compartment" can be "blocked by a fire in the galley or machinery space," then an exit must be provided with the following minimum characteristics: a) a circular hatch at least 18" (457 mm) diameter; or, b) any other shape that has a minimum dimension of 14.5" (368 mm) and 270 sq. in (.174 m sq.) and large enough for a 14.5" (368 mm) diameter circle to be inscribed in it.
We recommend that you take a tape measure and measure the widest part of your body which cannot be compressed. We think many people will be surprised at what they discover.
Cuddies that are used for storage are exempt, as are spaces that cannot be "blocked by a fire from a galley or machinery space."
In many cases the size of the hatches in required spaces will meet the standards but not be large enough for some of its possible occupants even in boats built by the industry's leading builders. For that reason, it is up to the buyer to personally check on this important detail. Further, keep in mind that even an adequately sized hatch is of little use if a person cannot manage to get up and to it.
8. Person Carrying Capacity. For a long time the number of persons a boat is certified to hold is expressed on the USCG plate mounted by the helm. On most boats this number has been deemed by most people to be too high. The formula used to calculate this number is based on the boat's reserve displacement and a weight for people that is no longer a realistic average. People used to be thinner. The wheels of USCG standards reform grind slowly.
When you want to determine the number of people your boat can safely hold, our best advice -- except for jon boats and small outboard fishing boats -- is to count the number of seats people can comfortably sit in and be safe while the boat is running at speed. Use whatever width you want to for "one average butt", but we use 22" (55.8 cm). Then measure your seats. Usually you can tell how many people can sit in a boat comfortably at speed without a tape measure. We often find that number to be from two to four people fewer than is written on the capacity plate.
Boat companies are competitive and they imagine that consumers compare the "persons capacity number" of the boats on their short list before making a buying decision. For that reason, builders often push the envelope on this issue. ABYC standards say there must be a hand hold for every position on a boat, and evidently that includes people standing.
For example, on center consoles it is not unusual to have only two to four seats but have six people aboard. In this case two to four people will be standing while the boat is busting its way out to the fishing grounds. Typically they are holding on to a hand hold on the console, onto supports for the T-top, or hand holds on the back of the seats at the console for the driver and companion. In those kind of conditions in that type of boat, standing with knees slightly bent may be the most comfortable way to ride.
Jon boats and small outboard-powered fishing boats present another matter altogether. The thwarts may be able to hold seven or eight people, but you do so at your peril. On these types of boats the USCG capacity plate for people and weight must be strictly adhered to. The reason is that the USCG formulas and tests for certification of these boats is more exacting than for larger boats.
9. Length and Size of the Swim Platform. Except for small outboard boats and large fishing boats, most boats these days have swim platforms. They perform a multitude of functions, perhaps the least of which is as a swim platform. Boats with large platforms have more utility than boats with small ones. On sterndrive boats be sure that the swim platform on the boat you buy extends beyond the lower unit and prop when it is in the down position. In that way swimmers can slide off the platform without hurting a foot. If the sterndrive boat you like does not have a swim platform, or none that extends that far aft, ask the dealer if the builder has an optional extended platform.
On larger boats swim platforms have become the desired path of entrance and exit on many boats, in combination with a transom door. It is also a platform to place your dinghy or tender. It is an ideal way to welcome guests coming to meet you in their inflatable, and that is why it should have a couple of pop-up cleats. Many express builders now put rumble seats facing aft on their boats for sundown cocktails. It is a must for scuba divers, and for them the bigger the better. For years European builders have used stern platforms to stow fenders and other gear. One builder even uses the platform for a stern-mounted al fresco galley.
There was a time when boat builders measured the length of their boats on the centerline of the boat from where the stem intersected the deck back to the transom. Over the last decade many builders have evolved into adding the length of the swim platform. Some also count the bow pulpit. When comparing boats buyers need to be careful about being sure to look at far more than the LOA of the models on their short list. Comparisons of displacement, beam on deck, waterline beam and length of the waterline are all often more descriptive of the boat.
10. Engine Room Access. It seems obvious that engine rooms should be easily accessible, and that important equipment in the engine room also be easy to reach, check and change or repair. The trouble is that on boats, even very large ones, owners want more living space, or storage space, or cockpit space, but few want more engine room space. The advance into virtually trouble-free automobiles during the last decade or so has spoiled a new generation of boaters who expect to step aboard a boat, turn on the ignition and take off just as they do in a car.
Yet veteran boaters know that a boat isn’t an automobile and while it may use an automotive engine block, there is a big difference between a motor car and a motorboat. These boaters know that the engine room is the most important compartment on the boat, and it should be treated as such.
If things go wrong in the engine room -- and that is precisely where they are most likely to go wrong -- it can ruin your whole day or your planned cruising vacation.
One of the keys to a satisfying boating experience is preventive maintenance and the anticipation of problems and heading them off before they occur. That means that the owner/operator needs to start every boating day in the engine room checking all of the fluids, strainers, filters, through-hulls, belts, batteries, seacocks and a dozen other items in the engine room. Not only must boat owners know where everything is in their engine room, they must be able to get to all of the important gear easily.
In a sterndrive boat can you inspect the bellows? In an express fish boat can you get to the outboard side of the engines and to the gear on the forward bulkhead? Remember, most engine rooms are built and fitted out before the deck goes on the hull. That means it is relatively easy for the builder to install the equipment, but unless the room has been carefully planned and fitted out trouble can be built in right from the start.
Good boat builders know that and make sure that every important piece of equipment can be seen and reached. That often means making the accommodations or the cockpit or the storage space smaller. Not-so-good boat builders simply make excuses for why things can’t be reached in their engine rooms and let you and your boat yard solve the problem.