"jps" wrote in message
...

We're talking about a: boat that's sitting in the water needing to be
dry docked so the surveyor can do his under the waterline inspection of
hull, running gear, thru hulls, etc.


or b: sitting on the hard needing to get to the water to be sea-trialed.

No, that's wrong. The original post said this:

"My husband and I are considering purchase of a used boat - currently out of
the water at our marina. "

Did you catch that part? "...currently out of the water..."




For a 28' and under that can fit on a trailer or get a forklift ride,
the expense and time isn't that bad but it's still usually incumbent on
the person looking for confirmation, not on the current owner.


No it's not. If you buy a boat, you're entitled to a sea trial. It's the
seller's responsibility to see to it that the boat is in the water so that
prospective buyer can sea trial it. Of the 4 boats that I sea-trialed, I
bought three of them. One of them had problems, and the owner wouldn't
budge on the price after the sea-trial. Each time (except for one), I put
down a deposit (usually $500 or $1000) prior to the sea-trial. After the
sea-trial, the money was either applied to the purchase, or refunded if the
boat didn't perform as advertised.


When you've got a boat that requires a traveling lift or dry dock to
raise or lower, it's a different story. It can run hundreds of $ to
lift and splash. I'm certainly not going to do that for a perspective
buyer on my dime.

Many marinas in my area either sell the boat on consignment for owner, or
write into the owner's storage contract that the marina is entitled to 10%
of the sales price of the boat if it's sold from their premises. It's not
the owner's dime that is paying for the launch...it's usually the marina's
money...and, many times, they're compensated for it via the commission they
receive on the sale.