What’s Keeping You from Buying a Boat?
VesselWise Aims to Make Boat Ownership Easy
August, 2015
If the idea of owning a boat has crossed your mind once, it won’t go away easily. You may suppress your desire, reason with your mind or just delay the decision a bit longer every year. But the truth is that you still want to buy your very own boat and the desire to one day sail on the water in your own vessel will always remain—until, of course, you finally buy it.
Let’s face it, owning a boat is something special. And no, joining a sailing club or being friends with someone who owns a boat is not the same as owning your own boat. So while you longingly stare at other boaters from the beach, watching families fish, race and have fun on the water or see your friends sailing off to the nearest bay for a day trip or cruising all the way to a neighboring island for a week-long retreat, you continue tinkering with the idea of buying your own boat. But something still stops you. What is it?
A blog post published on BoatingIndustry.com in 2012 stated that “boat maintenance is the biggest reason boaters leave the lifestyle.” This is understandable. The maritime services industry faces a major challenge in terms of delivering a consistently high-level customer experience. Without any resources to facilitate effective coordination among service providers, dealing with boat maintenance, warranty management, surveys and repairs has become an arduous ordeal for existing boat owners. It is also very discouraging for prospective buyers.
First-time buyers usually don’t have any serious idea what it really costs to own a boat, and what they may have heard from other owners is purely based on those owners’ unique personal experiences. Some say boats are “holes in the water that you pour money into,” while others outright disagree with that old adage. But the truth is that, just like any other asset, if looked after and maintained properly, a boat will give you a lot of reasons to smile.
Although the fundamental wisdom is the same—if you take care of it, it will serve you well—you have to admit that owning a boat is not the same as owning a car. Boats are more complex than cars, and because they’re complex, they need diligent care. If you look after your boat, have it surveyed regularly and do the basic things right, such as maintenance, cleaning, etc., there is no reason your boat shouldn’t bring you plenty of joy every season. However, the challenge owners face is that, despite their best efforts to take good care of their boats, the maritime services industry does not make it easy for them to manage warranty and maintenance-related issues. The industry simply does not provide a reliable, transparent or effective way to get this done.
This is where the need for VesselWise arises, to bridge the gap between owners and service providers. VesselWise offers an innovative way for boat owners to manage issues by enabling them to easily coordinate with dealers, warranty managers, surveyors and contractors in an organized manner. Owner-operators can use the VesselWise app to identify and resolve vessel-related issues and to communicate them to their dealer or warranty representatives. They can also get their boats surveyed in a more accurate and effective manner by providing their surveyors the VesselWise app. In turn, surveyors can perform their inspections much faster, more accurately and more conveniently using the VesselWise app. It gives both prospective buyers and existing owners more value for their money and complete peace of mind. So don’t let the maintenance hassles hold you back from your dream of owning a boat. With VesselWise, you can handle it.
To learn more about VesselWise and how it works, contact us.
