Boating and second-hand market: a complicated relationship. Anyone who has chosen to buy a boat, of any kind, knows this very well.
Second-hand boats can hide an avalanche of small and big defects and the seller often “forgets” to show them to the person who approaches to the purchase of what he considers not only a boat but also a dream, the materialization of all the emotions that only those who sail or have sailed can understand.
With these preconditions, the buyer is often weak and doesn’t think rationally, like he’s supposed to do, especially in case of second-hand boats which sail in a market where sharks are very numerous.
Fortunately, however, not all the operators are the same and some of them are really honest. Today, we want to tell you a particular case, unique for our part.
In Italy, in Lake Garda, between Gargnano and Bogliaco, there is a little marina owned by Nautica Feltrinelli for five generations.
To resist wars, economic crises, downturns and the wild fantasy of politicians, you must be great. And if boating has been your job for 150 years and customers go away only because too old, then we’re maybe in the right place where to talk about boats and second-hand market.
Mauro Feltrinelli is a severe straightforward person who considers and manages boating in his own way, very different from what we’re are used to and that we want to tell you today.
First of all, Mauro offers a trade-in service to his customers who have a used boat.
“When I take a boat or a buy it from a colleague”, he says, “I think to her next owner and the reasons to buy her”
When a boat is bought or she comes from a trade-in negotiation, she enters the production cycle, where she is dismantled, inspected, repaired and restored to the point she is practically new. Working sheets are filed and they can be accessed by the customer and his eventual consultant for the pre-purchase analysis and check.
Then, Mauro talks about warranty and we wonder: Warranty? In boating? We’re used to buy according to the “I saw and liked it” philosophy with the addition of an analysis made by a an expert we know; we have never heard about warranty.
“All our used boats are under 1-year-warranty” says Mauro ” our preparation protocol allows us to be relaxed and, it we don’t notice a part which needed to be replaced, we’ll replace it at our expense, labour included. We’ve been working this way for decades”.
So, boat selling doesn’t finish with delivery, assistance lasts a longer time. Moreover, many customers choose to moor or storage their boats at Nautica Feltrinelli, which means that there’s a close relationship between seller and buyer.
“In every aspect of our activity, we take care about all small and big problems connected to the ownership of a boat”, says Mauro Feltrinelli, “our customers has only to enjoy sailing” .
We snoop around and we ask for some files: we discover that they all contain photos certifying the carried-out works. We don’t resist and we ask for the file of a Cranchi 840 which was received and resold; photos are those you see in this article, any comment is redundant, boats really seem new, even better, because they are all maniacally checked. Moreover, the materials used for refitting are more modern and efficient than in the past, when the boat was built, so the boat is inevitably better than when it was new.
Feltrinelli’s boats are literally restored and they are a little more expensive than the other second-hand boats but, if we consider their conditions and 1-year-warranty, after 1-2 years, we’ll have spent much less than a traditional purchase and we’ll have certainly sailed more.
On the other hand, when we buy a second-hand car, we take for granted that it is in perfect condition. Big groups even offer a special “logo” to guarantee the perfect condition of the vehicle. This is why we are willing to spend more. ” We’ve been using the same system for decades and now we want to certify it”, says Mauro Feltrinelli. “This is why we have conceived the logo “BETTER THAN NEW”, a stamp which guarantees to the customer the perfect condition of the boat he buys”.
Here you are some BOATS BETTER THAN NEW:
