Handover ends the purchase and begins ownership. The first season is for getting to know the boat, putting the records in your own name and giving the maintenance a sound start. The routine you set now makes later years easier.
Paperwork first
Once the registration is in your name, a few small transfers remain. The radio licence is taken out in the new owner's name. The berthing contracts for the summer and winter bases are made out to you; some marinas won't transfer the previous owner's contract and ask for a new one. The flag state's annual obligations, the insurance renewal date and the service dates of the safety equipment go into one calendar.
Some engine manufacturers keep the service history by owner. Updating that record saves time at your next service.
The survey report is a job list
The report you read before buying stays useful afterwards. Put the findings in order: safety first, then faults that could keep the boat in harbour, then appearance and comfort. Items raised when the price was discussed are usually first-season jobs.
Give the list to the engineers and get the jobs and the price in writing, so you know what has been done and what is left for later. Invoices for repairs the seller agreed to and carried out before handover join the same list.
Start the maintenance in your own name
Even when the previous owner's records are in order, most new owners have the basic service done themselves in the first season: engine and generator oil, filters, cooling circuit, belts and anodes. From then on you know what every later service is measured against.
The dates on the liferaft, fire extinguishers, flares and lifejackets are checked at the same time.
Getting to know the boat takes time
Make your first trips short, and make them in calm weather. This is when you learn how the boat behaves in wind and in tight spaces, how much fuel it burns at which revs and how the systems cope under load. If you have a captain, they get to know the boat in this period too. Long trips can wait a little. If the boat has to go down from the place of handover to the Aegean or the south coast for the summer, that is usually its first long passage with you, and it is better made after a few short ones. Keep the manuals together on board. You will open them often in the first months.
Go through basic safety once, hands on, with the people who will be aboard most. Where are the lifejackets and the extinguishers? What do you do if someone falls overboard? How do you call for help on the radio, and how do you shut off the fuel and the electricity? Everyone should see these once, in place.
Keep records
Keep a logbook and a maintenance log from the first day. The date, engine hours, work done, parts used and invoice go in the same place, along with equipment you add and parts you renew. When you sell the boat one day, this file will be your strongest document.
Write the costs down item by item too: fuel, berthing, maintenance, insurance and any crew. The sum you did before buying was an estimate, and the first season is your first chance to set it against real use.
Leave big changes until the season ends
If you are thinking of a major change to the layout or the equipment, don't rush. After a season's use you see more clearly what is really missing, and the list of winter jobs writes itself. If the boat winters ashore on hardstanding, most of that work is done there, before the new season opens.
An owner who gets through the first season in good order starts the next ones knowing what to expect.
