Boats
Buy and sell boats in Guatemala.
A small fibreglass boat with a Japanese outboard on the stern does most of the work on Guatemalan water, from fishermen’s runs out of Iztapa to the public boats crossing Atitlán. The sailboats moored up the Río Dulce at Fronteras are another world: cruising yachts that came in over the bar at Livingston and often change hands there when a voyage ends. New and pre-owned, what gets listed runs from a whole boat on its trailer to a single outboard or a spare propeller. Decide first which water it is for, because the open Pacific, a lake that turns rough after lunch and a calm river ask for different hulls.
Pacific, highland lake or Río Dulce, the water that picks the boat:
Guatemala has three kinds of boating water, and each rewards a different hull. Off Puerto San José and Iztapa it is open sea, with salt, swell and sailfish grounds well offshore, which suits a deep-V centre console with fuel to spare and, ideally, two engines. Atitlán and the other highland lakes are fresh and glassy in the morning, but the Xocomil wind comes up after midday and can swamp a low-sided boat, so high sides matter more there than top speed. Izabal, El Golfete and the Río Dulce are calm fresh water, where sailboats sit for months and a small outboard skiff is how a family gets to market. A complete boat belongs in boats for sale, and the type changes what you inspect: a power boat is mostly its hull and its motor, a sailboat its rigging and sails, a jet ski its engine hours. If you are re-powering an old hull, start with outboard engines; the rest of boat parts and maintenance is where the things salt wears out first get replaced.
Río Dulce sailboats priced in dollars:
the cruising yachts that come up for sale around Fronteras are asked for in US dollars, and a sound 1970s or 1980s fibreglass monohull of 32 to 40 feet often goes for around US$20,000 to US$40,000. That is a small fraction of what the same length costs new, and the reason is that a forty-year-old hull is rarely the problem. The engine, the standing rigging and the sails are, and a boat with all three due is a refit project, priced or not. Check the draft as well: a keel deeper than about a metre and a half has to wait for high tide to cross the bar at Livingston, and much past two metres it may not get out at all. On a yacht at this level, pay a surveyor before you pay the owner.
Transoms, outboards and trailers on a used fibreglass skiff:
start at the back. The transom carries the motor, and on fibreglass boats with a wooden core it rots from water creeping in around the bolts. Tilt the motor up and push on it: the transom should not flex, and cracks or weeping around the mounting bolts mean an expensive repair. Walk the deck for soft spots too. Then hear the outboard start from cold, ideally in the water rather than in a barrel. A steady stream from the tell-tale outlet shows the water pump is cooling the engine; milky gear oil in the lower unit means water has got past a seal. Ask where the boat was used. A motor that ran on the Pacific should have been flushed with fresh water after every trip, and a trailer that was backed into the sea shows it in its axle, springs and wheel hubs. On a jet ski, read the hour meter and ask whether it ever worked as a beach rental.
Engine hours, home water and papers in a boat listing:
say where the boat has spent its life, lake, river or sea, because buyers price fresh-water boats higher. Give the motor’s make, horsepower, two-stroke or four-stroke and the hours if it has a meter, and whether the trailer is included. Photograph the hull out of the water, the transom close up and the engine’s serial plate, and say what documentation goes with the boat and with the motor. Then be ready for a trial run. Someone who has driven most of a day from the capital to Fronteras wants to see the boat start cold and plane, not hear it idle at the dock, and on Atitlán the trial belongs in the morning, before the Xocomil comes up.