Help for Buyers: Tips and Frequently Asked Questions

SEARCHES, WATCH LIST and EMAIL ALERTS

Saving your favourite Searches is easy!
Just click the ‘Save Search’ button to save your boat search. Save Search

The pop-up window allows you to save your current search so you can easily access it again later. You can also choose a name for your search if you wish.

Creating your Watch List of favourite boats is easy!
To add a boat, just click the grey star on the Boat Ad — it will turn orange to show it’s been added. Click the orange star again to remove it from your Watch List.

To view or manage your Watch List, click ‘Watch List’ at the top of the screen.

Price Change Notifications You’ll automatically receive notifications when the price changes on any Ads in your Watch List.

You can set up email alerts to be notified whenever a new boat matching your criteria is listed. You can create up to 5 Email Alerts.

Please note that alert emails may sometimes be marked as Promotional, Spam, or Junk, and automatically moved to those folders by your email provider.

To ensure you don’t miss any alerts, consider creating a rule or whitelisting the following email addresses: [email protected] and [email protected].


BUYING A BOAT

You can contact the seller by sending them an email by completing the online enquiry form at the bottom of their Ad. This is your best chance of getting in touch with a seller if you haven't been successful by phone. Some sellers choose not to show their phone number.

There may be any number of reasons why the seller hasn’t responded to your enquiry. Perhaps they are away travelling or work shifts. The seller may not be in a position to answer your phone call or online enquiry immediately for other reasons. Some people resist answering the phone if the caller has not enabled caller ID, for example.

If you have heard nothing within three days, please email us.
[email protected]

Whether buying privately or from a Boat Dealer, an independent professional inspection is a must. Keep you and your family safe on the water and fully understand the condition of your potential purchase.

Two of New Zealand's leading independent Marine Survey businesses are:
  • Seaworthy Inspections - Servicing NSW, QLD, VIC, WA
  • BoatBuy - Servicing NSW, QLD

A sea trial is an inspection of a boat to check its seaworthiness. It is a great way to get a feel for how a boat handles on the water and gives you an opportunity to see if there are any issues with a boat before you buy it.

Buying a boat comes with risk - doing a $2 search on the PPSR can help you check if the boat, jet-ski, tinny or other type of watercraft you're buying has a security interest registered against it. This could mean it has money owing on it and is at risk of being repossessed.

You can do an online check at the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR). The cost is only $2 so don't be fooled into paying more. The purpose of PPSR for Boats is to safeguard purchasers of boats from unnecessary financial loss. If you buy a boat without knowing it is financially encumbered (money owing on it) you could have it legally repossessed and lose your investment.

At Boatsonline we take fraudulent activity very seriously.

Our team are constantly monitoring scams and fraudulent activity however occasionally some ads may appear on site that might not seem quite right. If you do notice that an ad appears to be wrong, please report it to us for review.