Boats and Bits – Private Ads, Wanted & For Sale

To maximise your chance of selling please give prospective buyers as much information as possible. The more information you give the more likely you are to attract prospective buyers. Try to include at least one photo of the item, a full description, age and condition. You may also want to include payment and delivery terms. (If you need help with photos please contact UKWA).

Please remember that your advert will potentially reach a worldwide audience, not just UKWA members.

Classified advertising draws a lot of attention – both good and bad – and not just within the UKWA membership. When selling please be alert for potential signs of possible dubious intent, including:

• the ‘buyer’ being unaware that the item advertised is a boat (or boat-related)
• telling you to “consider it sold already”
• mobile phone text messages with links to view a part exchange
• offering to list your advert on another website (for a fee)
• a phone call from somebody pretending to be from your bank and referring to your recent purchase of an advert
• offering to buy the boat (or item) without seeing it first (use your judgement here)
• making excuses about why they can’t view it in person (but again use judgement)
• wanting to pay by some unusual method
• making excuses about being un-contactable by telephone or e-mail
• payment from a third party
• over-payment of any kind; possibly combined with a request to refund a portion, or pay a ‘shipping agent’ on their behalf
• asking you to log in to your account to view a listing; this is never necessary
• unlikely or improbable interest; enquiries about a large ship may well come from the other side of the world, but interest in a sailing dinghy is unlikely to come from beyond plausible trailing distance!

If it doesn’t sound right, feel right, or seems to good to be true – don’t continue with it. Google the name or email address of suspicious-sounding responders. Or at least check the list of known scammers (below).

If in doubt, even slightly, please contact UKWA for advice.

*** Please be aware of scams.  These are widespread and not specific to Wayfarers or our website.  They are not all the same – please beware ***

• A partial list of known or likely scammers can be checked on this page (link opens in new tab).

Here is an account of one vendor’s experience:

“When the advert first appeared (on another website advertising boats) I received a phone call purporting to be from Boat Mart offering to include an advertisement at a reduced price. The caller clearly knew about dinghies, the Wayfarer in particular, and was very plausible on sailing matters. An online order was placed using my debit card in the usual way. Shortly after this I received a text from my bank, the Halifax, asking if I had authorised a payment to Western Union of £540.40. This attempted fraud was nipped in the bud and did not take place, but you may wish to be aware.

“There were a number of other attempted ‘scams’ related to the sale but in each case when I entered the email address on Google there were a number of people warning about the said email addresses. I mention this in passing as you may well be aware of the situation.”

• The UK Wayfarer Association welcomes adverts for Wayfarer dinghies and/or Wayfarer-related items ONLY, both Wanted and For Sale.
• Advertising is free of charge for UKWA members. We are pleased to run Wayfarer-related adverts for non-members of UKWA, but there is a £25 charge for doing so. If you are a non UKWA member and wish to advertise, please contact Sarah Burgess; secretary@wayfarer.org.uk
• Adverts for boats only are automatically included in the next edition of our full-colour magazine, Wayfarer News.
• Adverts are clear to run for up to 12 months, when they will be automatically deleted. (If still for sale, items/boats can always be re-advertised by the owner). We do ask that adverts are removed as soon as boats/items are sold, to keep the list as up-to-date as possible.
• Further Wayfarers for purchase may be available from Ian Porter at sales@porters.org.uk

To avoid frustration, before uploading any photos please note the following requirements:-

• Up to four images may be uploaded per advert
• Each image file should be at least 20 KB but not more than 3 MB
• Each image should be between 200 and 1024 pixels (width) by 200 to 768 pixels (height). Larger photos will automatically be resized to be within these dimensions. Note that the max size is based on a 4:3 aspect ratio (landscape), and thumbnails will be square images cropped from the centre of your photos, so it’s best to shoot with this in mind.

We are constantly reviewing these requirements – please contact the web team if you wish to express an opinion.

All Wayfarers should have their boat number recorded on their hull. This is how a boat is identified. The number is either carved on the inside of the upstand of the transom (wooden boats) or on a metal plaque (usually, but not always, fixed to the aft slope of the centreboard case). This number should correspond to the number on the sails, but, if the numbers differ, it is the number on the boat which is the boat’s official number. A boat without a plaque/carved number may not officially be raced as a Wayfarer.

Potential purchasers (of wooden hulled boats in particular) should be aware that not all boats have been measured in the past. Also, some hulls that have been measured may subsequently have been altered and therefore may need to be re-measured and any alterations might need to be corrected. Boats are not permitted to race without a Measurement and Buoyancy Certificate (except in certain limited cases).