Boat Buying Basics: A Sheridan House Guide

Boat Buying Basics takes you through how to find and purchase the boat that will best fulfill your dreams and needs. It provides clear, step-by-step guidance on researching and analyzing boat listings, understanding the survey process, making the purchase, navigating the complexities of the closing process, and securing insurance and financing.

Melanie Sunshine Neale earned her US Coast Guard 100 Ton Master Captain’s License before she got her driver’s license. She grew up living aboard her family’s 47’ GulfStar sailboat, cruising up and down the East Coast and through the Bahamas for nearly twenty years. Melanie has bought and sold six boats of her own and has facilitated the sale of hundreds of boats during her tenure as a yacht broker with Edwards Yacht Sales and currently as founder and owner of Sunshine Cruising Yachts, a medium-sized yacht brokerage located in Florida but with brokers worldwide. She received the 2022 Sailing Industry Distinguished Service Award.

Melanie is the author of memoirs Boat Girl and Boat Kid (Beating Windward Press), and former contributor to Cruising World and other nautical magazines. She has worked as everything from minnow scooper at a bait & tackle shop to adjunct professor at a university. She’s a single mom to a teen, and lives in St. Augustine, Florida, with a six-toed cat and a Boykin spaniel. Melanie is dedicated to matching people with the right boats.