Handover is the moment a Komodo boat sale becomes real, and it is treated with startling informality
in a market where the rest of the process has usually been careful. Keys passed on a dock, a handshake,
and both parties discover over the following fortnight that they understood the deal differently. A
structured handover takes half a day and eliminates almost every post-sale dispute we see.
Fix the moment risk transfers
Before anything physical happens, both parties must agree in writing exactly when risk and
responsibility move. It sounds obvious; it is routinely left ambiguous. Does risk pass on signature, on
payment, or on physical handover? If the vessel remains at the seller’s mooring for ten days after
payment, who insures her and who is responsible if she drags anchor? Write it down, and align the
insurance inception to it precisely.
The inventory is the core document
Most handover disputes are inventory disputes. Equipment photographed during inspection is absent at
handover — sometimes deliberately, more often because it was borrowed, moved to another vessel or
consumed. The fix is procedural:
- Produce a written inventory at the time of inspection, itemised and photographed.
- Have both parties sign it, with anything explicitly excluded from the sale marked as such.
- Include the sale agreement clause barring removal of listed items between inspection and handover.
- Re-verify the same list, item by item, at handover, and sign it again.
Pay particular attention to the categories that go missing: tenders and their engines, dive equipment
and compressor spares, navigation and safety equipment, tools and spare parts, soft furnishings and
linen, galley equipment, and water sports gear. On a working liveaboard, a full spares inventory alone
can represent a meaningful sum.
Systems walkthrough with the outgoing crew
Allocate at least three hours with the outgoing captain and engineer, and record it on video. Work
through, in order:
- Engine room: start and shutdown sequences, fuel transfer and filtration, cooling systems,
which alarms are real, routine checks and their intervals. - Electrical: shore power connection, generator changeover, battery management, what is on which
circuit, where the isolators are. - Water: watermaker operation and pickling, tank capacities and gauging quirks, pumps.
- Anchoring: windlass operation, chain marking, preferred anchorages and their holding.
- Safety: location and operation of all equipment, muster arrangements, emergency shutdowns,
bilge pump priorities. - Dive systems where fitted: compressor start-up, filter change intervals, blending procedure.
- Tenders: launching and recovery, engine peculiarities, fuel arrangements.
The video matters. Six weeks later, when a system behaves unexpectedly, the recording answers the
question and the outgoing engineer is no longer reachable.
Consumables reconciliation
Fuel, lubricating oil, fresh water, gas and provisions all have value and all need reconciling.
Standard practice is to record tank levels at handover and settle the difference against an agreed
delivery basis — commonly “as inspected” or “full tanks”. Do the same for the dive air bank if the
vessel carries one. These are not large sums on a big transaction, but unresolved they generate
disproportionate friction in the first week of a relationship you may need later.
Documents that must physically change hands
- Registration and measurement documents.
- Safety certification and equipment service records.
- Engine, generator and machinery manuals and service history.
- The complete maintenance file and any refit documentation.
- Insurance history and claims record.
- Crew records where crew are transferring.
- Charts, passage notes and any operational manuals the vessel uses.
Photograph or scan everything on the day. Originals get lost in the weeks after a handover with
remarkable consistency.
The delivery voyage
Where the vessel moves after handover — repositioning to a different mooring or a yard — the delivery
voyage deserves its own agreement. Establish who crews it, who insures it for that passage, what happens
if a defect surfaces underway, and what the weather criteria for departure are. Where the outgoing crew
deliver, agree their terms in advance. Where your own crew take her, run a shakedown in sheltered water
first — the delivery voyage is the wrong place to discover that the new team does not yet know the boat.
The first-week protocol
Do not schedule paying guests in the first week. Use it to run every system under load, complete a
full fuel and water cycle, drill the crew, and work through the survey defect list with the retention
still held. Owners who put guests aboard on day three because the calendar was tight consistently regret
it, and the reviews from that first charter persist far longer than the revenue does.
Closing the retention
The retention held from the purchase price should have a defined release date and a defined mechanism.
Agree in advance who verifies that the rectification list is complete, and set a realistic window —
thirty to sixty days covers most items. Release promptly when the work is done. Sellers who are treated
fairly at this stage remain useful sources of information about the boat for years afterwards, and in
this market that is worth more than the last few percent of a retention.
Related reading
- The Two-Boat Strategy: Operators Pairing Phinisi With Speedboats
- Escrow in a Labuan Bajo Boat Sale: Local Practice, Real Protection
- Komodo Boat For Sale — Phinisi, Speedboats & New Builds
Frequently asked questions
How long should a handover take?
Half a day as a minimum: inventory verification, a three-hour systems walkthrough, document transfer and consumables reconciliation. On a complex liveaboard, a full day is better.
Should the buyer’s crew be present at handover?
Yes — the incoming captain and engineer especially. The knowledge transfer is between crews, not between owners, and an owner relaying technical explanations second-hand loses most of the value.
What if equipment is missing at handover?
That is what the signed inventory and the retention are for. Deduct the replacement cost from the retention or delay handover until the items are returned. Both are far easier than pursuing it afterwards.
Is a delivery voyage covered by my insurance?
Only if declared. Repositioning passages frequently fall outside standard navigation limits, so notify your insurer of the route and crew in advance and get written confirmation of cover for that passage.
Komodo Boat For Sale is a specialist maritime brand and digital platform under Juara Holding Group. Vessel-sale, construction and refit contracts are issued by PT Komodo Galangan Nusantara; brokerage and charter representation by PT Komodo Bahari Nusantara; boat management by PT Komodo Vessel Management.
Talk to the desk
If you are weighing a specific vessel, send us the listing and the month you want to be operating. WhatsApp +62 811 3941 4563 or email [email protected]. Figures are quoted in USD.