This is how I did it. Not saying it is the only or the best way, but hopefully it can give you some ideas. I live in MD and the boat was in FL. I went back and forth a couple of times getting specific pictures with the PO. When I decided that this was the one, I scheduled to fly over and met a surveyor during my visit to the boat. I went there and saw the boat while the surveyor was doing his thing. Then, all three of us took it for a sea trial. After that I met with the surveyor alone to go over the list of issues. I used that to negotiate the price and agreed on a time to come and pickup the boat. The trailer was going to cost $1000 in repairs in order to drive it to MD, so I decided to get a new one in Florida. Two months later I drove down to FL in our SUV with my family and made it a very nice vacation. I never had a sailboat before, so I am glad that I used a surveyor, not to mention a lot of things that he found out that I would have missed for sure.
One issue with the one way ticket is that if you walk away from the deal it is going to be more expensive to you. At least consider a round trip ticket just in case, these days there is not much difference in price.
Also, if you are considering a new trailer, see if you can get one near the current boat location; that saved me a lot of trouble. Besides, why pay all that money and still end up with a rusty and old single axe trailer.
Hope this helps,
Sea Wind
