When you go to sell your yacht, a survey will be performed. A survey is pretty much the equivalent of a "Board Exam" for boats. This is a massive exam where everything your boat can do is tested to its fullest potential. The more gadgets and gizmos you have on your boat, the more test questions your boat test will have.
The way this exam is graded is very unfair:
If you get 1 out of 100 wrong, you don't get a 99%; you get 1.
If you get 1 out of 5 wrong, you don't get a 80%; you get 1.
If you get 10 out of 100 wrong, you don't get a 90%; you get 10.
If you get 10 out of 20 wrong, you don't get a 50%; you get a 10.
Having more accessories on your boat only increases the length of the list to be tested, and every accessory that doesn't work gets added to the list of problems with the boat. The longer the list, the harder it will be to sell the boat (or the further you will have to come down in price to sell the boat).
I saw a survey where the owner installed a third A/C unit in the salon, and it didn't work. The surveyor listed this as a problem that needs to be fixed. No one cares that the fourth A/C unit (that doesn't exist) doesn't work! If he didn't have the unit, the surveyor would have simply said: "Two A/C units in the salon that work well" and nothing would be added to the list.
My favorite accessory that didn't work was a set of LED underwater lights. These lights are not important in the realm of boating, they supposedly attract fish to the surface when fishing by night.
This unnecessary non-functional accessory went down on the list as non-functional which goes down on the list of "Recommended Corrections". This list is used by the buyer to negotiate an even lower sale price, and the longer the list, the more the buyer can negotiate.
If you have less accessories in the boat, then you will have fewer items that don't operate and a shorter list overall. Next time you go to install some doodad from the boat show, think about how necessary it is to your boat and if it is worth the loss in value when the accessory fails.
