If you want an open boat without cabin that you can power with one or two outboard motors, they can be purchased in the DR. Not sure what the maximum length available is, but at least in the 20s. Yamaha has a fiberglass boat of various lengths that is widely used by fishermen and by individuals taking people on excursions of one sort or another.
For buying any other sort of boat, the best person to contact is Capt. Forrest Rodriguez and Centro Marino Del Mar on the South Coast. You can reach him through his website. Ask him all your boat purchase questions. He can also tell you about docking your boat on South Coast, but that doesn't help you if you want to be on the north side.
http://www.centromarino.net/
In the Dominican Republic, boating is very tightly controled by law and by the Navy. You can't put a boat just anywhere like you can in many countries. There are no homes on the North Coast with docks in front, for example. On the North Coast, the harbors for boats are Samana, Puerto Plata, Luperon and Monte Cristi. Forget Puerto Plata because it is a dirty, commercial harbor and it is dangerous to tie stern to the big concrete pier because of the surge that sometimes throws boats against the pier. The holding ground is bad. I spent a my first month in the DR tied there and would never go back. People swimming out from shore to rob the boats day and night was also a problem.
In Samana you anchor your boat in the harbor. Same in Luperon.
No matter where it is, if you want to take the boat out of the harbor for the day you must get a paper from the Port Commandant authorizing it.
I lived on a boat in Samana for 12 years, traveling to and from shore in my dinghy. The same can be done in Luperon. Eventually there will be marinas in both locations, but until then, you anchor out as I did.
With respect to the tight conrol of boats, there is good reason for that. The number of people trying to get to Puerto Rico one way or another is very large. If they allowed you to put your boat on a dock in front of somebody's house, the boat and a large number of people would probably be in Puerto Rico by the next morning.
As bothersome as it is to get authorization to leave the harbor, I saw one instance where that paid off. Some Dominicans commandeered a boat and head for Puerto Rico. Because it was an unauthorized departure, the Navy immediately sent a boat in pursuit. The highjackers never got out of Samana Bay. For this reason, I never bitched about the rule like transient yachtsmen who don't understand the situation do. I figure better to bothered by getting an ok than to find myself an unwelcome passenger enroute to Puerto Rico in my own boat.
