Will I get a refund of a cash depoit after I cancelled the purchase?

What does your contract say?  Did it give you the right to cancel within a certain period of time? Did it provide for deposits to be non-refundable in whole or part?  If your contract was silent on these issues, a court would have to determine what the two of you intended. If your contract did not give you the right to cancel, it would seem to have been a breach of contract for you to do so, which would entitle your seller to damages he incurred from the breach.  These damages might be nothing, if the seller has one boat and can sell to someone else for the same price without incurring any further cost, but they might be the amount of profit the seller lost on the sale, which may be more or less than your deposit. However, you apparently believe that you had the oontractual right to cancel.  If you had the right to cancel at any time, then a court is likely (not guaranteed, particularly since there may be other circumstances I don't know about) to conclude that the deposit was intended to be non-refundable, or else what purpose would it serve, if you could cancel at any time and get your deposit back?