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Old 09-07-2010, 12:19   #16
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Bought sight unseen without survey...
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Interesting, sounds like a virtual repeat of last time they did this.
Absolutely . . . uhm, except for the part where they were taken by a broker to visit the Wildcat 35 that became Bumfuzzle and spent quite a bit of time walking all over her and poking into all her little niches . . . oh, and except for the part where they paid big bucks to hire the foremost authority / surveyor in S. Florida (name rhymes with "banter") to conduct a pre-purchase survey of the vessel.

Yep, other than, you know, those annoying factoids, this buying experience was " . . . a virtual repeat of [the] last time they did this."


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Old 09-07-2010, 12:30   #17
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The intention of my original post was only to be factual and brief.

I actually supported Bumfuzzles accomplishments and how they went about achieving them, communicated with them several times and "bought" them a pizza once.

And I look forward to re-engaging with their blog. I have only been checking into it from time to time because their post-bumfuzzle adventures no longer intersected with my interests.

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Old 09-07-2010, 12:37   #18
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I'll buy them another pizza. This time they have to come to Annapolis to collect it. *grin*
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Old 09-07-2010, 13:57   #19
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G'Day All,

Well, not an expert, but Ann and I met the Bumfuzzles in Airlie Beach, Qld (in the Whitsunday Island area for you non Aussies). We were both anchored off the town, outside of the mooring field, and I noticed their registry port of Chicago. Since our Insatiable I was also Chicago registered, and it being fairly rare to see such here, we dinghied over and had a yarn with them.

They seemed a bit naive, and made a big to-do about how inexperienced they were, but, ya know, they had anchored properly in a congested area, all the lines were tidied up, I didn't see any silly knots, and they seemed like normal cruisers to us. Enjoyed their company, we did, but never saw them again, and didn't realize that they were the subject of so much controversy. All I can say is that we've met heaps of folks who impressed us less with their overall competence.

Makes me wonder if it is just their style to feign inexperience (for whatever reason). Lots of yotties feign way more experience than they possess... why shouldn't some do the opposite? Anyhow, we wish them success in their new boat, and we too would welcome them back to the CF. Then we could ask them why they changed back to a mono...

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Old 09-07-2010, 14:28   #20
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I would be surprised if Pat and Ali were to become CF members again...
Pat & Ali weren’t exactly "active" CF members.
On January 17, 2005, they posted the same message (sic: come check out our website) in two separate threads (Meets & Greets & General Sailing). About a month later (February 5, 2005), they paid their last visit, never having responded to any of the welcome replies to their troll.
They're still members.
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Old 10-07-2010, 07:34   #21
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I loved their blog in the beginning. Pretty soon I was skipping all the motoring passages, and had stopped reading the stories of their hard exploring. When they bought an old microbus, and had it professionally outfitted to fit their needs, I kind of lost interest. With that kind of money, They can do anything they decide to do.
They stopped writing about living on a boat and just became rich folks wandering and doing whatever they decided to do. The 500$ a month thread has more information about living on a sailboat in it than the entire Bumfuzzle log. They could have purchased a limo and had a driver drive them from bar to bar for a year if they decided to.
When their log became an account of their daily onshore adventures, they lost me.
Of course, I am interested in the off shore living on the boat part of things, not the exploring the countryside or how the local beer tastes! The emphasis on rum in the cruising world is disturbing to me anyway, since I don't drink alcohol at all.
For someone with the money, that wanted to see exotic new places and had the cash to do what they wanted to do, the Bumfuzzle log has a lot to offer. They don't have a lot of information for someone trying to figure out how to get a boat, fix it themselves, and then live on it within a strict budget!
Different strokes for different folks!
Why they would not be welcomed here would be a complete mystery to me.
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Old 10-07-2010, 08:22   #22
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All I can say is that we've met heaps of folks who impressed us less with their overall competence.

Makes me wonder if it is just their style to feign inexperience (for whatever reason). Lots of yotties feign way more experience than they possess... why shouldn't some do the opposite?

Yep.

I think you got that right.

He had help but he changed out a motor (I think in OZ) mostly by himself. How many on this board would take that on?
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Old 10-07-2010, 08:55   #23
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Why they would not be welcomed here would be a complete mystery to me.
There were two big strikes against them, I think, in the eyes of many members, Ahnlaashock. First, they were from a different generation than most of the cruisers and wannabe cruisers on this Forum, and second, they had the capital to indulge their sailing fantasy.

For many old-time sailors who had to work a lifetime in an unrewarding career (both financially and psychically) to finally afford a cruising vessel of any kind, and who learned sailing over a lifetime of gradually moving up in boat-size and sophistication, seeing a pair of 28 year-olds decide over beers that they would get a boat and sail it around the world - never mind that they didn't know how to sail - and just write a $157,000 check for the boat they found on their first day of looking . . . well, it can leave a bad taste in the mouth, can't it? If you read through the first part of the Bumfuzzle logs, from the very beginning through about the time they discovered the delamination issues while the vessel was hauled-out in Panama, you get a very clear understanding for what it's like to be young, naive, financially-secure and on permanent vacation in the Bahamas.

It's hard not to feel more than a little bit wistful for one's own youth when reading those early logs, and, no doubt, more than a little bit resentful, too. After all, most of us didn't get to do that sort of thing at that age.

Pat's self-deprecating style is just the last straw for some, though I personally find it enjoyable. He doesn't pretend that he's "all that," and he's comfortable in his own skin, content to pursue whatever he finds fulfilling and secure in the committed relationship he has with the woman he's been in love with since early high school. He's intelligent, and quickly learned the commodities trading game that he parlayed into the means to make their lifestyle possible, but at heart, he and Ali are really no different than most other cruisers - disillusioned hippies with an intense desire to live life on their own terms.

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Old 10-07-2010, 09:02   #24
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Absolutely . . . uhm, except for the part where they were taken by a broker to visit the Wildcat 35 that became Bumfuzzle and spent quite a bit of time walking all over her and poking into all her little niches . . . oh, and except for the part where they paid big bucks to hire the foremost authority / surveyor in S. Florida (name rhymes with "banter") to conduct a pre-purchase survey of the vessel.

Yep, other than, you know, those annoying factoids, this buying experience was " . . . a virtual repeat of [the] last time they did this."


TaoJones

I stand corrected. I thought I remembered that they bought the first boat they saw (the original Bumfuzzle cat) with little or no research. My mistake.
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Old 10-07-2010, 09:05   #25
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There were two big strikes against them, I think, in the eyes of many members, Ahnlaashock. First, they were from a different generation than most of the cruisers and wannabe cruisers on this Forum, and second, they had the capital to indulge their sailing fantasy.

For many old-time sailors who had to work a lifetime in an unrewarding career (both financially and psychically) to finally afford a cruising vessel of any kind, and who learned sailing over a lifetime of gradually moving up in boat-size and sophistication, seeing a pair of 28 year-olds decide over beers that they would get a boat and sail it around the world - never mind that they didn't know how to sail - and just write a $157,000 check for the boat they found on their first day of looking . . . well, it can leave a bad taste in the mouth, can't it? If you read through the first part of the Bumfuzzle logs, from the very beginning through about the time they discovered the delamination issues while the vessel was hauled-out in Panama, you get a very clear understanding for what it's like to be young, naive, financially-secure and on permanent vacation in the Bahamas.

It's hard not to feel more than a little bit wistful for one's own youth when reading those early logs, and, no doubt, more than a little bit resentful, too. After all, most of us didn't get to do that sort of thing at that age.

Pat's self-deprecating style is just the last straw for some, though I personally find it enjoyable. He doesn't pretend that he's "all that," and he's comfortable in his own skin, content to pursue whatever he finds fulfilling and secure in the committed relationship he has with the woman he's been in love with since early high school. He's intelligent, and quickly learned the commodities trading game that he parlayed into the means to make their lifestyle possible, but at heart, he and Ali are really no different than most other cruisers - disillusioned hippies with an intense desire to live life on their own terms.

TaoJones
And of course all that about intentionally flouting the basic rules and trolling the CF forum to let us all know about it. ... It was a productive little game, and none of us should have fallen for it.

But, hey, we're human.
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Old 10-07-2010, 09:05   #26
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but at heart, he and Ali are really no different than most other cruisers - disillusioned hippies with an intense desire to live life on their own terms.
That's a rather poetic observation.



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Old 10-07-2010, 09:21   #27
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I stand corrected. I thought I remembered that they bought the first boat they saw (the original Bumfuzzle cat) with little or no research. My mistake.
Well, the ". . . little or no research" is correct, Scott, because they knew they didn't know enough about boats to participate in any meaningful way. I was only pointing out that they had used a broker that time, gotten a survey and had actually been on the vessel before they decided to buy it.

They had gotten the usual advice to hire a competent surveyor who would find all the problems that a first-time boat buyer was just too inexperienced to notice - and had accepted the recommendation to hire the highest-profile catamaran surveyor in S. Florida. The problem was, as it turned out, their surveyor missed all of the big issues entirely, reassuring them that the vessel was sound and suited for their intended purpose (a circumnavigation).

Like most of us would have done, they relied on this expensively-acquired reassurance and were into the Pacific Ocean before they began to get a much clearer picture of the extent of their vessel's issues. It wasn't until Bumfuzzle was hauled-out in New Zealand by a competent yard that the picture, finally, came into sharp focus.

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Old 10-07-2010, 09:52   #28
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Well, the ". . . little or no research" is correct, Scott, because they knew they didn't know enough about boats to participate in any meaningful way. I was only pointing out that they had used a broker that time, gotten a survey and had actually been on the vessel before they decided to buy it.
I agree 100 percent that it's foolish to rely entirely on a survey. Surveyors don't catch obvious stuff, even the good ones. We've all heard the stories and many of us have had personal experience. There's no substitute for lifting up the floorboards and kicking the keel yourself. I would do that on a boat I intended to sail across the Chesapeake, let alone one I planned to circumnavigate on.

But, of course, if you're the kind of person who doesn't like getting your hands dirty (and the Bumfuzzles, at least the first time around, definitely struck me that way), you just take your chances.
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Old 10-07-2010, 10:06   #29
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I think they struck many readers the same way, Scott, but the truth is that Pat is a pretty decent "motor head," maintaining Bumfuzzles engines on the vogage (and, as stated above, an active participant in the replacement of one during their circumnavigation), and maintaining the engines and all other mechanical functions on his classic Porsche 356 as well as the '58 VW splittie that they drove many, many thousands of miles.

No, the impression that Pat doesn't like to get his hands dirty is actually off course by 180*.

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Old 10-07-2010, 10:13   #30
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I also stopped following their blogs after they returned to land. I occasionally checked out what they were up to when they were touring in their VW bus.

I started reading their blogs again a few months ago, about the time the baby was born. I've been enjoying them again, especially their living in Mexico and planning to have the baby born there due to the lower medical costs.

I'm thrilled they are boat owners again. In their blog they said they wanted a "hippyish" kind of simple life. Good for them!

As for the boat, they did have a friend go and inspect it and send them pictures, so they had an idea of what they were getting into. Plus, the asking price was so low (less than a third of what their catamaran cost them) that they decided to take the plunge before someone else grabbed the boat.

I can't wait to follow their adventures again. I have also corresponded with them on occasion, being that I'm originally from Chicago.
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