New lifestyle; New to sailing; New for me boat

[wannadrift]

After three years of should-I-or-should-I-not, I took the plunge and bought a beautiful (To me at least) Lavranos 40 mono-hull sail boat (Steel and 19 years old)
It is currently on route from South Africa to me in Seychelles, ETA mid-November. I'll be moving onto it as soon as it arrives.
Goodby nice showers, tv, housekeeper.......yep, I'm nervous, but very excited :-)
Now the learning starts. Oh yes, I'm 61 and know absolutely nothing about sailing or living on board a boat . If you have any words of wisdom, please let me have them
On the bright side, I have four years to learn before I retire and go cruising

Neville

[boatpoker]

Go BIG or go home
Welcome.

[EvilRabbit]

Lavronos designs great boats. Take your time, enjoy each day and get to know her well. Lots to learn which is exciting. I would suggest doing a course and getting to know other likeminded people to learn with.

Originally Posted by wannadrift

After three years of should-I-or-should-I-not, I took the plunge and bought a beautiful (To me at least) Lavranos 40 mono-hull sail boat (Steel and 19 years old)
It is currently on route from South Africa to me in Seychelles, ETA mid-November. I'll be moving onto it as soon as it arrives.
Goodby nice showers, tv, housekeeper.......yep, I'm nervous, but very excited :-)
Now the learning starts. Oh yes, I'm 61 and know absolutely nothing about sailing or living on board a boat . If you have any words of wisdom, please let me have them
On the bright side, I have four years to learn before I retire and go cruising

Neville

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Neville.

[wannadrift]

Hi Boatpoker, EvilRabbit, and GordMay.
Thanks for your responses. I plan to go big or go home, take my time to enjoy my new boat and get to know her well, and stay tuned in closely to CF and the comments/posts of all the experienced sailors here
So, let me go check the AIS tracker again and see what progress she's made :-) Her name is Kinda Magic and the skipper says they'll be in Seychelles in 18 days or so
Cheers for now :-)

[gamayun]

Welcome, wannadrift! I did the same thing a few years back and it's been extremely rewarding. Take your time and enjoy it

[Tetepare]

Get off the dock ASAP. I've seen a number of neophyte sailors too afraid to take the boat out. Little steps.

[Cherod]

Get the shower fixed ,, oh and get a housekeeper

[wannadrift]

I'm not even sure I should post this message, but here goes:
The excitement of welcoming my new yacht and lifestyle has been building and building since the yacht left Hout Bay, South Africa about two weeks ago, and the ETA for Seychelles was the 25th November.
The skipper was contacting daily with reports of how the yacht (Kinda Magic) was performing, and just general life on board......he seems like a great guy and I considered myself lucky that I found the right skipper to deliver the yacht to Seychelles.
About a week ago he reported that they had a severe storm with waves as high as 14 meters, but that the yacht handled the storm well. A few days later he reported that there seemed to be a problem with the propeller, but he dove down when the weather calmed and fixed the problem (I never found out exactly what it was)
Yesterday afternoon a received a call from him on his satphone informing me that he had lost steering but that he had found a workaround but would have to stop in Mayotte to have it fixed. He did not sound stressed and assured me that all the crew were also doing fine and that nobody was stressed or concerned
This morning I received a message that the EPIRB was set off during the early hours of the morning. I tried contacting the Yacht on the skippers satphone and also e-mailed, but no response. After many attempts I finally got hold of the rescue services who informed me that they had responded to the EPIRB (Don't know if it was a boat or plane), and that a liferaft was spotted, but there was no sign of the yacht.
I informed them that there were four people on board. A few hours later, the rescue services confirmed that the yacht had sunk and that the crew of four had been rescued from the liferaft by a cargo vessel and is on it's way to the Comores
At this stage nobody knows what happened, but at least the crew is safe. From the impression the skipper had made on me over the last two weeks and before the sailing, I believe that he was absolutely the right person for the job and something must just have gone terribly wrong.
Also, it is good to know that even halfway between Mozambique and Madagascar, it took the rescue services less than twelve hours to rescue the crew. A big thank you to them whoever they are (And I'll make sure I find out and thank them personally)
Regards
Neville

[GordMay]

Sorry for your loss. Glad crew all safe. Please keep us updated, as you learn more.

[Tetepare]

Neville, sorry to hear of the tragic loss.

How much sea trial did the boat experience prior to crossing an ocean?

I hope it was insured.

[JPA Cate]

Oh, Neville,

What a sad story. My heart goes out to you. So very glad the crew were rescued. I, too, hope the boat was insured. Lavranos designed some very nice boats.

I wish you a speedy recovery. Such a huge disappointment.

Ann

[gamayun]

Oh my gosh, so glad everyone is safe, but so sorry to hear about the loss of the boat. It is curious to know what happened. Will the authorities or your insurance company do a debrief of the captain and crew soon while memories are still fresh? Was the captain licensed?

[Pelagic]

I'm sure you must be gutted by this development and your defense of the delivery crew is admirable...
.. But the truth is, you will never know if it was preventable as you weren't there!

My best advice, is to get drunk then move on with picking up the pieces and enjoy the fact that if you had been on board.... you may have been that one casualty!

Best of luck for the future and don't give up!

[Don C L]

Yes, sorry for the loss but MOST importantly I'm glad to hear all are safe. Boats are replaceable. Nothing like a delivery to shake out any issues, better they were found earlier than later (and without casualties.) I was on a delivery of a big, brand new, and far more expensive boat, that had some big problems, so it can happen to the best of them. Don't give up on the dream, I say!