Part I…..The Search is Over
This may be a long story…I hope you find it of interest. It’s a story of love, trials and tribulations and joy…If that does not turn you off nothing will….happy reading
Having been looking for a
boat to get back on the
water following an hiatus of about 20 years due to
work commitments taking me to 11 countries and living in 9 (have not lived in
Australia now for about 20 years, and not planning on going back), I’m happy to announce the search is over.
Throughout the past 18 months I have been from
Turkey in the East to the UK in the West in search of the ‘as near as perfect’
boat to suit our needs. We are Expat South African and Australian, now living in
Las Palmas,
Spain and I commute to one of the West African countries for
work, so looking for a boat has been a lot of fun…Out extensive travel to mainland
Europe had been a way of ‘justifying’ the search to my wife...
After having planted the seed of getting a boat (again) with Minister of Home Affairs eons ago, out of the blue one day (18 months ago), while visiting friends on Koh Phangan Island,
Thailand, where we lived for a couple of years, she said let’s get a boat…!!! Actually another Cruiser Forum
member was privy to the conversation as we were sipping on a cold
beer following a day of
diving at Sail Rock, so I had a credible witness should the statement ever be retracted. A very unlikely occurrence!
Well I did not question the statement…That’s good enough for me I thought…and so the search commenced… Actually if the truth be known I had been quietly looking for the past couple of years.
Since early days I had always liked the Moody 422 and 425, and began in earnest the search for the perfect beast…Looked at a few aI realised the available sock was not up to what I had envisaged…I’m in my mid 50’s now and as much as I would love to potter around on a
project boat, I was more inclined to get something requiring less work and more fun. I had also in the back of my mind the
Beneteau as an alternative…
As the months rolled by, an extra few dollars made their way into the boat account each month.
The search continued with Beneteau’s becoming more attractive and a focus…looked at multiple models, years, styles, from East to West, and in the end it came down to the 44 Centre
cockpit.
Looking at
boats online, on the
water, calling brokers and surveyors and having ‘walk-through’ surveys carried out ultimately narrowed the field to three (3)
boats in the UK…
I guess I should inject here that the
surveyor I found in the UK was (is) brilliant. He and I talked a couple of time about my expectations and we seemed to align so well. We were on the same page. He would be trying to look at boats I selected through my eyes, prior to me travelling to the UK. From the walk-through surveyors of three (3) boats two (2) were singled out. With that I headed to the UK.
The two (2) I looked at in the UK were 1996 and 2002 models. Long story short (a bit of an understatement, considering what I have already written), I went with the 2002 model, Its very well set up, having done one
ARC and was enjoying the cool waters of Dartmouth. Back to LPA, discussed it with the Minister of Home Affairs & now Finance (expanded portfolio), two calls with the
broker, and the boat was ours. If the offer was not accepted, I would have simply gone to the second. I could not separate, them apart from age. Both well cared for, and would suit the need
Than it dawned on me…what’s next …the searching was over…I really enjoyed the pursuit…now what...OMG what have i done..?
What was I going to do with the 15 min’s I afforded myself at lunch time each day at work…?
There was no fear of having nothing to do as you would well know. Arranging to get her bottom painted,
engine and gen set serviced, new anodes, a quick polish of the
hull,
rudder and cutlass bearings replaced, re-registering under different flag,
Insurance, and a couple of minor (cosmetic) things I wanted taken care of before moving her to
Las Palmas. The plan is to move to her new home by the end of June.
At the start of the adventure, I developed a spread sheet (is that not what all engineers do) that outlined what we were looking for and at a glance was able to compare each boat across a number of parameters; I will load this in my next post, [Part 2].
Some may find it of interest. I will also go into a bit of the detail around the few things I’m having taken care of before she goes back in the water.
I hope I’ve not bored you with my story….
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