The good news is that there are many, many, many sailboats out there for sale. The bad news is that they are rarely in the condition that the sail listing claims and the good ones are rarely close by. Especially if you reside in a land-locked state as we do.
We knew that we wanted 3 cabins so that the twins could share, Reid could have his own and Mike and I our own. This condition begins to immediately narrow the available boats within a budget price range. We wanted a boat that could handle blue water cruising as well as coastal, in the event that we got comfortable enough with the idea, we could do a sail into the Pacific, if we wanted to do so later. This condition also affected the field quite a bit, since many of the newer, more affordable sailboats are really made for coastal cruising. Finally, we wanted a boat that was ready to go.
The first boat I found was 52' Ketch located on the East Coast. It looked GREAT in the photos. I spoke with the broker and he suggested that we have a boat surveyor do a walk-by before we made plans to actually journey out to see it. I quickly located a local surveyor through The Society of Accredited Marine Surveyors (SAMS) at their website http://www.marinesurvey.org and for a nominal fee, enlisted his services to check out the boat. The following day, the report came back, this boat was in need of a lot of repair. It had been on the hard (dry-docked) for some time and there were water leak marks around the portholes, big blisters on the hull and lot of deck work required. The surveyor pictures looked nothing like what was on the website, which I later learned were nearly 3 years old and the boat had not been maintained since then. So, moving on...
As we looked at more boats, we found we were very attracted to traditional looking sailboats. Lots of teak and wood with canoe style sterns - boats with character. I fell in love with the Hans Christian 43T sailboats and found one in up in Victoria, BC. I flew up on a Friday to do a walk-thru of the boat on Saturday. Which might seem a bit extreme, but given that a full boat survey will run you $1000 after the surveyor and the haul out fees of the marina, it is worth a bit of upfront due diligence.
The Hans Christian was beautiful. She was well maintained, she had just safely carried a family of 5 through their one year sabbatical to New Zealand and back (See, family! Lots of people are doing this, we aren't that crazy!), she was the size we were looking seeking and in our budget. Perfect! The moment I stepped aboard, I knew that I didn't want this boat. Can't put a finger on it, no good explanation to give. I just knew. When I had called to inquire about her, I asked the broker to take an offer so she wouldn't get sold before we could see her. His response was, wait, you don't know until you have seen it yourself. He knew his stuff.
That same trip, I dropped in on an old friend in Seattle (Hi Lisa!) and we decided to look at boats while I was there. Again - Eureka! I found her. The boat. It was a Lafitte 44 and as I walked her, I really fell in love. She felt roomy and airy with lots of light. She was a blue water cruiser with good bones and as a Bob Perry design, she had great bloodlines. There were actually two in the area. We put an offer on the one that appeared to be the best value, given the new rigging and the electronics that came with her. We placed the offer and ordered the survey and then the family and I were headed to La Paz, Mexico to get our sailing certification for ASA 104. (Shout out to NautilusSailing.Com for offering a great certification class on Sea of Cortez). While there, we received the survey results. Won't go into the fine print, but this is why you get surveys done. The Lafitte was still a great boat, and the price was fair for her condition, but she needed work. Lots of work. Mike and I decided that the work required would likely cut into this sabbatical time by 3 or 4 months, so we decided to keep looking. Luckily, we did not have to look very far. We found our Wauquiez the following day right there in Marina de La Paz.
So, if you are thinking of looking for a cruising sailboat, I would consider the following if I was to go through it all again:
- Use Yachtworld.com to look at current options and budget range considerations.
- If boat is found online, invest in having a surveyor do a "walk-by" before investing further time or money on pursuing the boat.
- If the walk-by looks good, get to the boat and walk it in person.
- Have a few folks review the survey results to make sure your love-at-first-site-rose-colored glasses aren't blurring your vision.
- Consider how much time and money would it take to get the boat ready - if you have the time, and the talent, you can get a lot more boat for your money!
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| Mangas (still Avalon at this point) during haul out for survey and bottom paint. Ladder doesn't look that far, but eek! that was a long way down! |
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Better view of her nearly 60' mast- and Reid ascending the ladder - yikes!
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