Searching for our boat

The ideal cruising yacht to circumnavigate is …….

Yeah Right. Ask 1000 people that sail and you get 1000 different answers depending on their own personal experience , budget, number of crew etc .

What Joline and I would like to have are:

  • L or U shaped galley for safety while cruising
  • double steering as it makes the cockpit much bigger
  • 3 cabins , 1 Master and 1 each for the girls
  • Yanmar naturally breathing diesel engine (less electronics) preferably no turbo and <2000 hours as a trusted mechanic said they are without issues until 4000 hrs after which they most likely need to be rebuild or replaced for continued reliability
  • wind vane
  • solar panels
  • is SSB + full electronics package too much to ask for ?
  • reasonably new sails and good standing rigging
  • watermaker
  • all ready to go for max. 100.000 euro (so either buy a ‘good to go’ boat for 100K or one for 60K and have 40K ‘left over’ for adding equipment

Now as we are still very inexperienced none of this is ‘set in stone’ except the budget , and everything else might change tomorrow so stay awake 😉

The boats that fall into this category are mainly ex-charter boats. I know I know that most people are extremely allergic to even mentioning buying an ex-charter but the ones I have been on , and are between 5 and 7 years old, are still extremely nice !! Remember that charter boats must be maintained and looked after properly as they are the bread and butter for the charter companies and not looking after them is not a good business model as every week they can’t be chartered out to clients = loosing money.  And who knows what privately owned boats must endure ? , things like ‘Ive only ran the engine for 50 hours this season , why does it need new oil and filters ?’ or ‘lifting the boat out every 2 years for check , zinc replacement and cleaning costs xxxxx euro’s , lets do it next year’

anyway , my train of thought is ‘go after a youngish ex-charter, what could have been broken was already broken and fixed. Its maintained regularly , cleaned after every charter’ etc .. and its written off so I can make an offer without having to be afraid of personal and emotional feelings from the seller.

(to be added to)

(edit august 2016 : and guess what we didnt do ? , buy an ex-charter 🙂