9 Days in Florida, 1500 miles on the rental car, partied in Key West and bought a boat!

Planning

Well it’s a little late to the presses, but we got a boat!  We planned an exploratory trip down to Florida to look at a number of different catamaran models and made a pledge not to buy anything even leaving our checkbook at home.  But on the first day of looking that thought went right out the window and we executed an EFT. . .

Our dream boat for the past three years has been a Lagoon 400, we have spent the last 3 Strictly Sail shows sitting on the same boat looking at every nook and cranny day dreaming how great a platform she would be to cruise on.  The problem is that the 400 is so new there are very few available on the secondary market and they are priced close to new boat values.  As we were looking at a used Lagoon 420 were making comments on how it compared to the 400 and we were quickly directed to a brand new 400 that was shown in the Miami boat show and offered well below market.  After a couple days of hemming and hawing we decided to put in an offer and told ourselves that we wouldn’t negotiate if they came back and wanted more, a day later we got the call and the boat was ours!!!

So the soon to be christened “Ryana” is a 2012 40 foot Lagoon 400 with all the goodies; 3 zone AC, genset, electric winches, radar, AIS, cockpit enclosure and a lot more.  We are both very excited to be able to take our upcoming cruise on the boat of our dreams.   We’ll be traveling back to Fort Lauderdale June 2nd to take ownership and will be spending a week fitting her out and relaxing on the hook.

Why selling a boat feels like a divorce. . .

Planning
  • Feeling of loss
  • Had to move out
  • No longer have to spend money on a high maintenance relationship
  • Someone else is now sleeping with (in) her
  • She got to keep the friends (B dock buddies)

I suppose it’s not too surprising on how attached I got to Frog, as I’m known for sentimental attachment to inanimate objects; cars, clothes, tools etc.  I spent countless hours refitting that old boat from mast to keel, bringing her back from essentially sinking in her slip in the San Rafael Channel to something that I was quite proud of.  I probably added 5 pounds of displacement with my own blood.

Frog had been a wonderful boat, it was the first real boat I ever owned and taught me a lot about yacht ownership and seamanship.  My wife did not grow up around boats, but Frog introduced her to the sea where she developed a love to be on the water.  We had many adventures out in nasty conditions outside the Gate, great relaxing sails behind Tiburon and some crazy times back in the Delta, not to mention those breezy summer days reaching back in forth with the rail in the water.

So we knew we could not be two boat owners, Frog had to go on the market, but we weren’t expecting the sale to happen so quickly.  Frog was listed in Craigslist and Latitude and was sold to folks I showed the very first Sunday after being listed; no broker, just my awesome marketing skills.  Her new owners seem like great guys, Tom and James, teachers from SF.  I was very happy that we came to an agreement as I feel that they will take very good care of her and make sure she is sailed regularly.  They bought her as a partnership and will keep her in the Sausalito slip and will likely get a long great with all the dock neighbors, I hoping They stay true to their word of letting me tag along for a few sails this summer.