Honey, let's buy a boat!

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Aug 31

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Ryan *Shaking my left arm as I lay in bed, sleeping* Babe? Babe… I know..!!!Me… Hmmmmm… what?Ryan We're getting A BIG RUBBER DUCK ON OUR SPINNAKER!!!Me *yawning* That's awesome honey… Let's do it…. What time is it…?Ryan 6am. It's only four hours left to the show, let's get up and be the first there!!!Me Yeah... right... *falling back asleep*

One hour later:

Ryan *shaking my left arm again and singing, totally waking me up on purpose* Rubber ducky, you'RE THE OOOONNNE!!! You make bath time LOTS OF FUUUUUUUN!!! [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDy4PZPMDwU[/embed] Saturday 29th of August was a day we had been waiting for with excitement ever since we made this project serious, as we were gonna attend Allt på sjön, a big boat show near Stockholm. We took off a few hours after Ryan showcased his morning singing abilities. Obviously, we are not going to buy a boat now right now. For many reasons (the number one being that we don't know how to sail, remember?), this wouldn't be reasonable. Though, we could be some serious prospect for any good boat dealer out there (which they turned out not to be many). Cause more than ever, we want to buy a boat! When considering buying the boat, our big question mark is if we should go for a new or a pre-owned/used sailboat. We are not 100% sure yet, but for a couple of reasons, we have our minds set on buying a new boat.As far as our research go, we don't believe that buying an pre-owned boat is going to be much cheaper. Considered that we're probably gonna end up spending a considerable amount of time, energy and money doing tons of repair and work in order for our boat to suit our needs, we're not convinced that the overall cost of a used sailboat will be as low as the price tag shows, and probably a lot harder to accurately estimate too.Because we consider having this boat as our home and take it around the World, we have our own specific list of needs and requirements. Thus, for what we believe to be about the same total amount of money, we'd much rather choose exactly what comes with the boat we'll end up buying.Besides, we would like to spend our first months with the boat developing our sailing skills and crewmanship. Although some might argue that you learn a lot out of doing work on your own boat (and we have no misconceptions about the fact that we'll need to do work anyways), we believe that we'll get more out of being out sailing than at land building parts of our sailboat.But before we decide what kind of boat we go for, we will do some serious homework on the "new VS second hand sailboat" question, and make a rough comparison of all the estimated costs. Stay tuned for the details! Regardless whether it's new or not, what we are looking for is a blue water sailing offshore home. That creates a bunch of very specific needs and requirements, that are proper to us and the way we want to live on our sailboat. From what we've been reading, there are as many requirements and must-have lists as there are sailors out there.We had a look at all the 33 to 40 foot sailboats at the show, willing to not let any alternative unexplored, in order to establish our own list of requirements. Ryan had done tons of research prior to our visit, so we had an idea which boat manufacturers we wanted to have a closer look at.We established pretty quickly that the Bavaria, Hanse and Linjett boats were no alternative or us. They might be really nice boats for anyone who wants to spend their week-end sailing the Swedish coasts, but they don't suit our needs. Ryan really liked the Arcona 380, but the price tag got us off the boat fairly quick.I personally fell in love with the Beneteau Oceanis 41, which is in my eyes, perfection on a keel. But since I'm not the sugar mamma Ryan openly wishes I was, we'll stick to the 35-38 foot range. The 38 foot version of the Oceanis unfortunately did not impress us, partly because it was presented in its "week-end" layout, which as its name announces, doesn't meet our cruising needs.We went through all boat dealers, talked (or more accurately, tried to talk) to all, gathered all kind of business cards, and ended up thinking that we would probably do a better job at selling the boats than the majority of the sales rep we met, even with less knowledge. Most of them were really hard to get a hold on, asked no questions and barely answered ours, handing us their price list and making us write our contact on a sheet. All, except for the Navigare Yachts sales rep, who turned to be the only one we felt we could and would work with.Navigare Yachts is the Jeanneau boats retailer in Sweden, and since Ryan has had his eyes on the Sun Odyssey 389 for a while, that turned out to be quite convenient.The Sun Odyssey was the first and last boat we checked out, and also our best client experience during the show. As soon as we stepped on the boat, we were welcomed aboard in a friendly manner. Their sales rep was actually helpful, asked relevant questions, made the fact that we are beginners an opportunity to build trust and helped us understanding the boat, the ordering process and made an overall really good job at listening to us and turn us into potential clients.Icing on the cake, while putting together the price quote for the boat and go through sails, he dropped a "and so... the rubber duck spinnaker, right?" that just killed us. Ryan and I currently both work with sales. And whether he'll fix the giant rubber duck on our spinnaker or not, you gotta appreciate when you meet a skilled fellow.As I am writing this, he actually is the only one who got back to us. Spending more than 6 hours looking at boats, we now have a much clearer view on what we would like to have, what we don't want, and what we need to figure out. SUCCESS! We're aware all this might change as we gain experience, but this is how it looks so far: Our requirements

A two persons home.

We were originally looking at 30-35 foot sailboats. Now that we know how much boat you get out of 35 foot, we pretty much decided to go for 37-39.

A proper bathroom.

And by proper bathroom, I actually mean proper shower :) In small sailboats, the shower consists of a wire you pull off the tap and so off you shower, standing in front of the sink or sitting on the toilet. Efficiency has its limits, and no, I don't want to poop and shower at the same time.

A L galley and functional kitchen.

We believe that we will get more out of the space inside our boat with a L shaped galley. I also like the fact that you face the dining area while cooking. It's a matter of taste, but I think it makes the space more convivial and cozy.I'd like our kitchen to feature some proper work space, functional storage and a double sink. Also, if anyone has heard of an energy and space-efficient way to integrate a dishwasher in a sailboat kitchen (?), I'm a taker. If not, Ryan and I will just stick to our rule: one cooks, the other cleans. (Hint: I really enjoy cooking)I also want the fridge to be accessible either by a front door (like a classic kitchen fridge) or two doors on the top, cause we don't want to have to clear the counter each time we want to reach some ingredient in it.

A comfy cockpit.

Since we're gonna spend quite some time in the cockpit, we want to make the long night watches to be as comfortable as possible. Our boat needs to feature proper seats facing the wheel, preferably with a back and a covered cockpit/helm. That means we'll also invest in some cushions and a proper bimini.

Efficient storage space

Again, our boat is going to be our home, and we'll be sailing some long passages. That means we will need to stock up quite an amount of spare pieces, all kind of tools, water and food in big quantities,... and everything we want to live with.We will be doing some compromises with what we take with us, but some fun things are guaranteed to follow us on our journey, such as Ryan's fantastic inflatable lobster (my favorite toy), and probably a disco ball too (I'm trying to convince Ryan). Anyways, we need the space.

A rubber duck on the spinnaker.

Do I still need to tell you why? :)What we don't want

Things that break: For us that includes AC, water maker, moving parts on the keel, a furling mast... The least reparation we'll need to do, the better. Then again, we might change our minds and get them afterwards.

Micro wave: Is there anything you cook in a microwave that you can't cook on a stove or in a oven?

Wine cellar. Ryan said no...

What we need to make our minds up about.

Two cabins layout VS three cabins layout.

We're split on that one. I think a third cabin used as storage space makes stuff a lot more accessible than a two cabin layout with a big cupboard. Though, I can see a point reaching the storage from the deck. I think we need a little experience to figure this one out.

Level of performance

It's hard for us to define "performance", as we pretty much don't know what feature would make our boat an offshore rocket. We know that we don't want to get stuck at sea, but we don't need a racer either. Again, figuring that out requires a little experience.When it comes to electronics and power systems, I kind of leave all the decisions to Ryan. His nerdiness in combination with his background as a pilot makes me comfortable we'll have more than what we need for safe and accurate navigation.

Cabin space & bed

Aboard a 35-38 foot boat, decisions have to be made when it comes to how much space you want in your bedroom (we see ourselves using the front cabin as our bedroom). Do we want a bigger bed and less main cabin space? More storage in the bedroom? Is it comfy to be sleeping in a bed that's 30 cm wide at the bottom? We need to try that...

What we don't know...

Cause there are most likely a lot of important questions we don't yet know we should be asking ourselves. You are all welcome with suggestions :) So now what?After the show, and realizing how the delivery times look for sailboats, Ryan was seriously wondering if we should not place an order before the end of the year to secure our boat for the next sailing seasons (they're a lot shorter in Sweden...). But after having given it some thoughts, we believe that we will be able to make much better decisions once we've completed our two weeks intensive sailing class in January 2016.In other words: we will wait (like kids for Santa). It will be a long but worth wait.Ideally, we'd get our boat between April and May 2016 (when Stockholm's water start to be sailable again after the winter). Exactly how and what boat, we don't know yet. Again, all suggestions are welcome :)But one thing is for sure: we're excited as ever about our project!!!