We've sailed a few times, we want to sail more and we want to find out if we can actually live on a boat.
After speaking with Jim at Bow to Stern Boating, we had learned that they would like to be able to have a 38ish foot monohull to add to their charter options.
This is an interesting size boat. It's plenty large enough to have a comfortable salon and galley, a nice cockpit, two decent size cabins and long enough to be able to reach a respectable speed (see my Tech Article to learn more about boat speeds), but not so long that it is hard to find a dock and not so deep a draft that would make sailing it in the shallow waters of the Pamlico Sound a problem.
The one notable downside is that in that length it is usually not quite long enough to have 2 heads, and at the end of the day, everyone wants their own bathroom!
So, I went onto a few sites to start looking for used boats, surprisingly, quite old used boats (that happen to have been well taken care of). YachtWorld.com seems to be the go-to source for finding a used boat. It allows for very easy filtering on Length, Age, Location, Price, etc and really allows you to quickly find whats out there that matches your wants.
What I found were a good number of Hunters and Catalinas. Both are fine boats, but since Jim knew that we would probably only want to own this particular boat for a few years, he suggested we try to search out a Beneteau or Jeanneau, since they tend to hold their values better and are a little more rare/sought after, making then easier to sell when the time comes.
I focused my search on the southern and mid-atlantic coastal states, hoping to find something that I could, with some help, sail from wherever it lay to Oriental, NC.
Jim, acting as my broker, spoke with the listing broker (Rose Ann Points from Atlas Yacht Sales, who by the way seems super awesome) to set up my visit. I flew down and back on April 10th to check out this boat and a few other Beneteau's she had to offer.
It was actually exciting and exhausting. I woke at 4:00am to get to RDU airport for my 6:15am flight that ended up being delayed over 2 hours, so they put me on a 7:30am flight, still through Charlotte, instead. I ended up on two flights on the way down and two on the way back and then didn't get back home until just after midnight. Whew, that was a whirlwind day! On the plus side, I only had to worry about my backpack, so the travelling part was really not that bad on its own.
I arrived at the marina where the boat was docked (Julington Creek Marina). It is about 30 minutes south of Jacksonville, just at the joining of the main Charles River (part of the ICW) and Julington Creek. It was fine, just no real amenities and there were a surprising number of derelict or otherwise poorly looked after boats. At $4/ft per MONTH, it is no wonder. There are marinas with transient skips that charge that much per DAY!
We walked down the dock and boarded the Beneteau. My first impression was that the boat looked to be one very good condition for its 20 yr age. The inside was in great shape, and it felt roomy. The topside was in very good shape for all of the important things. Some of the lines had seen better days and there were a few areas of the gel coat with spider cracks and a few areas where holes in the deck were patched when something was removed. The engine looked good, though the true test would be in starting it, which would come later.
So, I went onto a few sites to start looking for used boats, surprisingly, quite old used boats (that happen to have been well taken care of). YachtWorld.com seems to be the go-to source for finding a used boat. It allows for very easy filtering on Length, Age, Location, Price, etc and really allows you to quickly find whats out there that matches your wants.
What I found were a good number of Hunters and Catalinas. Both are fine boats, but since Jim knew that we would probably only want to own this particular boat for a few years, he suggested we try to search out a Beneteau or Jeanneau, since they tend to hold their values better and are a little more rare/sought after, making then easier to sell when the time comes.
I focused my search on the southern and mid-atlantic coastal states, hoping to find something that I could, with some help, sail from wherever it lay to Oriental, NC.
I happened to find a 1998 Beneteau 381 docked in Jacksonville, Florida that seemed to check enough boxes that it warranted a trip to go check it out. It even had the somewhat rare, 2 cabin, 2 head layout (where the bow cabin has an ensuite head). Jim and I discussed this and felt that having a 2 cabin, 2 head 38 foot boat would be a very desirable charter boat.
Jim, acting as my broker, spoke with the listing broker (Rose Ann Points from Atlas Yacht Sales, who by the way seems super awesome) to set up my visit. I flew down and back on April 10th to check out this boat and a few other Beneteau's she had to offer.
It was actually exciting and exhausting. I woke at 4:00am to get to RDU airport for my 6:15am flight that ended up being delayed over 2 hours, so they put me on a 7:30am flight, still through Charlotte, instead. I ended up on two flights on the way down and two on the way back and then didn't get back home until just after midnight. Whew, that was a whirlwind day! On the plus side, I only had to worry about my backpack, so the travelling part was really not that bad on its own.
I arrived at the marina where the boat was docked (Julington Creek Marina). It is about 30 minutes south of Jacksonville, just at the joining of the main Charles River (part of the ICW) and Julington Creek. It was fine, just no real amenities and there were a surprising number of derelict or otherwise poorly looked after boats. At $4/ft per MONTH, it is no wonder. There are marinas with transient skips that charge that much per DAY!
We walked down the dock and boarded the Beneteau. My first impression was that the boat looked to be one very good condition for its 20 yr age. The inside was in great shape, and it felt roomy. The topside was in very good shape for all of the important things. Some of the lines had seen better days and there were a few areas of the gel coat with spider cracks and a few areas where holes in the deck were patched when something was removed. The engine looked good, though the true test would be in starting it, which would come later.
While I was down there Rose Ann also wanted to show me a couple other Beneteaus, all docked about a 45 minutes drive down at the Camachee Cove Yacht Marina in St. Augustine.
The boats there were a mix of way nicer (like almost 20 yrs old and looked like it was just put in the water) and not any nicer, but they were all asking for quite a bit more than a. the first boat and b. we were willing to spend.
Here are some pictures of that beatifully maintained 2003 Benaeteau 393:
So while they were nice to see, the first boat I looked at was still the right fit for us.
It was about midnight when I got back to Raleigh, so it was a long day and I quickly went to bed.
Over the next couple of days Sue and I talked about it and eventually decided we were going to make an offer. We made an offer on a Friday at about 12% below asking price; not too unusual an offer on a boat. Early the folllowing week we heard back from the listing broker that the owner, “doesn’t negotiate, he just asks the price he wants. He’s done this on three other boats he’s sold through me.” Well crap, we had room we were willing to go up, but not that much.
We haven’t ruled out that boat, but we are also looking at a few other Beneteau’s; a few that are listed such that we could probably end up at or below the non-negotiable price of the 381 from Jacksonville.
I’ll update as we investigate more boats, I mean yachts ;-)
- Mike
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