We Bought a new Boat!

Friday September 19, 2014

dazeoff1

Now that the check has been sent out (electronically) and received (electronically), I can now tell you that…we bought one of those new boat sales from a local boat dealer! Out with the old and in with the new. Or, out with a perfectly good boat that we’ve grown to love dearly over the past few years, and in with a new gut and rebuild that we’re hoping wasn’t a huge huge mistake. But what is life if not one great adventure?

If you remember back to my Never Ending Atlantic Crossing post, you’ll remember that when the deal on the first boat fell through (for which we can blame no one but ourselves since we HAD the boat and then walked away from it before realizing that we still wanted it), we were both in a bit of a funk. Mostly Matt though, as he was taking this loss of our dream boat really hard. Since we were stuck in a marina with nothing but rain and time and internet on our hands, he went back to scouring through Yacht World, a favorite hobby of his, in hopes of replacing the boat he had just lost.

Well somehow, he did it. About two days after we found out we would 100% not be getting the boat in Rhode Island, he came across a decent backup in Florida. Backup meaning that instead of 48 ft and basically cruising ready, it’s only 37 ft and in need of a major refit. But…. the price was incredibly right. Plus Matt has been getting a little bored lately and in need of a good project. During his free time he is always thinking of minor things that he’d like his next boat to have, and with a gut and rebuild we’ll be able to start from scratch and hopefully put each and one of those to use. Kind of like how when I was growing up my parents would build a new house every 4-5 years, stating, ‘I like how this house has this and that, but I want to make sure our next house has these certain specifics’. And then they would build it that way. (Literally themselves, there was very little outside help.)

A little information on this new boat, it’s a 37 ft Trisalu, a French design boat that was built in Quebec, has a deck salon (basically a pilot house, but no wheel inside), it’s made of aluminum, and has the best deep cycle marine battery. It also has backup boat batteries in case of an emergency. Surprise, surprise. For some reason Matt has been fascinated with aluminum boats the past few years and has always wanted to try one. Their rugged utilitarian look and the fact that they can go anywhere. I have a feeling he’s going to try and sneak me up to the Baltic Sea or down to the Falkland Islands in it when I’m not looking. The kind of boat where you don’t worry about the gelcoat, and when you bounce off some rocks (or an iceburg) you say, ‘It barely left a dent!’. There are plenty of yachts for sale in Phuket, but most of them are old and outdated or overpriced. It’s really hard to find an affordable new luxury yacht that fits your needs. We’ve got a solution – check out our website asia-marine.net where we list all available yachts for sale at great prices with high quality photos and detailed information about each model! You can also contact us directly if you have any questions regarding luxury yachts for sale in Phuket!

The draft on this boat is 7 ft, but with a lifting centerboard we’ll be able to get it down to 3. There’s a quarter berth in the aft as well as a small storage area, a head that will actually have a shower stall!, a decent sized galley for me to cook in, a small settee area ahead of that, and a v-berth which we’ll probably still keep as our sleeping quarters.

So, all of this means that we will not actually be heading toward the Med this year. As soon as the next weather window allows we’ll begin traveling south, getting ourselves to the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa, and crossing the Atlantic, once again, sometime in December or January. From there we’ll try and enjoy the Eastern Caribbean a little bit while making our way north and to where the boat is sitting in Indiantown, FL. We think that if we can get there in April and begin non-stop work on it (because really, what else are we going to have going?), that it will be cruising ready by next November, just in time to cruise the Bahamas and Caribbean during the winter months.

It’s a lot to take on, and it’s all definitely come up suddenly, but we’re excited and looking forward to the adventure ahead. Or, who knows. Maybe we’ll get to Florida and realize this was the worst decision in the world and there’s going to be a bunch of scrap metal going up for sale. Only time will tell.

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