Do we own a boat yet?

Here the surveyor is standing under the boat inspecting the hulls. He stands at about six feet tall. Can you believe how big this boat is?

Before I even get started I want to apologize for the delay in getting this out. Sunday Funday got away from me a little. None the less, here’s a quick recap from last Wednesday’s post: Mom and Dad went to Tortola to look at a boat, and after seeing it briefly they decided to make an offer on it. Then 10% was put into escrow and now the haul-out, sea trial, and survey can happen.

For those of you who know what a haul-out, sea trial and survey is then you could maybe just skip down to the next paragraph, but if you don’t know what it is then I’ll explain. Once you are ready to purchase a boat it needs to be inspected, this happens in two steps. Step one is a haul-out, this is where the boat gets pulled out of the water and the bottom side of the boat is inspected. The surveyor is looking at things like bottom paint, props, delimitation, rudders, etc. Step two is the sea trial, and this is when the boat is sailed with the surveyor on board. Here the surveyor looks at things like sails, rigging, engines, etc. The seller pays for any costs associated with the sea trial and the buyer pays for the haul-out costs and the surveyor.

Again, unfortunately, I wasn't able to go on this trip either and neither was Mom. Dad flew solo on this one and had less hiccups than the first time around. Tropical Storm Karen had passed so there weren’t any more troubles with the ports and he had definitely learned how to navigate the taxies, so I would say that the travel part of the trip, although long and exhausing, was smooth sailing (pun definitely intended). Once he got to Tortola he had the rest of that first day to get his bearings about him as the next morning was when the fun started. At 9 AM the boat was hauled out and the survey begun. While this was happening, Dad sent us pictures of the boat out of the water with the surveyor underneath of it. This man was about six feet tall and he looked so small in comparison. I don’t think that I was really able to comprehend the size of any sort of vessel in it’s entirety. I had only seen two boats before up close and they seem so much smaller when they’re in the water.

Dad was able to spend almost an entire day on and around the boat in the daylight! During the haul out inspection, the surveyor looked at everything from the bottom of the hulls to the top of the mast looking at all of the fittings and the mechanical parts that don’t need water to run. Once he was finished with that the boat was put back in the water and they were headed off for the sea trial. Dad was able to sail the boat for almost an hour while the surveyor walked around and checked everything again. The surveyor said, besides the sails being a little dirty and needing a little cosmetic work, the boat looked great. You can imagine the joy he must have felt when he heard that news, and then how happy we were when he called us. I can remember the excitement on his face when he was telling us about it after he got home. The way the sails cracked when they were first put up and how once they turned into the wind and the sails filled with air how calm everything seemed to get. He said it was so quiet, the boat didn’t creak, the engines were turned off and all you could hear was the wind. I can’t wait until I can feel what he felt that day.

After Dad got back home, both him and Mom knew that this was going to be our boat. They got on the phone and called our broker and told him that this was it and they wanted him to push for a quick close. After that, it was 30 long days until the boat was officially ours.

Come back on Wednesday for an update on the galley project! See you then!

Thanks,

Syd