Buying a boat during a pandemic, part III

 We discussed, we tracked numbers, we contemplated, but we just can't go to Florida. It's just too scary dangerous out there. We both have some comorbidities so that adds to our worry, plus we are just regular old. And that's enough. Maybe later in the winter when the vaccine is more prevalent. 

Buying a catamaran during a pandemic, part II

 So here we go again!

Last boat I was looking at was a 40' Manta from Endeavor. I actually wanted a 42' Manta, but really can't afford that, so here we are looking at the 40' version.

This one is also 1997 Manta 40. Oddly enough this one dropped in price the day I declined the previous boat and headed back north. Had I looked I could have saved myself another long drive. 

We looked again, had a virtual tour, this one was a great deal more in depth and almost exhaustive in its detailed look at the boat. This dealer really knew their stuff, but more importantly, they knew this boat. I love the Manta line of catamarans. After looking at all the boats, and just hundreds of used boats I started to develop a list of boats in my head to match the "OMG I won the lottery!", "I really would like that expensive shiny over there", and then finally, "I will grudgingly accept this one, because I can afford it." lists. So in Cats the boat at the top of "I would really like that expensive shiny over there" list has been the Manta 42' for a number of years. The accompanying mono hull on that list is the AMEL 52. So when I saw that this particular shiny had dropped even below the price of the previous shiny? OMG!

This boat was further away in Ft. Meyers Beach. A good 14 hour drive, which works out to at least 16 hours on the road, cuz man I gotta stop. I freely admit I am a lousy long distance driver. Anyway got the SO involved in this particular trip. I felt that I was cutting her out of the fun and games of buying a new boat. And frankly It was a serious amount of money to spend with out her approval each step of the way. So pack the truck and off we go. We have a friend that lives an hour or so from the boat yard and she seemed not sick and safe, so we piled into her house for the week. 

OK long story shorter, we loved KokoMo Kat, and we bought her. She is laying in Fort Meyers Beach and it is killing us. COVID winter is here, everything between here and there is now classified as "Uncontrolled Spread" and as much as I want to take delivery of my new adventure, I want to live longer than 2 weeks after I get there. Plus as near as I can tell the hospitals ICU's in that area are at near capacity anyway. And I already see in the news and on social media how seriously the people living down there are taking this. Which is not enough. It's is incredibly insane to politicize a freaking illness, but here we are anyway. 

So now we are just working on a plan to get through to Florida in a hermetically sealed bubble, failing that maybe my truck will suffice. 

Inspecting a sailboat during a pandemic

So I hope I don't die. That's about where I am today. Got back from Florida yesterday. Rented a car and drove to St. Augustine Tuesday. Took about 12 hours. Which is actually just a few hours longer than it would take to fly these days. Particularly with the level of security theater that surrounds aircraft and flying these days. And seemingly just as tiring.

The car was ok, and the trip as uneventful as you would wish. 

Hotels are strange now, but I managed, I think, to stay safe. People on the other hand, well some are obviously stupid. But that is to be expected in our current political environment, I guess. I find the dick nose wears of masks to be the most prevalent of the folks that won't wear a mask properly. Then you have the younger folks that pull it down so they can talk to us old folks. Which is not a great idea, however I'm amazed at how much I read lips versus hearing, or in conjunction with hearing. So I guess after hearing "huh?" a million times, that habit starts. Not a great habit. 

Did see a nice touch of discrimination while driving through South Carolina. White boy allowed in and out of the gas station I was using, unmasked, no issue. POC shows up and walks in to do business and the proprietor behind the counter starts yelling, "Mask, no service no mask!". 

The boat we are looking at had been sitting on the hard for a few years. So was full of raccoon poop and loads of footprints. It was a particularly beautiful Wednesday, not much wind, a nice bright sunny day. I was hoping that was auspicious, but it was not to be. But everyone arrived on time, we got in through the gate, and drove over to the boat. It's always interesting to see how a yard is laid out. This one was nicely regimented rows. Rows and rows of cats sitting on the hard. The one I was interested in unfortunately had a couple jet ski's stored under it, loads of sitting water, with the attendant hordes of mosquitoes. Exterior of the boat looked about what I expected. Worn, showing her years of baking in the sun, but not horrible. The yard had been out the previous day, trying to get a charge in the batteries. Fruitlessly as it turns out, but I skip ahead. The interior smell was certainly not bad. A mix of aged plastics and old diesel fuel. Not a lot of the mustiness you get when stuff sits and molders. The two solar powered fans in the overhead ports were still limping along moving air, so that may have helped. So we spent a couple hours poking around, I took pictures of all the drawers and cabinets to see what was still on board. Really not much. Which is ok, anything fabric will need to be thrown away and replaced. Found they built a tool chest into one of the drawer sets, which is nice. Looks like most of the tools were still there. Top bad the PO (previous owner) evidently never used them. 

I wasn't terribly surprised the batteries were flat. PO had stated that they were fresh, only a few years old, but they didn't leave a trickle charger on them to keep them up, so I guess sitting for two years in a Florida yard is enough to kill them. The start battery seemingly had just enough charge to kick the port engine over and start it. Which was great! Engine wheezed a few times, sputtered then started. White smoke yay! Water discharge, YAY! Things went downhill from there. 

But yeah, unfortunately the previous owner or owners deferred a ton of maintenance. So after a day getting sunburned by the Florida sun I headed back to the hotel then back home.

I eventually declined that particular boat.

Buying a boat during a pandemic...

 So our bid was accepted by the current owner. Which is quite amazing in and of itself. The boat is down in St. Augustine, FL so it is like working with long handled tongs. But just convincing the current owner to sell me his baby is just step one of many steps to getting the boat up here. I'm currently polling my friends to see who is interested in helping drive it up here. It's some 800 miles, or more I haven't laid out the full track yet. 

So boat inspection is the next step. I will be there as a fly on the wall for the inspection. Need to inventory all the various cabinets and see what's on the boat and what will need to be sent down. Bedding, vacuum, pots, pans, coffee maker, charts, and a billion other things I am not thinking about right now.

Had a virtual walk through the other weekend, it looks very nice, doesn't look like it leaks, except for a bucket in the middle of the salon table(??). 

Anyway next is to rent a car and drive down there. I am still hoping to live through this winter so am working to minimize exposure. 

Wow so much empty

 Hello and welcome back!

It's been a few years since I have had much to say here. We have sailed some, but lost the last season to the boatyard. Evidently if you are just asking for a small repair, IE under 5K, you will never ever get your service complete. I needed the starter rebuilt as well as the high pressure fuel pump. The fuel pump was spewing diesel into the bilge, which on a number of levels is just a bad thing. Then the starter would just randomly not work. And frankly I am not going to sail into my slip. So I just needed those things worked on. The boat has been in pieces since February. Granted we are also having a pandemic, but seriously, it's freaking September.

In other news we are looking at buying a catamaran! A sweet Manta 40'. I have been enamored with the Manta line for quite some time. We really like the up galley, the owners stateroom with crawl in vs. crawl over bed. As well as the Camberspar jib. It is quite a bit of boat and will be a nice step up from Amadeus. Really wanted the Manta 42', but can afford the Manta 40', so there we go. Not really sure if I'd miss the "extra" 2'.

Been doing quite a bit of research into the boat and it's parts, especially the sail part. In examining the electronics the autopilot and the sails are all integrated to work together. With the self tacking Camberspar up front to tack under autopilot all you need do is press a button. There is also the option to set a course with way points and have the boat motor to the end, making all needed turns to accommodate the path. Which frankly sounds like huge fun. Get it out of the slip, then engage the auto, motor out to where ever the wind is, and go! We always had a fairly long motor to get out of our slip and out to the bay, so this would make it a bit easier. With the autopilot you can also set the offset to the wind to 0' and it will keep the nose into the wind so as to make raising and lowering sail as simple as possible. Has lazy jacks for both the main and jib. Might also have a permanent spinnaker, but not to sure about that. 

Just found an owners manual as well as an owners club on line.

Anyway we are still in the early stages here. Will try to stay up to date on this process. 

Fair winds!

Edit: So it has been a few weeks since the boatyard returned Amadeus to me. And FFS. They left the boat floating for 9 months with no trickle charger on the batteries, so they are all dead. That is 3 $215 batteries. They put it back in the wrong slip, and used some sort of what looks like twine to moor it. The bill was outrageous and frankly I will never do business with them again.