Just looking

If you don’t own a sailboat or never had one and you want to buy it, what can you expect/demand from a sailboat and what properties should it have?

In The Netherlands, we have a site called yachtfocus.com. It’s an international site where you can find sailboats for sail sale. You can select a price range, kind boat, but also if the boat should be in The Netherlands. For us, that’s handy, because we won’t buy a boat yet, just only have a look at different ones. We decided to have a look at a wide range of boats, in price as well as in brand, age and size so we can visit al lot boats. And important for us, just looking and not buying (if we were in time of Roelof and Carla 1.0 we would be in a hurry to buy one). We take our time, step into boats, have a look and feel if a type of boat could be a boat for us.

A wide range is nice but we should filter, otherwise we can visit boats every day. We don’t need a brand new one, but do a big refit is not the way to go for us right now.

So lets set the filter on 10 to 12 meter long boats. Price can be a max of € 80000,00. Age from 1990, what can we expect?

The boats which we see of 36 feet looks very big inside. Our Casper is 40-feet and must be much bigger, hm are the images correct? With a little bit logical thinking we get a direction. Probably a boat of 10 meter is to short to sail over the sea and live on it(when we are older ;)) So we change the filter to 11-13 meter.

The common brands are there like Bavaria, Jeanneau, Beneteau, but also Compromis, Dufour and Etap. In fact, all kind of boats are showed. We look at the images, especially the layout is important we think. Is the settee well placed, how is the bed in the v-berth, what is the position of the galley? We don’t look at the fabric of the cushions and matrasses. It’s mostly gives us an idea of how the boat is used, but we assume that we will at least want to update it to our own taste.

At the end we decided last Saturday to drive to Lelystad(a town to the Ijsselmeer. When we arrive at the sales harbor, we check the board to see what is for sale. We see a Hallberg-Rassy with a length of a little bit more then 10 meter. While reading on the internet the last couple of weeks, I’ve got the feeling that these boats are well made. When we’re in the office , we asked if we could see the Hallberg-Rassy. Unfortunately the boat is on the dry, covered with a large tent cover so we can’t enter the boat. Maybe in spring we can have a look

We did see a Dufour 36, build in 2000, length 11,08 meter. Next to the place of the Dufour there is a Bavaria 390 Caribic, build in 1993 with a length of 12.15 meter. Two complete different kind of boats so we can feel which boat could most likely our boat.

First we step on the Dufour. First impression? Much smaller then we thought. Why do they still make wide angle photo’s? When you see the real world it’s a disappointment. But ok, we step over and look at other kind of things. The settee in the center of the boat’s cabin is uncomfortable and creates a very small area to walk through to the front. Together we lie on the bed in the v-berth. This is way to small to stay on for a longer period. It could be a nice boat when you’re going to use it on 3-week holiday and some weekends, but it’s not an option to live on for a longer time. Our future is not on a boat this size.

Now it’s time for the older Bavaria. Yes, it’s much bigger inside. Unfortunately there are two Heads. This makes it a bit less practical. We are shocked by how the wood looks now. Off course it’s an older boat but Casper(also 30 year) looks much better. The ceiling is covered with a ugly kind of fabric which come loose at some points. For us it’s obvious, when you look for a boat longer then 12 meter which must be cheaper then € 80000,00 you will end up with a boat where you should refit a lot.

When we’re back at the office it looks like there is also a Beneteau Oceanis 393 Clipper for sale. 11.98 meter long and build in 2003. Officially it’s not for sale yet. The owner should fix some things first and it need to be cleaned up. We go on board and the cockpit looks big enough. When we go inside, the layout looks OK. Nice wide space, while there are 2 Heads also. The settee in the middle of the cabin doesn’t have a back, so walking around the boat feels like more space. The fridge is large, but what really disappoints us is the amount of cupboards. We really don’t know how we can store all of our clothes and other stuff. Off course we won’t have that much clothes on a boat as we do have in a normal house, but still. The seller explains us that most boats from France have not that much of storage.

So, what do we know after this? The boat should be at least 11 meter. Nevertheless, we will have a look at the Hallberg-Rassy, just to find out how it’s build. A boat which is build in the early 90’s can’t be the boat for us, unless the photos are really promising.

Closet space turns out to be a serious stumbling block. Off course when there are 3 sleeping cabins, you can turn one into a closet, but it’s not the best solution.

It is also important for us to know how relaxed you can sit in the cockpit. Especially when the children are joining us, you should be able to sit nice.

Another aspect is the space on the foredeck. When we’re going to sail over the seas, we want our dinghy on the deck, unless there are some Davids. Some boats have a lot of obstacles on the foredeck and storing the dinghy is not always possible.

The conclusion is that we really enjoy getting on a sailing boat. It was very bad weather, rain, cold, but it still felt great. Our search continues, we are now also interested in the unsinkable Etap and a C-Yacht 1100. The C-yacht( in the past it’s called the Compromis) has a aft cabin so you have more of a closed cockpit, I imagine that is safe.

Soon looking for such boats to view. For now it is mainly enjoying the anticipation.