Survey, Contract, For Sale!

Summer is really over and our daily activities is getting started. Our kids starting a new year of learning, Roelof has a new job as teacher. Besides this, a lot of covid rules were ended, so our kids can finally start training 3 times a week in the swimming pool.

As you can imagine, time flies. But meanwhile there is something we are also busy with… Our search for another boat. In July you saw that we spoked to a couple who were selling their boat. Well, we’re still talking with them and we agreed that we’re going to buy the boat!!! The Compromis 39 called “Linde” will be ours, but not now…

At the moment we decided to buy the boat, we also knew that there is a lot to discuss, arrange, organize etc. For example, the boat is in Horta, The Azores. How and when will the boat be in The Netherlands. Because of the covid regulations, we can’t have a simple flight to see the boat. How do we know if this boat is OK. We know that a Compromis 39 can be a perfect boat for us, but is this boat ok? Technically in correct state? How can we get answers.

Well, at the Azores there is a company from a dutchman called “Mid Atlantic Yacht Services”. We called with Marcel and it seems like they do a lot of surveys in order to Insurance Companies. Boats who got damaged at the Atlantic and been repaired at the Azores, can get surveyed by MAY services. We asked Marcel if he would like to go to Linde and have a look. Not a technically survey which is needed when we will buy the boat, but more like a walk through. Check visually all technical parts, check the rigging, nock on the hull from inside, check the bilge… you get the picture.

After a week we called with Marcel again and his words were literary: “There are not many boats on the Azores which are in this good state when they arrive!” Well, that’s a nice message. There are some things that needs to be repaired or needs to have a better inspection. One rig had a broken string, there was some fresh water under the engine, some sails needs to be enforced. Overall, we were very positive and got a step further in the process.

In the meantime we talked with the sellers and they offered us to sail the boat to The Netherlands. Because of the weather, it’s not safe anymore to do this in 2021 so this will be done in spring of 2022. No problem for us, because winter will come, so we only need to have patience.

Now that the boat looks ok and we know how we can get it, it’s time to make a contract between the sellers and us. It’s not a standard contract, because there are a lot of complications for this process. We need answer for questions like, when will the boat be delivered? How to handle if something happened between now and delivery date? How about a complete survey, when and where? What kind of risks do we have and do the sellers have? Fortunately, we have some experience in our life with contracts so we will manage this. For now, we give them our word to buy the boat.

And when the decision is made, the next step is also in front of us. We need to sell our lovely Casper… We know that in future we will have a lot of joy on Linde, but it hurts to bring Casper on the market for sale. We need to empty Casper, find a broker and leave a nice boat in a dock For Sale!