serenaThe other day, I got an email from Tucker at Forgeover offering a virtual boat visit. How cool is that? After working out a time, we hopped on to Skype one evening. Tucker, Victoria and their two kids live aboard a Cal 43 in the San Francisco Bay area. They are planning on taking off for a one to two year cruise–in 37 weeks to be exact.
We got a virtual tour of their home, Convivia and received some good tips (i.e. for scanning, he recommends the Fujitsu Scansnap 300, and Etsy.com for pirate and mermaid decals for the kid’s berths). Tig and I updated them on our boat buying process, and got some advice about brokers and purchase agreements (note: you don’t have to use the standard purchase agreement as is, you can red-line it). I learned that there are such things as boat buying consultation through companies like Mahina and through boat designer Robert H. Perry.
I’m glad to have the blog to capture how wonderful the sailing community is, and to write down all the fun little tips we get.
Thanks Tucker and Victoria! We will be watching your blog and counting the days til you set sail.
Update on Boat Shopping
On a less happy note, we were supposed to see a Scanmar 35 this weekend, but the owner canceled on us. Seems he had second thoughts on selling his boat. Oh well, she seemed promising on paper.
Sorry to hear about the Scanmar. The layout looks pretty ideal. Working with an owner that doesn’t want to sell is really tough, I would count yourself lucky that he was honest enough to let you know straight up.
Anyway, there are plenty of other boats out there and boat hunting is so much fun!
Tig seems to like the elusive European ladies. Between the Sadler he was eyeing (sale pending) and this Scanmar, we’ll need to be real patient.