That sounded like a good title in my head anyway. Imagine the late 70’s to early 80’s Richard Dawson voice saying it. Of course that is probably the last time I watched Family Feud but I digress.
A boat survey is a funny thing. Imagine flying to another country to meet someone that you are paying a large sum of money to in order to thoroughly examine a boat that you have never seen in person. Add to that the fact that when you originally planned all of this you weren’t going to have anyone there that knows the boat inside and out other than your surveyor and broker who are familiar with this “type” of boat but not “this” boat. Shortly before leaving you find out that the current owner of the boat will be there for the survey. Sounds stressful doesn’t it? Actually, it sounded exciting. How often do you get to meet and spend time with the previous owner of a vessel you are buying when the owner is from Germany, you are from the U.S. and the boat is sitting in the Caribbean? It’s a complicated logistical dance. Throw in surveyor schedules, boat yard schedules, tight timelines for flights, and bomb threats and you have my 4th of July weekend!
When we made our initial offer on this boat I knew in the back of my mind that this whole thing could be a challenge, survey included. I think that knowing the difficulty involved with buying a boat in a foreign country drove us to initially limit our options to just boats in the U.S. But like love, you can’t predict or plan when or where the perfect one for you will show up. That being said, we initially wrote this boat off. Mainly because of location. But something kept drawing us back in. It kept calling us. So after plenty of research and digging we decided that this is the one that we would go for. And we did. And I’m glad we did!
So before anyone will loan you money to buy a boat they want to know that it is a worthwhile investment. YOU need to know it is a worthwhile investment too. So you need to have a good survey completed. Why anyone would buy a boat of any substance without a good survey is lost on me. Choosing the surveyor is another challenge in itself. I think we got lucky in that the recommendation from our broker was excellent. I am always skeptical at at first but after talking to our surveyor before scheduling anything (the interview) I immediately felt better. Based on my background research of his abilities, pouring over his sample reports, and recommendations from other sailors I felt we had found the right person to complete our survey. I was excited to see what he would find. I was excited to learn more about the inner workings and conditions of this boat. Now we just had to figure out when to do it.
I won’t bore you with the detailed back and forth and the multiple changes in schedules. Let’s just say that it was a very challenging time. One, because I’m mostly not a patient person. Two, it is in fact, a logistical nightmare to coordinate all of the many, MANY moving parts. It did happen though, and it all worked out well.
- My view of the Bahamas after finally leaving Miami.
The plan was to meet the owner, the boat, my surveyor, and my broker at the boatyard that was scheduled to perform the haul-out at 2:00 PM on Friday. Due to flight schedules being wonky I flew into St. Maarten the evening before. I arrived late after delays leaving Dallas followed by more delays leaving my layover spot Miami. By the time I landed in St. Maarten and made it to my hotel it was late in the evening and I immediately fell into bed.
I awoke too late to enjoy breakfast so I opted to head to the marina a little early and wander around to see if I could find the boat. Hoping that I could also find a decent place to eat. After a squall rolled through the island early on, the skies cleared and even though the wind had picked up and stayed high all day it was nice and sunny. My taxi driver dropped me off at the marina, which was on the French side of the island in Marigot, and I immediately set out to find the boat. I did, although it took a bit of wandering because she wasn’t sitting where I had thought she was. The owner had moved her to a more accessible (and less gawker busy) slip. Relieved I set out to find food. I found a nice little French cafe who’s chef had not yet arrived for work but they had cold beer and shade so I was set. After a few beers and a French rendition of a Greek salad it was time for me to head to the boat yard.
- A view like this makes waiting easy.
- French Greek Salad (It was delicious!!)
This is when things started going awry. I knew where the boat was. I knew where the yard was. But I did not know where the owner, my surveyor, or my broker were. An hour late I get messages from both my broker and my surveyor saying that their flight (that was to land at 1:30) had been diverted. The airport here on St. Maarten had been shut down. A quick look at the news an I discover that there was apparently a bomb threat on a KLM 747 sitting on the runway. So the authorities closed the roads in and out of the airport, shut down the bridges, and the airport had been evacuated. Around 3:30 my surveyor and broker make it to the boatyard. I had been looking for the owner to no avail. We all decided that with only 30 minutes left to haul the boat we had better head to the marina to find the owner, a 5 minute walk.
Eventually we found the owner, got the boat to the boat yard and got them to haul it out. On a Friday. At almost 5:00 pm. With overtime for yard hands. Despite a cancelled appointment. (The owner had cancelled the appointment because no one had shown up.) To top things off, because we didn’t take the boat off of the trailer and were speedy in our work, the boatyard gave me a big discount. I was super happy! My broker blamed it all on my Texas charm. I wasn’t about to disagree.
- Happy to be able to see her undersides.
So normally a survey is about a day worth of effort. You meet at the boat in the morning. Sea trial on the way to hauling out where the boat dries out over lunch and you finish off in the afternoon. Mine however, was a bit unconventional. We hauled out and sea trialled in the evening. Left for a great dinner and a good nights sleep and finished off the following morning before flying home in the afternoon.
All in all the entire whirlwind trip was an amazing experience. I was so happy to be able to meet the owner and spend time talking to him, learning about his family, his history, and their travels. It’s touching knowing that he cared greatly for the boat and cared that she was going to a family who would treat her with care and respect and enjoy her. I think the both of us being able to be there to meet and talk went a long way to making us both feel better about this whole thing. I learned about her history, how before he bought her she was originally purchased new by a Frenchman and kept in the Rhône river (freshwater) and rarely used but for fishing (I know right?). I was also very happy to see that she had been well taken care of, hardly used prior to the past year and all in all was in excellent shape.
I can hardly wait for her to get to Florida, get the paperwork completed, and get closed. Once all of the dominoes fall into place then I’ll breathe a little easier. Much more to come so stay tuned!