The search is on ….

An updated version of this blog is available at my updated blog site over at www.sailingsouth.org. You can find the blog article here.

The search for a boat was on. I wanted something around 36 foot, this gives enough space for a couple and room for occasional visitors without being too big or expensive to maintain.

I went through and found a long list of boats, comparing all different aspects of what was available. We went through the process, talking about the positives and negatives of different layouts and options. The only layout that we didn’t have too many negative views on was for the Moody 37. And Isosceles was the favourite amongst these with a modified aft cabin to give her a central, full sized double bed, with extra storage.

My preference was a centre cockpit for several reasons, amongst them the safety and security of the centre cockpit. There is also a reduction in the perceived movement being closer to the centre of the boat which makes a difference if you are prone to Mal-di-mare (sea sickness) as I am. This may seem surprising to some but for me it works. You may be higher up, but you are also further forward towards the pivot point of the boat, so movement is actually reduced. On a relatively stable boat this makes for a much more gentle motion.

On a centre cockpit boat the aft cabin is a proper liveable bedroom but the main saloon will be smaller as a consequence, they can also be a little dark and “cave like”, so lots of port lights and ventilation is a must, or the ability to add to what the builder has given you. Everything on a boat is a compromise, and you have to make choices over what is important to you.

We went back to look at Isosceles again while I scoured the brokerages and adverts. We hunted high & low for moorings and marinas, and scoured the internet for information, good, bad or otherwise about the Moody 37. We also contacted the bank with a proposal that almost made the mortgage broker choke!

Paying for the dream

With me having less than 6 years to go until I retire, we decided to re-mortgage the house to fund the boat. Any mortgage had to be able to be covered by my pension lump sum as I had no intention of retiring and still having to pay a mortgage. Of course, when the (not so young) kids heard we were spending my pension lump sum 6 years early they were a little taken aback, but then they were never entirely surprised by anything we did or said!

Once the bank had all the reassurances they asked for on security of money (life insurances, pension lump sums and of course the value of the property) they agreed to our mortgage application. By this point we had discounted almost everything except Isosceles, we had been back to see her with a third, independent, friend who was told to be as critical as he could ….. he came up with the same things that I had on my list. We put in cheeky offer, on the proviso that if the known osmosis or age of the rigging (11 years old) came back as an issue we would not re-negotiate.

Buying the boat

The surveyor confirmed my view on the osmosis, it had been there on the previous survey around 8 years before, and did not appear to have significantly worsened. Having said that we are still not totally sure how long Isosceles had been out of the water that year, so a better judgement would come at the end of year one. There are many stories and misconceptions around osmosis. It certainly does spoil the look of an extremely expensive new boat, but even these new boats are not immune to the condition. There are however 1000’s upon 1000’s of boats happily sailing around the world with osmosis. It is something that needs to be monitored and should not be ignored, but unless you want to spend your time (and probably as much as a reasonable second hand boat costs) on treating it, you’ll never get rid of it completely.

And so there we were, a couple of days before Christmas and the sale had gone through. We were now responsible for 37 foot of fibreglass money pit!