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Well from the day I contacted the previous owner to the day we actually owned the boat there were – obviously – a bunch of costs, some expected, some a bit unexpected, but nothing too onerous.

I anticipate that beginning immediately, I now owe moorage at Granville Island and we still have to facilitate the actual transfer of the boat which involves us flying out again, a hired skipper and moving her to her new moorage. (All costs shown are approximate.)

I will update these as the numbers change.

As of 7:19 pm Wednesday we are now the proud owners of a 2003 Hunter 386.

The various surveys had turned up an astounding $8700 of repairs and issues with an additional $3900 being estimated by the engine guys at Stem to Stern. As I mentioned previously the engine guys had a lot of routine maintenance items built into the estimate that no one could reasonable expect the previous owner to be responsible for. So we, (the broker) proposed that the price be adjusted for the total of the survey issues and $2500 of the mechanical ones. And the we waited. And waited. And waited.

Okay, it was only 2 and a half days, and there were a lot of numbers, but it sure seemed like a long time. Be that as it may, eventually we got word back that the seller would like to reduce the mechanical by a further $500 and further reduce a few of the specific estimates by a few hundred here and there. All in all, he was asking for a reduction of a little over a $1000. That seemed fair.

So I said ok.

And then I (we) owned a boat.

Paperwork

I doesn’t seem real to buy a boat a 1000 miles away over the phone. There is nothing really tangible about it: no hand shake, no new boat smell… so life didn’t change much and we (I) were pretty subdued. Friday rolls around and I finally got the official survey documents with valuations so I contacted our insurance company ( I had picked and contacted an insurance company  about 2 weeks previously) to let him know the real numbers and update the quote. I didn’t really know when to bind in the insurance so I left it hanging (so I thought) for the weekend.

Well around 4pm our time I start getting documents and emails. First was a notice that the signed bill of sale was … well… signed and on its way. And “Oh, by the way, is the insurance in place yet?” Seems the marinas require insurance in place and the PO (previous owner) needed to cancel his. So wrote back to the insurance broker asking if they could bind the policy immediately. He said yes. Then the Bill of sale arrived along with the Pleasure Craft License transfer.

Now it felt like we owned a boat.

That was soon followed by an Insurance application, a Certificate of Insurance and of course an invoice for the aforementioned insurance. I forwarded the certificate to the  yacht broker and we were done. Like dinner.

Now we had ton of other arrangements to make and some bills to add up…

So the estimates are still rolling in but there looks to be some serious cash involved. At this point the most likely outcome given that we still want the boat, is that the price will be reduced accordingly and we will repair what needs to be repaired.

The major issues (in my mind) as it stands are:
• re-pitch propellor (including hauling the boat and storage on the hard)
• repair Webasto heater
• repair hot water system
• repair the hull damage
• ensure the galvanic isolator is working
• check/repair the strut bolts
• replace the exhaust elbow
• repair engine mounts
• repair engine alarm
• reapir forestay swivel

The broker’s list of major issues is much longer and probably more accurate, but I am defining major in this case as things I need resolved before committing to the sale and releasing the funds. I would also like to see the current owner kick in on sail repairs, some of the engine maintenance issues and fixing the issues with the hull blisters, but I/we have not yet determined/decided whether we/I would kill the sale over these smaller items.

What we (by which I mostly mean the broker) are trying to do now is get final estimates from all the various trades and technicians and work out a plan. If we are pulling the boat to fix the hull and prop, then I might as well get her bottom painted at the same time and fixing the other smaller issues now will save having to do another haulout. But now is the busiest season as everyone is prepping their boats for summer. So maybe we take the cash and stash it away until fall and do the work then, but that comes at an additional cost that has to come out of someone’s pocket. Once the estimate numbers are in (which could/should be in an hour or two), the current owner will commit to his number and then. if Leslie and I like that number, we’ll agree and he will magically be transformed into the previous owner and we will own a boat.

It’s all an intricate dance of order and precedence and yet another reason that I am glad, in the end, to have been able to work with the broker throughout this process. Call me naïve if you want to (even though you shouldn’t) but I truly believe he doing the best deal he can for both parties. And I like that.

So there you have it. We will know in a couple of hours if there are going to be any more posts in this blog.