Getting Close
Sailing the seas of boat acquisition
Two weeks on and there has been a lot of activity. The upshot is that it looks like next weekend I will be the proud owner of a new boat. After the discouragement of a couple weeks ago a lot has come together to make it look like it is going to happen.
Oh shit, it’s real now
The current owners finally confirmed that they received my deposit check in the mail and a couple days later sure enough the money came out of my account. This means that I am somewhat committed now to buying this boat. I am both relieved and scared about that as it means it would be difficult to back out of this deal. I think that the current owners are struggling with selling the boat and I am trying to be as understanding of that as possible. They have given up on their dream of sailing to Hawaii and are entrusting that dream to me which is now easy to do. They have a lot invested (mentally, emotionally and financially) in this boat and want to make sure that it is going to a good home. I get this and want to respect that.
Or course, all this has put the pressure squarely on my to make sure I am ready to buy the boat and deal with it. Going back to my earlier posts a 33ft. sailboat on a trailer is not something I can bring home and just put in a closet somewhere.
The bricks are falling into place
I hadn’t heard from Boardwalk marina and the manager there promised he would call me back. I was a bit hesitant to bother him but finally worked up the courage to call him to see what was going on. Good thing I did. He had been out sick for the previous week and had forgotten about me. Also, he was having problems with the lift there on a Friday before a bit race and everyone wanted to launch their boat. As a result of this he was having a meeting with the owners about an hour after my call and promised to discuss my situation with them. Without sounding too desperate on the phone I tried very hard to convey my desperation to him and appeal to whatever I could to get me in there. I received a call back a couple hours later and the owners had agreed to let me into the marina. He asked me to make sure that I don’t overload the lift and take anything heavy out of the boat before lifting it. I agreed wholeheartedly and he promised to send over some paperwork to get the ball rolling. He also said that he would need an insurance certificate naming the marina as a beneficiary and a recent survey of the boat. Not wanting to jinx anything I blindly and enthusiastically agreed.
A couple days later he sent over the paperwork. I called and explained that I would send back the paperwork but the insurance certificate, the survey and registration information would need to come later as I am working on getting that in place. He said it wouldn’t be a problem as long as I wasn’t planning on using the lift right away. The reality of the situation is that I will likely park the boat and spend several weeks just staring at it on the trailer as I wrap my head around all the bits and bobs on it make sure I understand it all. So this stipulation I also enthusiastically agreed to. He assigned me a spot.
Okay, insurance and a survey were now on my list of challenges to tackle. I called the owners and they recommended their insurance agent. I called him and explained my situation. He asked how many boats I had owned. My response of one Laser was no reassuring especially when I told him I didn’t register or insure it because it was sailed on a local lake in North Carolina. He also asked about a survey for the boat saying that he might require one. After the discussion he asked for a CV of my sailing experience. I told him it would take me a couple days to pull this together. He was going to look into what he could do for me. That weekend I worked on my sailing resume. It was kind of fun to remember all my sailing experiences and put them down on paper. After I had gone through it, contacted a couple old friends to fill in details it was more impressive than I had conveyed to the insurance guy. A lot of fond memories came back to me and I sent it off to him. A day later he came back to me asking how much coverage I wanted. I explained that I was mostly planning to race and was mostly interested in the required liability to get it into the marina and cover me against getting sued by someone for anything that may happen. A day later he came back to me with a quote that I enthusiastically agreed to. One catch is that I am limited in my sailing to coastal sailing in an area roughly between Monterey and Point Reyes. At this point I wasn’t going to argue as I figure that I will sort out the whole Hawaii thing later. Anyways, it will likely be a year or so before I want to venture beyond this area so I am sure it will be fine. He also didn’t require I get the boat surveyed but did recommend a surveyor that should work for the marina requirements.
With all this happening I was in contact with owners and we tentatively set up for the 14th of July to do the handover of the boat in San Diego. So now I had a date to work to. Yikes this is getting real and going to happen.
After calling a couple surveyors the July 4th weekend intervened so I lost several days. I was contacting the owners to arrange the survey. Since they aren’t in San Diego they have to arrange with a friend to make the boat available and I needed to coordinate with a surveyor to make it all happen before the 14th. I was able to have a couple conversations with potential surveyors and get a glimpse into the world of yacht surveyors. A bunch of calls later and a good call with the owners I have a plan. Turns out that I want to be present for the survey if I can which means I need to get down to San Diego for that. Cutting it a bit close, I have the survey arranged for the morning of the 13th. The owners friend and the surveyor and are both available and I will have to figure out how to make myself available. The surveyor offered me his couch the night before. Signed some more papers and committed to spending more money - another brick in place.
A bit more research about buying a boat in California and it looks like once I have the bill of sale in place I need to go down to the local DMV and do a bunch of paperwork to register the trailer for driving in California and also register the boat. Some fees are involved but they look not tooo bad. Plan is to do that the morning of the 14th and hope it doesn’t take too long.
So now I am down to the personal challenge of making this all work. I had convinced the Sylvinator to join me to go pick up the boat but they were already hesitant about the trip taking too much time. Now I need to explain that that it would take even more time. I really need them to join me on this trip as I will need all the help I can get to drag this boat to its new home in the Bay Area. I have to say I was not looking forward to this conversation. When I finally had the conversation it was more of a me telling the Sylvinator to join than anything else. I hope that it wasn’t too heavy a hand.
One more phone call to the marina to make sure everything is set. Good thing I did confirm as I learned that the marina gates lock at 7pm and since the manager won’t be there this weekend I won’t be able to get my key. This means that I need to get there well before 7pm on Saturday or wait till Sunday morning to put the boat in there. Good to know. I am not sure what my schedule is going to look like.
So here is my plan such as it is right now and subject to a high likelihood of being changed and requiring improvisation…
Get a cashier’s check from the bank for the balance due amount on the boat.
Get myself and the Sylvinator to San Diego before 0900h on the 13th for the survey.
Join the surveyor for the survey of the boat and hope that there is nothing serious found. Survey is expected to take about 3 hours.
Try to do something to entertain ourselves and not piss off the Sylvinator too much for wasting their time in the afternoon in San Diego.
Find somewhere to stay the night.
Morning of the 14th “buy” the boat.
Run over to the DMV to document the buying of the boat and hope it goes smoothly.
Go back to the marina going over the boat and packing it for the trip back to the Bay Area. The owners have several bins of useful stuff they are bringing and have committed to spending the day going thorugh everything with me.
Drive the boat back to the Bay Area. Drive, as in very carefully tow it behind my truck the 500 odd miles to Richmond Boardwalk Marina. No idea when we be able to leave or how long it will take as I suspect I will not be driving at my usual highway cruising speeds.
Drop the boat off at the marina at a time that it is open since I don’t have a key.
And if all that goes to plan I will be the owner of “Bazinga” a Hobie 33 sailboat and step 1 of project Hawaii (i.e. get a sailboat to sail to Hawaii) will be completed.
And (yes another and), if I can get back in time and am not too exhausted, I have tickets to Stern Grove on that Sunday to see Angelique Kidjo in concert.