I have been looking for the next boat. The process has been fun and tiring. Along the way, I picked up a buyers broker, saw many boats and found my uncompromising choice… Well maybe not. But what follows is a catalog of how the search has gone
Through my years of ownership of the current Ventolines, a catalina 25, I have seen many vessels. Most have not impressed, but several have caught my eye. Morgan Out Islands, Beneteaus and many many others don’t rise to the level of what I am looking for. Admittedly they all had something I liked. Morgans had plenty of space. The Beneteau’s had decent space and the interior finish seemed solid. But I didn’t much like the shallow bilges.
I find I favor designs from the late 70s and 80s. A rising sheer line to the bow gets my heart pumping. A modified fin with skeg hung rudder, makes me happy with the trade off of draft, safety and performance. So I would look at Southern Cross, Pacific Seacraft, and others with great satisfaction. Many of these boats, look like a boat should. They are beautiful and I wouldn’t mind staring at them from the dink for long periods.
But the decision for me had to be more than cosmetic and it wasn’t all mine. I have a family and their input is just as important as my shallow fascination with a teak rub rail. My wife, she tended to like the copious space of an OI with center cockpit. She also, liked seeing a shower and tub on Catalina Morgans. She wants to have friends and family stay and sees the needs for 2 cabins, as well as huge tankage; since we all know lubbers like showers that aren’t salty.
We discovered the Pearson 385 and fell in love on Yachtworld. Its older, from the 1980s, but like great tunes from the era, still great even now. It had the space: two cabins. It had separate showers and it wasn’t ugly. A plus is that Pearson’s fit and finish seemed good. I saw one on YW for 34,000 USD. I got excited. It had everything… But others of the same model and time period when for considerably more. I needed a calmer head to help me with this.
That’s when I started looking for a buyers broker. Since I belong to a sailing club, I asked around there and in short order turned up Greg Williamson of Ashley Yachts out of Charleston, SC (thanks Hanna). He listens, loves boats, is easy to deal with and many other great traits. But best of all, when I would want a particular boat he was a calm head that help sort it out.
Greg showed my wife and I several boats in Charleston. Whitby 42, Downeaster… You get the picture. Seeing, walking on and feeling several boats helps solidify in ones mind what they are NOT looking for. Do you like having a set of companionway stairs at the foot of your berth? No? Stay away from walk-over center cockpits like the Whitby. Solid boats for sure, but you have to live on them, not just get somewhere.
After that we decided to see other boats. Not really we decided we needed to see specifically a 385 and we found 2 to look at. One in florida and one in New England. On the way to see the Florida boat, the listing broker let us know that it had gone under contract. Oh well. We were disappointed since we really wanted to get on her and see if the layout worked. On to New England…
We made a family trip of it. Driving through Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland for about 20 minutes, New Jersey, New York to eventually get to CT. If you get a chance to drive through VA on I-84 in the spring, do it! One scenic valley after the next, all with a barn and an old farmhouse with livestock frolicking… Sorry. The boat in CT was in great shape. The we poured over her. The kid liked her. Wife? Check. Me, yes… Then we drove to Maine.
In Maine we found a Pearson 422. The big sister for the 385. Solid, comfortable. Wide decks, a radar arch… The shower had 6′ 4″ of headroom. We fell hard for the boat. At least the model, just not that particular one. She had recently had a lot of work done to the decks and needed a lot more work. The asking price was too high and even if they bit on my extremely low-ball offer, I didn’t want to spend the next two years fixing a boat I needed to be sailing.
Back home in the Carolinas. My wife and I discussed pros and cons. We had found another 422 and had a friend check on her. It needed even more work that the one in Maine. I knew I needed to make an offer on the baby sister. She would be solid and we could make her work easily. I started to put my thoughts together on an offer. Needing a bit more data I searched for Pearsons of that era to see prices and get a feel for quality. During the tedious and tiring process of screening out articles google thought I needed to see, I stumbled upon something.
It didn’t look right. The transom was “sugar scoop” and the cockpit had a pilot house? But there it was, a Pearson 422 that I had not encountered yet on my searches. Remarkably the price was more than reasonable. But still, it didn’t look right on the outside. A previous owner had added a hard dodger that looked a lot like a pilot house. That owner had also added a step off platform to the transom to ease diving from the boat… AWESOME….
Now I have done something a buyer should probably never do. I put a contract on it without laying eyes on it. The contract specifies that I must see it, like it and it pass survey or I get my deposit back. But it looks like I bought a big boat. That excites me to no end.
But it scares me, too. Since the contract I have had recurring doubts. Not that this boat is right, because I know the model is. It the lifestyle choice. Now I have gone against all that society has told me I should do. You have to work until 65! You can’t just pull your kids out of school and go sailing! I keep having to talk back to those doubts. I keep saying to them, that there is more than one way to live and I want to find at least one that resonates with me.
When it was just a nebulous desire, we set a date. Even that lacked in apparent commitment. It was real and its still quite a ways off. But putting the plan in action with real money and making the commitment; that changes everything.