So it's been six weeks since I wrote last.... and boy a lot's changed. Here's a brief update.
We first up thought we'd only be coming back for the summer, so left Calypso in a ready-to-go state for our Atlantic crossing later this year. Well, one thing led to another and a seed of thought that's slowly been growing in my mind really took hold one rainy London evening, as I sat surfing the night. Maybe now was a great time to change to a catamaran. I mean, I've had Calypso for 5.5 years (longer than any car I've ever owned) and frankly, the fun has just gone. It's time for a change.
Fast forward a whole lot of trawling internet ads later, and we had a short list.... right down the road from Emsworth (where we re-fitted Calypso). Down we went one weekend and had a look at three boats, a Prout Escale, a Dazcat 12m, and a Solaris Sunstream. All good boats on paper, all terrible in the flesh. The broker (who will remain nameless at this point) had the boats listed in all their glory, but frankly they'd been left to rot for a few years and now needed a good £30k pumped into them, on top of their already inflated prices. Here's an example - the first two pics are from the Dazcat brokerage advert, the last pic is what we found, after the Dazcat had been left to rot for a couple of years....
Back to the drawing board. We then went back to Hayling Yacht Co (where I built Calypso) to look at another potential candidate. Same broker, same issue. Massively inflated price for a boat that has sat for 12 years (!!!) with no attention, and didn't even have standing headroom in the bridgedeck salon. I put in an offer anyway, as it's a great boat that I've been looking at for years. Surprise, surprise though, the broker didn't even bother getting back to me. Back to the drawing board again.
(It's worth mentioning at this point there's a smaller 33ft Prout at Hayling Yacht as well, that's also sat in the water for as long as anyone can remember. Mouldy interior, no sails, needs a new rig, etc. This thing's only worth £25k done up, but after Hayling Yacht spoke to the SAME broker, the wrecked shell was priced at £15k. My oh my).
Right, back to it. There's a final boat located further down the coast - about a 4 hour drive away and funnily enough, right near AllSpars (who supplied Calypso's new mast). The boat is a cracker but we initially wrote it off due to 1) small berths and 2.) a 50% premium in price the SAME broker had whacked on top of it whilst it was located near his marina. Thankfully, the new broker talked the guy down that 50% so the boat is back in reasonable common-sensed pricing territory. The new broker also had a chuckle about the previous broker, saying how he never moved stock due to his massively inflated prices.
Anyway, that's it for now. We're off to look at that Cat this week and likely make an offer, we're still doing the job hunting rounds here in the UK, my motorbike's off the road for three more weeks 'til paperwork arrives for it, and once this all goes ahead, Calypso will be skippered back to the UK and put on the market.
Never a dull moment! Photos to follow.
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