Category: Maintenance/Repairs

If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂

After the “second showing” of the 52-foot Irwin, we gave Gene a $10,000 downpayment (escrow), and Brian arranged for John Banister to come to our coast for the survey and sea trial. We had to wait two weeks because Amanda’s husband, Josh, wanted to be in town for the big day.

When the day finally arrived, John met us at the marina early. We ran into Amanda near the marina office and she took us all to the boat. We’d left Max and Mason at the apartment, offering to pick them up later for the sea trial. Brian and John immediately got to work. John’s surveys take all day long. He is detailed, meticulous, and excellent. Remember, he’d recently saved us tens of thousands of dollars by alerting us to a huge lemon.

After an hour or so, the suspense was killing me so I pulled John aside and said, “Well?”

He said, “This is a good boat. It’s been well-maintained and the captain took good care of it. I’m trying to figure out why the price is so low. And, I WILL figure it out!” He got back to work.

I’d brought my laptop with me to get some work done but chatting with Amanda, and watching the guys with their butts in the air and their heads below the floor was far more fun than working. Another hour passed and Richard took sandwich orders, offering to go pick them up from Jimmy Johns. The captain, Josh, was jovial and kind. You could tell he was very protective of his boat. He had to let the guys do their work but he also didn’t want anything going wrong. Of course, he definitely wanted to sell it. After some nosy questions from me (which is normal for a writer!), Amanda told me more about their lives.

Over the years, they’d owned smaller boats, and even lived aboard with their three small children at the time. When they weren’t cruising, they were RVing around the country. And, they homeschooled their children, just like us! Amanda and I couldn’t believe how much we had in common. She and I were getting along GREAT!

After their kids were grown, they cruised together alone, and sometimes with friends. Since Josh’s job required him to fly back and forth to wherever his ship was stationed at the time, he’d leave Amanda alone at foreign ports, where she’d make herself at home on the boat, venture onto the mainland for supplies and fun, and wait for him to return. She said she was never nervous, not even on the night when she saw a line of drug boats leaving port. She said you always know the drug boats in small countries because those guys are the only ones who can afford cigarette boats. She spun a pretty good yarn and she had my vegabond spirit screaming, “I wanna do all of that, too!”

I asked her why they were selling the boat. She said Josh’s mother had recently passed and that they were taking care of his elderly father at their home in the northeast, who wasn’t doing well. They planned to buy another RV, and travel on land for awhile. And, they knew they’d eventually buy another boat but they were ready to give this one up. And, I was so happy they were!

The sea trial was EXCITING! First, Josh drove the boat around the corner to a local boatyard (Salt Creek), for the haul-out.

Our amazing surveyor, Capt. John Banister, getting down and dirty to find all the flaws!

That lasted for a couple of hours. It was unseasonably hot that day, but very windy. A local broker’s office was right next to the boat lift. They had a shaded patio, and offered to let us sit there. They even gave us all the bottled water we could drink, and allowed us unlimited use of their bathroom (which had a door that didn’t quite close all the way – ha ha). They were so nice! And, when one of them asked me what we were going to change the name of the boat to, I told him, “No Tan Lines.” That’s when he started getting REALLY friendly with me, openly flirting, and finally asking if he could see my “no tan lines.” Oh, those brokers! They are rascally devils! I just laughed and waved him away…after thanking him for the water, of course.

After the haul-out was complete, the boat was splashed, we all climbed back on board, and we headed out into the bay, where the wind was blowing a steady 20 knots, and the seas were running 4 to 6 feet. It was going to be an exciting sea trial!

NEXT: MASON GETS SNAPPED BY A LINE, BUT DOESN’T CRY

* * *

Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.

Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.

If you’re just tuning in, CLICK HERE to start at the beginning. 🙂

We still had three months until our apartment lease ran out but, after learning of Stan and Chris’ four-year odyssey to get their own 52-foot Irwin, we were a bit discouraged. After touring their boat that night, we drove back to the apartment. I had work to do so Richard got on his laptop, and started searching for Irwins. We figured we might have to search out of state but we were willing to do that if it meant finding just the right floating home for our family.

It had only been about 45 minutes since we’d left Stan and Chris’ boat when Richard turned to me, and enthusiastically said, “Found one!” He immediately emailed the link to me and Brian. You’re not going to believe this but that boat was less than two miles from our apartment…and it was in our price range! I excitedly looked at pictures of the beautiful interior while Brian poured over the specs. Richard was still looking for others online so we’d have some comparisons.

The boat was absolutely gorgeous! But, I kept my glee in check, knowing from our previous experience that a nice layout, an “updated” kitchen, and pretty pillows in the master stateroom can hide some nasty goodies under the  floorboards. On the surface, it appeared to have everything we were looking for, including all the latest electronics. It, quite honestly, seemed too good to be true.

The next day, a Friday, Brian called the broker who, coincidentally, was Gene Gammon, the exact same captain and broker who’d captained Stan and Chris’ Irwin from Texas to Florida! The same guy who worked for Irwin Yachts for years, who was friends was Ted Irwin, and who owns IrwinYachts.com! We were once again awed by how small and close-knit this beautiful community really is! Down on the docks, it seems everybody knows everybody else and we love that about this town!

Gene was available to show us the boat that afternoon. So, Richard, Brian and I piled into the truck with Max and Mason and we drove a few blocks down the street to the Harborage Marina, where Gene was waiting for us. The exterior and interior were exactly like the pictures. Max (age 15) and Mason (age 10) had not been in a large sailboat before and THEY LOVED IT! They said they could definitely live on a sailboat. It was unanimous! I tried not to get my hopes up because I knew the survey could uncover any number of calamities but, I admit, I was already getting a bit excited.

Brian immediately opened up the engine area, and started poking around. Richard was in the cockpit, checking out the electronics. Max and Mason were still inside, imagining how they’d decorate their small rooms. I was poking around in the kitchen. There was a full-size refrigerator and, in the cabinets that were located in the small hallway between the master stateroom and the salon, there was a full-size deep freeze! That boat actually had more fridge and freezer space than our apartment and homes ever had!

The interior was stained a dark teak with maroon cushions on the settee’s. A small, custom coffee table with teak lattice for the top complemented the warm, roomy interior.

Large windows in the salon provided a great view of the surrounding marina. There were numerous hatches (for ventilation when traveling) and portholes, which provided tons of cheery sunlight. Everywhere I looked, I found something else to love about that boat!

We took several pictures and Brian wrote down some notes. We learned from Gene that the owner was a merchant marine, traveling for three weeks out of every four. He captained a 350-foot ship and he knew how to maintain a boat. He had multiple back-up systems and an overabundance of safety supplies and equipment. The boat was also full of more tools than you can imagine, along with tons of spare parts, all tucked away in the numerous cabinets and hidey-holes placed throughout the vessel. Also, everything was meticulously documented. Later, after reviewing the paperwork from some of their cruising, I knew I’d met my match with regards to organization and perfectionism! The owners documented EVERYTHING!

Gene also told us that the captain’s wife, Amanda (not her real name), was living on the boat while it was for sale. That explained the two bras I found folded up on one of the bunks. I thought that was odd at the time because I didn’t know anybody was living onboard. I knew whoever they belonged to might be embarrassed so I arranged them in a way where you couldn’t tell they were brassieres. Yeah, we chicks gotta watch out for each other. 😉

Two days later, we scheduled a “second showing.” Gene was not available but Amanda agreed to meet us, answer all our questions, and start up the engines. Capt. Stan offered to come with us that day for his expert advice and he brought Chris along. While the men all poured over the boat, having their own mini-inspection, Amanda, Chris, and I sat in the salon, discussing far-less-technical matters about the boat. We asked her how far they’d traveled. They’d owned the boat for 10 years and they’d gone back and forth from Maine to the Caribbean and beyond several times. We asked her about the worst weather they’d been in. She told us a funny, albeit scary story that I will share in another post because it involves a major bowsprit repair.

Richard came below, and asked her some questions as well. We spent about two hours on the boat that day and, the longer we explored, the more we fell in love with her!

But, my caution remained. What would the survey reveal?

NEXT WEEK: THE SURVEY AND SEA TRIAL! WHAT WILL WE FIND???

* * *

Angela Hoy is a publisher, a blogger, and the author of 19 books. She lived on dirt her entire life before her family gave away almost everything they owned, and moved onto a 52-foot Irwin Center Cockpit Ketch. They all live, work, and play on board full-time.

Angela is the publisher of WritersWeekly.com, a free source of paying markets for freelance writers and photographers. If you want to write for magazines, websites, businesses, or others, check it out. It’s free! Her publishing services company, BookLocker.com, has published more than 9,000 books over the past 18 years. If you want to publish a book, she’d love to hear from you! Abuzz Press is BookLocker’s hybrid publishing company. And, PubPreppers.com offers services to authors who are having their books published elsewhere.