Operation BABSAM

In the spirit of NOT BURYING THE LEAD:  For the low, low, SEVERELY LOW price of $210,000 $175,000 $165,000, JOY, a 1993 Fountaine Pajot Venezia, is yours. At the bottom of this post, you will find links to a detailed spec sheet and a web page with tons more pictures.  Send speedy and serious inquiries to ahoy@morejoyeverywhere.com. [8/17 Update: after the lightning strike.]

Shiny new bottom paint, a couple of months ago

We’re using our two-year escape clause. Cruising reminds us of camping, which we hate. Sailing involves lots of water and nature, which don’t appeal to Ean. Beaches are full of sand, which Jane finds icky. A boat requires constant maintenance and repairs, which we are neither qualified for nor interested in.  And although they didn't officially get to vote, our middle-aged cats, like their middle-aged owners, are unanimous in their desire to live and die on land.

Cockpit - bright new bimini - and you can see
the back of the Raymarine MFD in the forground. 

We want to move on to new adventures, and thus, JOY seems less Magic Carpet and more Millstone. JOY is making us all quite crabby. It’s not her fault, really.  JOY needs a fresh start with fresh owners.

So we are initiating Operation BABSAM (Buy a Boat, Save a Marriage). We will probably list JOY with a broker, unless we can make a quick deal with some eager beaver who is ready to make the leap. Hey, maybe YOU?! ...

...if you’ve done your research, you’re seriously looking and ready to buy a 40-something foot catamaran - cash in hand - and you want to come to Panama (or possibly Mexico) to pick it up.... 

...if you know how to fix stuff when it breaks, because JOY is seriously tricked out with gobs of stuff, and it all breaks, and if we’re telling you something you don’t already know, you should NOT be buying this boat....

...if you want to be a live-aboard, blue-water cruiser on a well-equipped, safe and sea-worthy 42 ft. catamaran that has already circumnavigated the globe once and is ready to go again....

The BFFs (Big Fat Features) 

Vitrifrigo fridge, toaster (free with boat purchase),
panel to the right of the toaster is the top of the freezer

Power

2 38 hp Yanmar engines
1540 amp hour AGM house battery bank, new in 2012
654 w solar (2012)
6 kW Northern Lights generator in sound-proof cabinet
Magna 2000 watt pure sine wave inverter/ charger
Balmar high-output Alternator (on starboard engine) with ARS-5 regulator

Navigation

Raymarine E-120W multifunction display with charts for Caribbean, S. America, and Indian Ocean (2011)
Raymarine autopilot with new P70 control head (2013)
AIS 250 receiver

Radar (Raymarine RD418D 4 kW digital Radome scanner) (2011)

Galley

The dinghy behind the bimini, lifted high on the arch
with solar panels on top. Also, in the foreground,
solid handrails instead of the standard lifelines.

Vitrofrigo 2 drawer DC refrigerator (2012)
Drop-in Engel 40L fridge or freezer (2012)
Force 10 oven with broiler (2013)

And there's more...

Sunbrella bimini with dodger (2012)
Cruisair air conditioner in Salon with a Dometic Breathe Easy air purifier in-duct model (2012)
Sea Recovery Aqua Whisper mini 170 DC watermaker, 7 gph capacity (2012)
Carib dinghy and 15 hp Yamaha outboard (new in 2011)
50 lb CQR anchor with 285 ft of 10mm chain
beautiful custom arch for solar panels and dinghy - motorized dinghy lift
strong and solid anodized aluminum handrails instead of lifelines
bottom paint new in March 2013
mast height is 64' - allowing for ICW travel (NOT that we recommend ICW travel - but hey, different strokes for different folks).

And There's More!  

Starboard aft cabin - port aft is similar

For the same low, low price....  

Do you really need to know about the EPIRB, the fully-battened mainsail, the roller-furling headsail, the VHF radios, the Lifesling2, the heads, tankage, the 2 burner stove, and the rest of the 93 features that you might find if you were reading this listing on yachtworld.com?  Well, of course you do, if you are a prospective buyer.  

Port forward cabin
(Starboard forward is set up as workroom/garage)

Please email us.  BABSAM.  We'll send you a thank-you card every year on our anniversary.

Update - Spec Sheet and More Pictures!

Update, 6/17: Lots of pictures of the salon, nav station, and galley, click here.  We will be adding pics of the rest of the boat within a few days.

Update, 7/14: More pics (finally)!  This page shows pics of the deck and some tech. stuff.

Update, 8/17: Post-lightning strike, an updated spec sheet - JOY details, PDF  (If you have trouble with google drive, send us an email and we will attach the PDF to our reply.)

Sailing One-oh-whatever

[Update: This post was actually written by Ean, although Jane's picture would lead you to believe otherwise.]  So we've been on our boat, our new home, our seaworthy vessel for nearly a week now.  We've pretty much figured out where our migraine strength Excedrin should go and our warm weather clothes and our cold weather gear and even the cat scratching post.  All in all, we've gone a long way into settling into our new home.

Tommy, Sail Away Catamarans

Just one major thing left to do...operate our home which is, after all, a boat.

We confess, we hadn't once turned on the engines because, despite my four-day diesel mechanics course, we were, truth be told, afraid of them.  We hadn't done a vhf check, hadn't run the generator, hadn't even raised the sails.  In short, hadn't treated the boat like a boat...until today.

Enter our awesome broker and now also equally awesome instructor, Tommy Smith of Sail Away Catamarans.      Awesome because he spent four hours with us today teaching us about the particulars of our sails and the lazy  jacks/bag that they are set in, and about our rigging (our spreader lights are really tractor headlights--who new?!) and then we took "Joy" out for a spin.

Fast forward three hours...

...Later that Same Day

You may remember, dear reader, from a previous post that Tommy Smith of Sail Away Catamarans sold us "JOY" and if you happen to be in the market for a cat, just save yourself some time and aggravation and call him now.  You'll understand why in a minute.

We haven't yet moved our boat, so it's still docked at the marina that Sail Away uses as their showroom.  Knowing that we were around, Tommy called the day after our close to find out how we were getting on.  I didn't give him our whole list of woes, just the part about not knowing which seacocks to open so that we could use the heads.  He said he'd come by the next day (yesterday) to show us a few things.  Because it was Tommy, we didn't for a second think he wouldn't show.  Sure enough, the next morning he called to set up a time.  We were just about to go to breakfast, we replied.  Could he recommend a good place to eat?  He did.  We went.  Just as we were being led to our seats at one of the places he'd suggested, he called (while in the shower, he later revealed), to amend it with something he thought we'd like better. (Talk about being in someone's thoughts!)

He must have seen us get back to the boat after  breakfast, cause there he was walking down the dock.  He spent the next two hours with us while we pulled up most of the sole panels in the hulls, all of the sofa cushions, peered under both sinks and went out to the forward locker, the one filled with mysterious objects, to demystify them.

Fast forward two hours...

Survey & Sea Trial

Survey & Sea Trial, a set on Flickr.

More pictures from the big day!

Road Trip!

We're on our way to Annapolis for a two-day charter on a 38' Lagoon that just happens to be for sale. What joy!

It is Commissioning Week at USNA - bizarre that this bit of my ancient history is popping up on our way to the imminent future. Twenty-four years - to the day - after I sat with my family in the grass on Hospital Point, watching the Blue Angels air show, we will sit on a catamaran, out in Severn Bay, Ean and I, and watch another air show.

Rich the broker will be our captain. We will sleep on the boat on Monday night, and then he'll join us and we'll be out and about for Tuesday and Wednesday. We'll stay on the boat (docked) on Wednesday night, and on Thursday, regrettably, we return to the Midwest. Instead of going straight home we'll drive directly to Madison, where we're signed up for a three-day Hoofers sailing course that will lead to ASA 101 certification.

We're thrilled to be taking such concrete, positive steps towards the Boat Trip - but all these sailing-related plans and activities remind us that we have A LOT to do before we can "cast off." (The nautical metaphors are really hard to avoid, we find.). Preparing our house for sale and getting my prelims and proposal done are tops on the list.

But let's not worry about that just now. Now, we will enjoy our road tripping and our sailing.

My Last Landlubber Birthday

Ean at the helm

This morning we woke up at the Villa Paradiso Hotel in Miami Beach, Fl.  Tonight we are going to sleep at home in Milwaukee.  In between these two events, we celebrated my 49th birthday--mostly at the airport, due to a several hour flight delay.  Our main reason for this trip wasn’t to look at boats, as it happens.  Our main reason was so that I wouldn’t have to be cold on my birthday.  Unfortunately, due to scheduling constraints, I did end up being cold for part of it.  But any birthday hour spent somewhere warm is better than that same hour spent cold, so I take whatever I can get.

We flew into Ft. Lauderdale and immediately hightailed it for St. Augustine in our rental car.  Not our smartest move considering that we were driving on about 4 hours’ sleep.  Ultimately worth it, though.  St. Augustine is nicknamed “The Ancient City” and has the distinction of being the oldest city in the U.S.  It’s a great walking city with Spanish architecture, streets and streets of shops (in one of which Jane found the perfect sun hat and in another one of which I got my Tilley), and attractions such as the restored St. Augustine lighthouse and the Castillo de San Marcos, a Spanish Fort that, despite many turnovers in local government over the centuries (The Spanish, the British, the Spanish again, etc.), had never been taken over by force, only by treaty.

St. Augustine also has a beautifully maintained municipal marina, wherefrom we went on our first catamaran ride.  Not on a cruising cat, however, this was a 27 foot racing cat owned by St. Augustine Eco-Tours.  Beside Captain Aaron, just 2 sisters shared our two-hour dolphin-spotting tour of the inlet leading to the ICW.  It turns out that Aaron and his family live aboard their boat, so we had a lot to talk about.  Considering it was our first time aboard a cat underway, it didn’t feel new at all, really.  Just one more experience to further convince us that we’re making the right decision.

The Good, the Bad, and the Broker

Wow, we've been back from our trip to Annapolis for nearly a week already. And what a successful trip it was!  Although, it was touch and go at first.   Bobby, the broker we came to see, the broker who knew we were coming, took us onto exactly 3 boats: 2 FP Liparis and one FP Mahe-all docked in his agency's marina.  One of the Liparis we couldn't even get into.  When we asked him to make a phone call so that we could--on our own-- see a boat that was similar to the kind we were thinking of buying, he demurred, saying that it was all the way on the Eastern Shore.  Because, after all, we'd only flown 660 miles, why on earth would we want to drive 20 or so.

A Trip to Annapolis

We have made reservations for a quick trip to Annapolis during UW's spring break.  We are using reward points for car and flight, and choice points for our stay at the Quality Inn.  A bit ironic to be shopping for a $200K boat while money-less.  But the estate settlement is on track, as far as we can tell.

Our favorite broker Bobby will have two days to show us around, get us on to as many cats as possible, and educate us about the boat buying process.  If we trust him, we'll sign an agreement with him to be our buyer's broker.  On the Cruisers Forum, I have read a lot of negative crap about brokers, but especially for inexperienced buyers like us, it seems quite foolish to turn down expert help.  Yes, of course there are slimy, dishonest brokers.  Yes, of course brokers are looking out for their own interests.  But if Bobby helps us buy a great boat, that's win-win, right?

Last time I talked with Bobby, since we were talking about the Annapolis trip, I finally owned up to having a bit of history in Annapolis.  Ha... unexpected.  I occasionally enjoy playing the "Naval Academy" card.  Just like Mrs. Pollifax, I find it satisfying to be "unexpected."

Finitude

Dinner at our favorite local seafood restaurant, Molly Cool's, discussing our nearing future over Redneck Mai Tais and dirty martinis. I am acutely, even giddily aware of the more pragmatic tone these conversations have taken on lately. I attribute it to Bobby the Broker's entrance into our lives. Outside of family, Bobby is the first person who knows about this, this, thing we're about to do, this thing too big to be explained by any one word. It is more than a plan, more than an adventure, even more than a dream. It's the act of intentionally stopping one's life and pointing it in a completely different direction (insert nearly obligatory nautical metaphor here). Discussing with Jane the boats that she discussed with Bobby has moved this from the realm of the possible to the eventual. There is an exciting ordinariness about it now.

I think the reason I find this life so appealing (aside from the ones you always hear), is that there is something deeply intuitive about it. The "thing" about it that I get is its size. It's limited. I like the idea of a life that's manageable. Having only so much boat to live on and no more; having to know how much water, food, fuel we'll need; having to consider the trade-off between speed and supplies; having to create our lives as we go along, but with no more variables than we want to deal with. Say that I like immediate gratification for my efforts? Say that I find I have trouble keeping track of what transpires between "cause" and "effect?" Say that I can't find my bearings adrift in a sea of humanity? Yes. I'm nearly 50 years old and I have yet to grow into the life I'm living. Seems to me it's time to try a different kind of life on for size.

Bobby the Broker

Last Wednesday we filled out an online form with Bay Yacht Agency about what kind of catamaran we wanted - purposes, budget, desired equipment, etc.  We did it together, and it was a good chance for us to talk through our priorities and our vision of what this boat will be like.  Things are firming up pretty fast.  Good for us.  The next day, of course, I got a call from Bobby the Broker.  Bobby calls me Janie and Hon, and I somehow forgive him.  Just as we will accept the mores of the locals wherever we cruise, I will acknowledge that anyone who calls himself Bobby is apt to call me Hon.