Messing About In Sailboats

How To Buy A Used Sailboat

For the last few weeks, I have blogged about our experience over the last year buying a used sailboat, Poetry, a 38' Mk2 Sabre, pictured here.

You can download the whole series as one document Download How to Buy a Used Sailboat in Five Steps.

Song For Christmas: Wizard - I Wish It Could be Christmas Every Day

"OK you lot, take it!" Can't believe this video has exactly 100 times fewer views than Katy Perry. What happened to taste? Merry Christmas everyone.

 

Sailing Photo Of The Day - Into The Storm

into the storm 3, originally uploaded by Keith Allso.

 

Boat Sinking as Performance Art

via www.julienberthier.org

This is absolutely brilliant. I saw it originally on Elaine Bunting's blog

H2uh0 - Bonehead Moves on the Water: New Cruising Boat with a "twist"

via h2uh0.blogspot.com

Dear Santa, please can I have one of these in my stocking!

How to Buy A Used Sailboat: Part 5 - Closing The Deal

This is the final post in this series on how to buy a used sailboat. This is based on our journey to buy a Poetry, a 38' Sabre which you can see us sailing on here. If you have been following these steps, you've spent time working out how you will use your sailboat. You have developed a long list then shortened that the list to a few models. You have done your homework and found YOUR boat, now finally it's time to close the deal.

1. Determining the right price: This is tricky as there is no standard formula. During our research we heard many stories of people buying boats for 30+% under the asking price. We were actively considering 3-4 Sabre 38s to make offers on and each was a different case. Two were identical models from the same year and priced the same. One needed a lot of work and the other very little. A third was an earlier model and although it needed a significant upgrade, it would come with a long inventory of extra gear. The last one was overpriced but in good shape.

We decided to make an offer on Poetry, one of the two identical models that would require the least amount of work. The boat had only been on the market for a month and we felt that it would sell from underneath us if we messed around trying to squeeze every penny out of the deal. We believed that 10% below the asking price would be a fair price. Looking at the total cost of ownership, we were confident that Poetry was well within our budget.

Official: Interest in R.I. for next America's Cup - USATODAY.com

via www.usatoday.com

Scuttlebutt has a very good take on this. As ever nothing with the AC is simple. How ironic would it be if  the Golden gate Yacht Club would defend in Newport?

Lighthouse encased in ice on Lake Erie

via www.wane.com

Weather Outlook - We Dodged the Bullet Till Now

Here comes the white stuff.

It's been a good run of cold without precipitation but it looks like the Noreaster has us in their sites.

Football on TV (Both kinds)- Check
Christmas Tree - Check
Well-stocked fridge - Check
Good bottle of Red - Check

Bring it on!

Sailing Photo of the Week - Lee Shore | YachtPals.com

via yachtpals.com

What a disaster and some wise words too!