Buying Grace: Signpost to France

Audrey is a brave lady

2015 and a lot is going on in our lives. At the end of Feb Audrey had an operation to donate a kidney to our son-in-law. Thats a long story in itself but it was all successful. Both are healthy and doing well.

We were looking to sailing more and had already committed to start with Flexisail www.flexisail.com on Riversong (a Dufour 380) out of Port Hamble as soon as Audrey was feeling well enough. We started that journey at the end of April 2015, stepping on Riversong for 2 days of training and orientation.

Flexisail. Top People

We were going to trial a year of sailing based in The Solent to make sure we could flex our lives around the agenda of a boat.

Audrey and I had done a bunch of charter together in Greece and Turkey with a fair amount of tidal stuff in the UK. We were green but growing in confidence. We still are green and growing in confidence! 

With us both looking at a 3 year taper to early retirement at 55 we both needed and were looking forward alternative narratives in our lives to replace the work scene. Flexisail and Riversong provided a good test bed for these ideas.

Audrey on Riversong

It all happened more quickly than either of us suspected it would. It was largely my fault! I enjoyed walking the marinas as we travelled about on Riversong looking at other peoples boats and chatting to owners. It became obvious to me that the "Hallberg Rassy" type of centre cockpit (CC) boat was the one that made me stop and stare for longest. 

Unknown to Audrey at this time, I already had a complex net browser bookmark system detailing features of CC boats including HR, Najad, Malo, Moody, Island Packet, C-Yacht. I was researching.....

You know this image! Classic Najad 380 Stock Photo

I had one of these intense "stop and stare" marina moments where I was transfixed by the lines of a boat and its deck layout asking myself "now what is this?". Turns out it was a Najad 380. Beefy rigging, hard glass cockpit, teak decks, not too big, not too small ... weak knees! I went and got Audrey and we both stood looking at it. An emotional deal was done. That was the boat. Never seen inside one at this point!

This was accelerating. 

The list of things that you should 100% not do to keep control at this point are:

• Don't go to Berthon in Lymington and have a look round their stuff. That is bad. Very bad.
• DeValk brokers in Holland. Stay off that website! Don't register for boat emails!
• yachtworld.co.uk is just really bad for you because you now have a world view of bad things.
• Do not go down below when invited on a HR 42 or HR 39.
• Absolutely do not go to Chichester to see a lovely man with a very expensive and mint Najad 380 for sale that you cannot afford.

The last one did it for Audrey. She loved the boat (Najad 380 called Starfish in Chichester). The layout below, the kitchen area and its separation from the main centre cabin. The rear bedroom for us. The length of the forward cabin for guests. The winter cover for the cockpit. She decided that N380 for her was big enough but not too big. She was not intimidated by it. That was an important moment for us because we arrived on the same page. 

Bad Decks. Nasty. Expensive

So.. long story short. We looked at plenty of HR 42's, generally for what we could afford, they were all a bit tired and you could smell the money pit as you went on the boats.

We eliminated the HR39 in the end as I can't sit behind the wheel and keep my kneecaps. We can't afford Malo boats (simple).

So many of the "more affordable" HR's have decks that look like a future nightmare to me....

I kept bringing Audrey back to HR42 or HR43 but she was basically intimidated by them. Too Big.

The Moody 42 is very cool for the money and we very nearly pulled the trigger with Alan at Berthon.

In the end we went to France.

I had spotted a "fish out of water" (don't look at yachtworld, I said this already!). A Najad 380 in Hyeres, round the corner from St Tropez South of France. 

I "constructed" a late September 2015 1 week holiday in the Port Grimaud area where the broker was based (SMN). Audrey saw straight through it and sussed out that this was all an excuse to go see another boat! 

The next post will tell that story but needless to say we got to know the Port Grimaud area quite well through late 2015 and spring 2016!