We Saw These Sailboats. Here’s Why We Said No

We Saw These Sailboats. Here’s Why We Said No.

and our next boat appointment is in idyllic Napa Valley, where even the air smells rich. The boat is a 41-foot Island Trader Ketch named Ethereal.

We have looked at both Cutters and Ketchs. A cutter has only one mast, one set of sails, and one set of riggings, which equates to less expense and less maintenance, and it is potentially easier for us as novice sailors.  But, we are not afraid of Ketches either, with their 2 masts and multiple sail options.

Our list is narrowing down to amenities for a life at sea; berth space and design/layout of the living quarters, aluminum mast, and glass (fiberglass) decks are requirements.

41’ Island Trader Ketch named Ethereal:

Back to Ethereal. She was in the Napa Valley Marina—and has had a rough couple of years–as many of us have. Her most recent owner, was an older man in his mid-seventies, who dreame of sailing off into the sunset. The problem is that he waited too long to chase that dream and now suffers from things that happen to us with age; everything slows down, from our movements to our reflexes to our thinking.

So, he bought the beautiful boat in Washington, hired a Captain/Navigator, and began the sail down the west coast. But luck was not on his side. Ethereal was run aground a couple of times, and eventually, they found themselves in the soup of Bay Area fog. Here the boat ran into the Berkely Pier–not once, but twice. At which point, he got out, repaired her, and put her up for sale never to return. One can only hope the Captain/Navigator was fired.

Due to this story, my Sweet Kiwi was dead set on seeing her; questions rolled around his head:

How severe was the damage? 

Were the damages cosmetic or structural? 

How many improvements and upgrades might exist? 

Could she be an overlooked gem? 

She was born in 1978 and has a price tag of $62.5K. When we arrived in Napa, Kirby, who was tasked with selling her, met us.

We loved the layout of this boat; with two wonderfully sized berths located at each end and having their own private toilet, closets, butterfly hatches–(meaning they hinge in the middle) letting in tons of natural light, big beds, and the ability for all 6’2” of my Kiwi to stand upright with comfort. She has an aluminum mast and mizzen, dinghy davits, a crane, teak interior with solid carved doors. In a word, she was beautiful.

The decks were covered in cork, which is something we hadn’t seen before but is becoming a mainstay for many reasons: durability, traction, sound-proofing, and insulation. It’s beautiful, unique, and cool under your feet. Cork is also being used inside cabins for table inlays, engine compartments, refrigerators, etc…

The technology, (Satellite Tracking, LIDAR, Advanced Radar, Thermal Imaging, infrared cameras, SONAR, etc…), is something my Kiwi, with his background in aviation, is keenly aware of. Ethereal’s was seriously outdated, which seems to be the case with most boats we look at. Technology changes so quickly, that it is probable we will have to update any boat we eventually purchase.

The refrigerator and stove were also outdated and one of the ‘heads’ had a porta-potty bungee corded in. We had a gander at the survey that had been done 18 months previously. There are several types of boat surveys, and they are exactly what they sound like; comprehensive inspections that are performed to determine the value of a boat; like buying a house.

The question becomes: do you want to put money in at the front end or the back end of the deal because you are going to invest money? It’s not IF, it is WHEN.  We are both in our fifties and want to sail; which led us to our conclusion: Buy a $50K boat and put another $50K into it–OR–buy a $100K boat, to begin with. We chose the latter and decided that this boat was a little overpriced for the amount we would still have to invest–because it would be quite an amount.

CT41 named Content:

Next stop? Oxnard. Despite its unfortunate name, which sounds like a sneeze gone awry, Oxnard is a charming, eloquent, sun-drenched ocean town with its sandy shoreline and grassy lawns. Oxnard is beautiful.

Here we met Crew, to look at a 1973 CT41, which is a “12.5 m monohull sailboat designed by William Garden and built by Ta Chiao starting in 1972”. A monohull is a boat with one hull, its keel filled with ballast or lead, allowing it to right itself–not staying capsized; which is a selling point for us.

There are two types of keels; Fixed and Moveable. We want a full keel, which falls into the fixed category. Basically, the keel is a weighted piece at the bottom of the boat that runs the length of the boat. More to the point, a sailboat doesn’t tip over because the weight of the keel counters the buoyancy of the hull. The keel pulls the boat downward, preventing it from ‘heeling’, which is the nautical term for rolling over. A canoe doesn’t have a keel, so when you step into it–it rolls or tips right over.

This boat’s name is Content, and she was amazing, ready to go, and truly turnkey. Having spent the last 18 years, circumnavigating the globe, she had a modified rear cockpit, which was incredible. The owners had completely cut away the cockpit area and custom-built a super safe, comfortable dry cockpit, with high combing–which is the raised part around the cockpit. Everything was redone; the teak decks had been removed, stainless steel and metalwork redone, and electrical wiring and tanks had been replaced. Content had a price tag of $89K and is worth every penny. We loved her and thought she might be the one.

As we crystallize our vision of home on the sea, we want to be able to host a guest comfortably.  For us, it is a deal-breaker, and it was–(sadly–like Silver Cloud, the Cavalier in Washington) the ONLY thing that was amiss with Content; she had only one sleeping berth. We called our amazing broker, Mike, Pacific Cruising Yachts in Anacortes, to see if we had missed a second berth. He double-checked, and the search continued.

CT42 named Peak to Peak:

The final boat we saw before going to Mexico was a Mermaid CT42 named ‘Peak to Peak,’ in Long Beach, California, at $74K. The owners were on board cleaning her, which, from my perspective as a buyer, I thought would be a great thing. We would hear stories and see the nooks and crannies in a personal way, but, instead, we felt like guests and bad ones at that: ransacking someone’s home, opening drawers, picking up floorboards, moving items. It felt invasive and uncomfortable.

Whatever boat we purchase will be our home, so I need to sit and imagine myself living on it.

Can I cook here?

Can I relax here?

Do I see myself here?

Can I write here?

When owners are present, that time is forfeited, and we can’t get a feel for the boat.

Additionally, the owners–who love their home boat, want to give you details, and sometimes those details dissuade rather than help.

This was only our second dedicated boat-searching adventure. We saw some beautiful boats, learned a lot, refined our list, and continued the search for our home on the sea.

We are buying a sailboat and would love to have you on the journey with us!

Until next time—-

Go forth and spread good vibes across the globe!