Our History and Sailboat Shopping
Brian first took sailing lessons at the Harbor Island Yacht Club in San Diego, California in 2011 and has been sailing on a regular basis ever since.
Brian daysailing on San Diego Bay, on a Catalina 22 Capri
When he moved to Florida in 2013, he joined the Beachside Sailing Club on Merritt Island, and was sailing at least monthly.
Brian sailing on a rented Hunter 23 on the Banana River in Florida
He also took a job at a major theme park driving boats to get more experience boating and time on the water.
Brian transporting theme park guests at a major theme park in Orlando, Florida
We met late 2014 and on our first date he told me of his love for sailing and his goal to own a sailboat and sail away to the Caribbean. I had never been sailing but always had a love for the water and would get on a boat every chance I could. So, I was enthralled at the idea and excited with the thoughts of all the adventures that could come from sailing.
First time Brian took me sailing
Soon after we met, we took a sailing class on a Gemini Catamaran at the Miami Boat Show
I immediately began going sailing with Brian monthly and loved it. Brian would either rent a Hunter 23 or a ODay 30.
April 2015, on the rented 30 foot Oday
It only took a few months before I started to look at the rented boats and wish we had something of our own that we could personalize and make feel like our home away from home.
It was a regular ritual for Brian to look up and read the current sailboat sales listings. He was always on the look out for a great deal, you know the one you just can not pass up. The search criteria was 27-30 foot. It’s June of 2015, Brian and I are engaged to be married with a wedding date set for October 2015, and we decided to look at the “for sale” listings together and developed a list of “must haves” and “wants” and decided to actually look at some in person to become more educated on what is available on the market. The first one we found that we were interested in looking at was an Allmand, located in the Tampa area. We made an appointment with the owner to see it but drove out the day before the appointment to look at it before hand. It was in rough shape and we canceled the pending appointment to look at it. We saw enough from the dock to know we were not interested. We did not want a project boat, we were insistent that whatever boat we would get, it would need to be ready to sail.
We made our next appointment to see a sailboat in North Palm Beach. It was a Catalina 30. It was listed with a broker and we met him at the boat. As soon as we stepped inside the boat we knew it also was a project boat and too much needed to be done and we were not interested. Brian told the broker that we were looking for our first sailboat and we did not want a project boat but something that was ready to sail, the broker advised us that he had another sailboat listed not far away that is turn key and in great condition if we wanted to take a look. I resisted, as it was not the boat we came to see, but Brian talked me into taking a look anyway. We followed the broker to another marina to see a 1980 Pearson 323 named Nepenthe. As soon as we walked up to her we fell in love. Mind you this was the third boat we looked at from the dock only the second boat that we would go inside, besides the rentals that we were familiar with, and the new pretty boats at the boat show.
Our Tour of Nepenthe
She was very clean, not a project boat. She had the must have’s on our list: auto pilot, wheel steering, wind instrument, rolling furling, bimini and dodger and ready to sail. Then she had some additional equipment that we found very pleasing like the chart plotter, windlass for the anchor, air conditioning and the ice box was converted into a refrigerator. At that time our only disappointment was she was not equipped with solar or wind generation. Her only flaws that we saw at that time was a hot water heater that did not work and the original alcohol stove that she was equipped with had not been used in such a long time it was presumed to be non operational.
Nepenthe, as we first saw her in Riviera Beach, Florida
Most impressive was just a few months prior she had new bottom paint and new hull paint, and such a pretty aqua/teal color. She was well maintained and lots of recent updates. Her rigging, stanchions and lifelines were all just done in 2013 and the electronics on board-chartplotter, auto pilot and wind instrument were all new in 2014.
We spent about two hours on board with the broker talking about her. The broker knew the owners and had been out sailing on Nepenthe and spoke highly of her. I took lots and lots of pictures and when we left we advised the broker that while we drove home to central florida we would discuss and we would be in touch to let him know if we wanted to make and offer. We drove up the east coast of Florida along A1A with excited jibber jabber and stopped for dinner at a beach side restaurant in Fort Pierce. We looked over the pictures and discussed even more, we tried not to let our emotions dictate our decision but come on that is difficult not to do. A few hours after leaving Nepenthe we contacted the broker and made an offer, then the paperwork and back and forth began. Once an offer was accepted we scheduled to have a sea trial and survey done.
