How Two Americans Decided to Buy a New Boat From France

My love for the beach was always hard for Michael to understand.  For him, it was too crowded, too sunny, too sedentary, and way too sandy.  Many times he asked me, “Why do you like the beach?” My answer was always the same, “There’s so much air there and the view of the water is beautiful.” One day he told me that he thought of a place that had just as much air and an even better view.  What’s more, this place had no crowds and best of all in his opinion, no sand. Where? A sailboat.

I have to say, his inspiration at this moment captured my heart anew after twenty years of marriage, and we were off to buy a boat.  I’d like to say that Soggy Dollar, a Catalina 22 gave us respite from our professional and personal responsibilities on summer nights and weekends.  But that would be a lie. Soggy Dollar gave us a jolt of fun!  The Hudson River was unpredictable with tides, wind tunnels and vessels ranging in size form a jet ski to a tanker.  Sailing in front of Lady Liberty in Manhattan Harbor was down right exciting!  Soggy Dollar infected us with the sailing bug.

I thought this was a little crazy.  But no one else did.  Our teenage sons, the judges, seemed to like having parents with a new hobby.

Our friends and other relatives egged us on with requests for sails throughout the summer.

So we decided we were sailors.  Official sailors go to boat shows.

It was the moment when we stumbled upon ‘Apre ski,’ a yacht at our first boat show in Newport, that we knew our Cat 22 was the beginning of something big. We had raised two fabulous kids, had worked hard, and had been up and down the perfectly groomed, as well as the bump runs of life.  It was time for winds to fill our sails and we needed some bigger sails to take us anywhere we wanted to go.

First we needed to learn.  Michael had been sailing for most of his life, but I only sailed at camp and a bit on our small Hobie Cat in Belgrade Lakes, Maine. We enrolled in ASA 104, Bareboat Cruising Certification (a shout out to Sail Solomons and Jeff Carlsen).  Official Bareboat sailors go to bigger boat shows.

We were going to the Annapolis Boat Show.  The plan was to see a used boat that Michael had been eyeing and enjoy ogling.  Michael’s focus was on boats that could take us anywhere we every dreamed of going.  We always have loved a good adventure.  He had been speaking to Pete McGonagle from Swiftsure Yachts about a used Garcia Passoa.  The folks from Swiftsure took us on a test sail of the Garcia Exploration 45.  When we looked at used boats, they needed a fair amount of work and investment.

While we were in Annapolis we toured dozens of boats including the Allures 39.9 that was on display.  No boat seemed quiet right.  Then Pete introduced us to Gary Hall who offered to give us a tour of  Illimite, his Allures 45 which was also in the harbor at Annapolis but not part of the show.  This boat checked off all the boxes.  Gary was generous with his time and open about his experiences.  We were pretty much sold.

Differentiating features that pushed us from the 39.9 to the 45: Sail locker with water tight bulkhead.  Higher quality interior.  Large multipurpose technical room with access from the cockpit.  Much more comfortable master cabin with center line bed.  In the end it seemed like a better value.

One issue was that Allures had made their last Allures 45 and were working on a new model, the 45.9.  Could we buy a boat only having seen a plan and renderings?  Before committing we needed a lot of assurances about what we would be getting.  Pete spent a lot of time with us discussing the details of the process and options.  Michael, as an architect, got excited about the prospect of being part of the design and build process.  There are a lot similarities between building design and boat design.  In the end, the fun of seeing our boat built from a new design was a big part of the decision.  We never would have bought a boat from a set of drawings and specifications if Michael didn’t manage design and construction projects professionally.  It certainly is not for everyone.

Price was also a problem.  Fortunately, Pete’s motivations and ours were somewhat aligned since Swiftsure wanted the new model in the US for the 2017 boat show season.  We chartered a 46ft boat in the BVI for a week to make sure we could handle the bigger boat.  We came to an agreement with Pete, and another adventure began.