Jupiter, FL - Survey & Sea Trial

[Kevin's Post] After a few days of negotiation we settled on a price for the Jupiter Manta.  The sale was still contingent on a survey and sea trial (kind of like a home inspection & test drive).  So I flew back out to FL this weekend, this time with Amanda, to supervise the survey.  The brokers aren't allowed to even recommend a surveyor, so I found one in the area with the help of Google and scheduled him for the survey.  He happened to be the author of one of the catamaran books we had bought when we were trying to choose a make of catamaran.

The morning of the survey, the surveyor was already at the boat when we arrived and was crawling around the starboard engine room.  With him, the two boat brokers, and the hired captain, there were six of us on board.  The brokers were in a hurry to get the boat moving since we needed to get under several scheduled drawbridges to get to Jupiter inlet (access to the ocean) and then back under the same bridges to make our haulout appointment at the boat yard.  The surveyor would continue his inspection while we were underway.  The owner had hired a professional delivery captain for the day to captain the boat for us.  He had been a sort of handyman for the owner and so was very familiar with all the boat systems.

The marina the boat was at was part of a condominium complex on the ICW (intracoastal waterway) so we had to motor several miles to get to the ocean.  The boat has a 60' mast so we had to radio all the bridges to have them stop traffic and open to allow us to pass.  It was pretty neat seeing all the traffic stop so we could putter by.  The boat attracted a lot of attention due to the crazy graphics and silly name.  Everybody who saw us seemed to stare with disbelief.  The hired captain commented that sometimes in a boat it is best to unmemorable.  Yes, the graphics were going to have to go.

When we finally got to the ocean, the winds were light and variable and the seas were flat calm.  Not ideal for a sailboat test drive.  But we raised the sails and managed to make the thing go 3 knots in 5 knots of wind, so the brokers were pretty pleased with themselves.  The sails were in decent shape considering their age, just a little dingy.  Everything appeared to work, although the surveyor recommended that we replace a few of the lines due to chafe.  We didn't waste any time waiting for wind, it was back under the bridges and on to the boatyard a few miles in the opposite direction (also on the ICW).

We were right on time for our scheduled haulout, and our captain deftly maneuvered the boat in to the crane's slings while the brokers stood by with fenders.  Once the boat was stable in the slings, we all hopped off the boat and the crane lifted it out of the water.  This gave the surveyor an opportunity to inspect below the waterline without having to use scuba gear.  He tapped the entire hull with a mallet looking for soft spots and inspected the saildrives, rudders, and propellers.  The bottom was fairly clean and had a good coating of anti-fouling paint, but the saildrive zincs needed to be replaced soon.  (These are sacrificial metal pieces which prevent the important metal parts of the saildrive and propeller from corroding away).  The surveyor said it was unfortunate we didn't have replacements since we could have replaced them right then while we were out of the water.  Now we'd have to schedule a second haulout to make the repair.  Other than the zincs, everything below the waterline was ship-shape.

Back in the water we motored back to the owner's marina.  The surveyor really hadn't found anything notable, so we told the owner's broker we would buy it if we could keep the marina slip through April.  He said he would check with the seller and amend the purchase agreement.  Buying a boat is kind of like buying a house, there is a lot of paperwork.  It will be about a week before we close, but if all goes as expected we will soon be the owners of a 1996 Manta 40 catamaran. 

Jupiter, FL - The Good Idea

[Kevin's Post]I spent the weekend jet-setting around the east coast looking at yachts.  Trust me, it's not nearly as glamorous as it sounds.  We have pretty much narrowed our possibilities down to one particular make of sailboat - a Manta catamaran.  There aren't a lot of them out there, only about 120 have been made in the last ten years.  They are specifically designed for long term cruising, whereas most of the other catamaran builders design boats primarily for the charter business.  There are only four on the market right now, two on the east coast, and two in the Caribbean.  I told our broker that I was willing to fly out to look at the ones on the east coast.  The salesman that he is, he said that I shouldn't fly out to see anything unless I already had a signed contract on it.  Car salesmen have nothing on boat brokers.  He reasoned that without a contract there was no guarantee the boat would still be available when I showed up at the dock.  It would require just a small 10% transferable deposit (about $25k) and I could walk away for any reason.  Uh, OK. Where do I send the check?  A wire transfer would be better.  Of course it would.

So I made a reasonable offer on a 1998 Manta in Annapolis, which to my surprise was accepted, and I went to take a look.  I also made plans to see a 1996 Manta in Jupiter, FL, just so I would have a basis for comparison.  The Annapolis Manta had been to Australia and back and it looked it.  It was pretty tired looking and didn't appear to be very well maintained.  It also had six inches of snow on the deck which made me wonder if it had been properly winterized for all the winters it had spent in Maryland.  I spent about an hour looking through the boat and taking pictures of everything.   I knew in a few minutes I wouldn't be buying this boat.  The listing had some significant errors in the equipment list, and the interior was a mess of half completed projects.

On to Florida to look at boat #2.  I wasn't too excited about looking at the 1996 Florida Manta because it looked ridiculous in the listing photos.  It appeared the owner had painted the sailboat to make it look like a speedboat and the result was hideous.  It had wild graphics in every color of the rainbow down both hulls with the boat name in 2 foot high bubble letters - 'Good Idea'.  Repainting a boat this size could cost upwards of $20k, so that wasn't something I wanted to consider.  But, when I saw it in person I could see that the graphics weren't painted on, they were just vinyl and could be removed.  Not only that, the rest of the boat was in immaculate condition.  The gelcoat was bright and shiny, the waterline was clean, the interior was in nearly mint condition.  I never would have guessed it was a ten year old boat.  The owner had only used it two months a year and never went farther than the Abacos.  I spent a few hours peering into every nook and cranny of the boat and taking pictures while our broker patiently answered my questions.  I told our broker that I wanted to withdraw my offer on the Annapolis Manta and make an offer on Good Idea.