An idea by an old friend set us thinking, could we buy a yacht in the USA, and sail it back to the UK?
There seemed to be quite a difference in prices in secondhand yachts between the UK and the USA, and we combed the market for ages. By November 2007, we had a reasonable idea of the costs and the price differences. We had also found a few contenders, one of which stood out from the rest. We planned our trip to the USA, to look at seven boats. Ten days before we planned to go, Dan decided to go a week earlier. I had two days to sort out time off work, and off we flew.
After a nightmare flight, involving a ramble in a 747 around JFK trying to find an open terminal, and the usual hell of JFK customs, we grabbed a hire car & drove to our hotel. The following morning, we drove off to see the Swede 55, Lotus. Guided by our satnav angel "Garmina", we finally found the boat. I was quite disappointed. She seemed shabby, and had lots of "Improvements" from a previous owner which hadn't always been thought out, let alone finished.
She looked a wreck.
We went on to choice number 2, as a storm hit the Eastern Seaboard. In bloody awful weather, we looked at another few boats, including a very neglected Compass 48. It seemed the idea wasn't quite as smart as we thought.
After a trip to Bridgeport, to see another boat, nice, but not nice enough, we crashed just outside New Haven.
The next day, we took a day off & went to Mystic Seaport, which was really good, then drove back to Manhattan. After a long discussion in "The Slaughtered Lamb", we decided the Swede was actually a very good boat, but cosmetically tatty. We are both good enough to fix that. It was worth another look.
The next morning we drove out to Long Island to look at Lotus again. We spent hours looking over her, then decided to buy her. We offered a sum, but there was a problem:
The owner had said yes to some other people, but they hadn't paid when they said they would.
We were gutted, and went off to lunch. As I struggled with the size of my delicious meatloaf, I had an idea.
Would the brokers take a credit card deposit? Money, there & then?
We went back to the brokers, and after two hours of hell, wondering if this had been a futile journey, the owner turned up to sign the deal. Half an hour later, the Surveyor turned up to sort it all out.
5-30pm, the yacht was Dan's.
Had Dan not decided to go a week earlier, she would have been sold before we got there.
We returned to "The Slaughtered Lamb" to celebrate, albeit quietly, for reasons obvious in the next sentence.
The next morning, we turned the hire car back to Avis at 5-00am at JFK, and joined the queue for the flight to London.
Dan had bought a boat in the USA
I was back at work the next day.
