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We had a good trip yesterday and were able to have a first look. The first impression was positive; clean very clean even, not one nick on the wood still smell new in some locker. A quick look at the system, it all shows a boat well maintained and not heavily used.
We are keeping our fingers today; survey starts at 8.30am haul out at noon and sea trial in the afternoon. We will know by tonight if she gets a clean bill of health. Wish us good luck, we need some!
Luggage made ticket in hand, charming kids taking care of, we are ready to leave. No the car doesn’t stay at home nice try sweetheart, we are taking it to the airport. Those teenagers they think they own the world. Lucky for your parents we were not like that, we were perfect.
With a bit of luck, we shall have an enjoyable time in California and let’s see how far in trouble, we can get.
We will be back, soon not to worry.
We are at that stage, when you have to put in the gears, the time when you come to the conclusion that the signature on the offer are from both side! It means we have a deal. Yes this happened yesterday and we are now in the process of finalizing the big day. Almost can’t believe it! And don’t want to jinx it so we won’t tell you too much at this point…. sorry for now!
We have to move four people down the coast, meaning plane ticket, car rental and hotel booking. So we are organizing a vacation really so far, no big deal. Then find a haul out facility, a “competent” surveyor and mechanic. All of that on short notice of course.
This is when reading the forum on a regular basis comes handy! Yes it’s my excuse for spending so much time on it Sweetie!! It gives us an easier access to the local knowledge of people. Thank you for all the answer and advice to all involve.
I am still including a picture for the curious ones and the family : Owner version Lagoon 380 S2.
We have done our part life is too short, we need to keep enjoying it. Wish us good luck… and we’ll keep our fingers crossed!
We decided to relax today, and try to forget the chaos of the process of buying a boat. For this we took our trusted racing catamaran out with our son. Sunny day, 12-14 knots steady from the east, and little swell what else can we ask for?
To be fair, we haven’t been out a lot this year, so once the rust was off, we really enjoyed ourselves. We alternated from racing the large monohull, to downwind in the sun to take in the scenery and the soothing no apparent wind, our son was on trapeze for a while. This brings us to an end of a beam reach a little closer to beach than the previous one. We have been there lots of time and knew, well thought we knew, that we had enough depth to go around the buoy.
I must confess, our 13 year old son warned us, I admit it (is that enough for you?). Being a full fledged teenager, he knows everything. This is when we came to a rather quick stop and realized that we had touched ground, luckily we were still far away, although outside the buoy and we shouldn’t have. ” Well done Dad! I told you guys….”
In the bright side we were getting ready to tack and were coming into the wind, the boat had started to decelerate! So one dagger board was firmly stuck in the sand, we raised the closest one to shore and pivoted on the other one helped by the wind.
So here it is, I can officially now said that I have run aground, on a boat and I was responsible for it. Tide tables anybody? Once again : “yes! Son you were right.”
Yes it’s a game, only a game and we love it! Remember! we are not in love with a specific boat so no strings attached and we have time to think things through, and make wiser decisions, which makes for an easier ride.
The last few days have been fun and educational. As we are researching all aspects of the lagoon 380 ownerships it made us realize of how good networking is an important factor. Because somebody, somewhere had once upon a time a similar problem, or question and they solved it before you. You just need to find that person. Simple!
So what’s going on? We are being patient, and my father would be very proud and add ” Remember: patience is always rewarded” and he is right once again. We have a deal, just waiting for final written confirmation. Now the fun begin, to ensure that we can arrange survey, insurance, transportation, border crossings ect…. in a fairly short period of time.
Thanks God we have a comprehensive broker on our side, it helps a lot in making the transaction happen. Even getting everybody involved to put some skin in the game, making it happen. The previous-owner have been very generous, hopefully the boat is as good as it seems.
We are not getting excited yet.. We have learnt our lesson once before … but this enable us to define our parameter much better this time around.
I have to get back to the phone, and to tell you the truth the marina community around here and insurance brokers are starting to know us now… If this time around doesn’t work, I may have to change my name in order to get a quote next time.
My birthday approaching quickly, I decided that there was no better present than a good pair of binocular. Remember we don’t buy if we can’t take it on the boat motto. Thank you everybody for this magnificent present.
After multiple researches in person and on the web, we realized those binoculars are really price sensitive. We look through some cheap ones and some expensive one, yes you can see a difference no question. Plus the cheap one, if they get dropped or bang they get out of alignment and are worthless from there on.
When we went cruising in July, I realized quickly that this instrument is part of the safety equipment. We had a pair of average one on board and in low light we couldn’t make out some of the buoy shape or color. It not then, that you run to West Marine to buy a better pair. Practical sailor was consulted and the forum where again a source of amazing knowledge.
After going back and forward between Steiner and Fujinon. The Japanese win and a pair of 7X50 FMTRC-SX were selected. With the help of the internet, and the rapid courier transportation we enjoy in our country. A week later I had my eye riveted to them. I quickly realize that, yes you can see clearly at what coming to you in the future. On a slow moving boat anyway, too bad they don’t have the same one for life in general.
As all would agree; purchasing a boat either a catamaran or a monohull is a rather large purchase with a great deal of negotiation. In our case it has been a while since our last negotiation, meaning we are putting our head back into the mode! Our first offer was not countered offer and this made for an easy decision to move on to the next boat. The broker came back to us four days later with this lame “excuse”: – I have talked to the owners; they now have a better understanding of the value of their boat! Although at this point they might take her out of the market as they are considering living aboard again… Why don’t you make another offer? Our answer: – No thanks! Negotiation is a two way street if it’s meant to be.
Next in line, it’s a buyer market after all. No Asset can be overpriced in this day and age, if you wish to sell it. On that note we haven’t sold our boat yet OOPS….
To our surprise last night some friends sent us the link to an ad., in a local sailing magazine for another 380, and that one is very close to us. Amazing! an older model but with lots of potential. Let’s see how it’s been kept and treated.
In the mean time, we have our eyes on a very recent model and we will see if our offer will be counter offer this time.
Not to worry, we are not going crazy and working the market to hard. We are at the moment on a boat returning from a nice couple of days. We are enjoying the view while typing this post. Ok it’s a ferry and we are tethered via “I phone”. No major success here cheater!!!!
Catamaran market, is truly a strange one at the moment, we have never seen so many 380s for sale on our side of the country or is it simply that our attention is now geared towards it?!…. There are some coming out of the woodwork as I am writing this… At this point we have the choice between year 2001 to 2007, in different state of repair and version.
Normally, the market is fairly tame for such a specialized boat, and in the catamaran world in general. Though right now the economy is taking a toll and we have a potential of no less than 7 boats that we could bring back here at no significant cost, this is a point we hadn’t envisioned.
As you know by now the analytic mind took over and I created a chart for comparison, we also found the Lagoon owner Yahoo group, and decided to join.
It is a great source of knowledge and we couldn’t have wished for better, a good tool to have when you are still in the phase of researching. We can find every single option available, what needs to be upgraded and what equipment you really need on board. In fact it doesn’t stop here, they even have the Lagoon 380 Historical issues. A document listing that shows what need to be specifically reviewed during survey.
Putting a price on maintenance and equipment is not the easiest task, but with access to Soldboat.com, you get a real good idea of the field. And our friend the internet, can be a great one to find specific detail on one boat.
We are getting the facts together at this point, and have decided to place an offer on one boat to start, we are not in a hurry and have time, quite a luxury. We also decided on a top price, let’s see what comes out of it, and what trouble we can get into.
Of course, I contacted the local Marina to see if they had a slip for us and of course they don’t this time around. So we will have to be creative on that front if we make a deal.
We tried to keep it low key with the kids, but the pre-teenage clued-in immediately although just back from a trip! “Stop looking on my desk you!…” The older one is oblivious, the world only revolving around her belly button anyway (we still love you, we have been there). This still made for a fun conversation at the dinner table, emancipation and homeschooling were on the agenda. Who said you are coming with us?…
Having made our mind, we decided to visit one again just to make sure. You never know, do you? Through our business we have friendly contact, with the local charter company. A short walk over and we are in a lagoon 380 2003.
Thank you for giving us such quick access. We reviewed all the nooks and crannies, and the technical aspect that were bought to our attention by Buddy. We are happy to report we haven’t changed our mind. We both like the size, the layout and the look of it.
But who is Buddy, he is the owner of one of the most well kept boat we have ever witnessed, and that is not a simple statement! Too bad it’s so far from home because we would place an offer on it in a heart beat. You can find all the details on the boat and its upkeep on his web site indigo moon
We are of that same kind of owner, and have great pride in our possession so will be for sure picking Buddy’s brain in the future. Some of the upgrade or ideas, he executed for his boat are just in line with the image, we have of a well kept boat, and good seamanship. Watch the video and you will realize how detail oriented he is, we love the white board with the entire maintenance program.
This is all nice rambling but it doesn’t get us closer to a Lagoon of our own.
The next step was a call, to our favourite broker to advise him of our decision of buying a Beneteau product. But not the one he would have like for us to buy, been the Beneteau rep for the area. A commission is still a commission and he is happy to represent us on our search.
Of course yachtworld and Google have already been searched and are aware of 3 easily accessible boats for us. Now we just have to let him work his magic touch…. more to come!
We have now done few visits in the flesh, had many long hours talk with our cruiser friends, and feel that we have enough bandwidth usage to the point that NSA could be wondering : what is going on here? As you can see, we have narrowed the search to a more manageable number of prospects.
After all there is a point in your life where you have to learn when to stop analyzing so much… easy to say but not easy to do for somebody! Trained and worked all his life that way. We now need to make a decision, on what we really want to see on a boat in our present state of knowledge. We will then have to live with our decision, and will adapt to some specific issues then and there.
This is also one of our pattern emerging, basically the way we run our lives : You find that pattern when we bought our plane, our business, our condo or anything over $100 for that matter. We study it, we touch it, we get to know it, and then when we are ready there is no turning back, the ducks are well aligned and we are ready to jump! No more questions asked, just work hard to make it work, really an exciting time, indeed! This is the stage we are in.
So what are the parameters?
- All lines back to cockpit
- No coffin berth
- Berth parallel to the hull
- Engine not under berth
- USCG conform boat meaning holding tank, gas solenoid, ect…
- 110 volt electric system
- Roomy and comfortable cockpit
- Manufacturer still in business with track record
- Popular model for resale value and spare parts
- And a boat we like the look of in general.
- Sorry forgot a detail, fitting the budget we have, sorry Gunboat you are out.
This lead us to one model in particular the Lagoon 380. Yes we said it, we now know what we want. Life is so much simpler all of a sudden, and taking an exciting turn!
Anybody want to try to change our mind is welcome, please bring some serious arguments.
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