survey says....

Our survey, which took 10 hours over 2 days ("thorough" is the word of the day if you plan to make such a huge purchase and want to know without a doubt that your future home will, in fact, float while you are living aboard it) turned up various issues on the boat we are under contract to buy. Some of them we knew about and some were a surprise (not the good kind, mind you!). We used a gentleman out of Green Bay, WI named Ben Miller (who I highly recommend. I am happy to pass along his contact info for those in the market for a survey.) and after lots of discussing with him and between us, we approached the seller/brokerage with our list of "issues". We fully expected they would fix at least the very minimum problems in order to move forward with the sea trial. Those issues were more safety and structural in nature and ABSOLUTELY HAD to be addressed before putting the boat in the water, mast up, sails on, etc. Surprise of surprises, they have agreed to fix almost all of the items on the list! We should hear back today or tomorrow about the schedule of the maintenance and when we can get her into the water to complete the sea trial. We are beyond excited with the response and are already making our own little "to do" list of things we want to upgrade once she is ours :-)

serena

That might be her name.
Over the past few weekends, we have been looking at boats. We've looked before but never with such purpose. What's different? We're closer than we ever have been to casting off. Really. I know I said that along time ago, but this time it's true.
We've probably seen a few dozen boats. So many, in fact, that they all seem to blur together into some sort of mega-boat, à la Megatron—a boat with super powers that transforms into a jack-knife AND segway. Or not. What has actually happened is that we've narrowed down the field to two. Probably just one, but as Josh is doing his left-brained thing, I can't definitively say it's "the one".
Her name is Serena—a name I can happily live with, since changing a boat name is considered bad luck—and she's a 38' Morgan 382. Built in 1978, she was part of the second iteration of Morgan 38's that were built (the first being Morgan 38—designed and build in the late 60s by Charley Morgan, the second, third and fourth—382, 383 and 384 designed by Ted Brewer in the late 70s then redesigned in 1980 and 1983 under those numbers, respectively). Yes, she's at the top end of our size range (initially we said 32 to 36') but no matter. As she's only 2 feet over, the cost differential is minor. Serena has plenty of bells and whistles that make her attractive to us including: an almost new motor (something like 350 hours which is all but unheard of in a boat in her price range and size), auto pilot, lots of new deck hardware including self-tailing winches, newer sails, new boom, and new Harken battcar main sail system.
She also has some deficits which would require upgrades. Josh wants a chart plotter, she has no bow roller which would mean manually pulling up the anchor (not fun, from what I hear), and most importantly to me, she has no stove or oven. While it's not a deal breaker, it will require some work to install. We'll have to devise a locker storage set-up for the propane which could be a challenge. We will also definitely have to paint the bottom. She's solely been a fresh water boat and does not have sufficient bottom paint to deal with the saltiness in the caribbean.
I'm hoping we can get down to see her on more time this weekend and walk over her and do a literal floor plan of what we would do and how much said upgrades would cost if she were our boat. That way, we know where to start for an offer. Fingers crossed and I'll keep you posted.