Exhaustion. The only description for our life the first half of 2016. Joe picked up a part time job starting at 3:45am before heading to his fulltime management role at the airport. I was working 50 hours per week and finishing online college courses. At the end of each of work day and every weekend, we’d head to our townhome to fix it up to sell.
On June 3, we accepted an offer on our townhouse! It’s time to officially start catamaran shopping! We had been unofficially shopping for months but just enlisted the help of a broker, Robert from Just Catamarans. The pre-approval process took almost a month because our finance broker ‘lost’ our paperwork then ‘forgot’ to follow up with us. After some confusing phone calls and text messages, we got Robert involved and finally received word that we were “approved in minutes and received the best APR that anyone has received all year!”
Ready to make an offer, Robert helped us find our ‘dream boat,’ but after negotiations proved the boat was outside of our budget, we agreed to see a Leopard 47 in Riviera Beach. We were pretty set on the separate showers in the ‘dream boat’, so we had very low expectations from this Leopard. On July 8, we drove to Riviera Beach to view the Robertson and Caine Leopard 47, Cool Change.
Cool Change was stunning…and HUGE! I immediately noticed the large 30 HP motor on the dinghy! Looking through every nook and cranny on Cool Change, it was hard to find anything wrong. The owner was meticulous in everything that he did and was anxious to sell. We had a great viewing and conversation with Robert. Unfortunately, it had one major issue, wet heads (no separate showers).
Although, we loved Cool Change, we couldn’t overlook the wet heads. It was becoming a deal breaker for us, so I found a smaller catamaran in St. Pete Marina. The thought was if we got a smaller boat with only 2 heads instead of 4, separate showers would fit our budget. The next day, we drove to St. Pete on a whim to view the smaller catamaran. We quickly found the boat and broker. He invited on board for a viewing, but the boat was surprisingly very tight with 3 people in the salon. The selling point for us was the separate showers! We asked how the boat handles in weather and fuel/water capacity…His responses were very disappointing.
As Joe and I walked through St. Pete Marina, we recognized there was no way a 40-foot boat would work for chartering. As we discussed all the pros and cons of Cool Change, I look at up at Joe and said, “are we really letting a shower come between us and our dream!?” We both agreed, we were ready to put an offer in on Cool Change. Minutes later Robert was drawing up the paperwork. We officially submitted the offer and by July 12 had a signed contract in place.
The survey went well with very few surprises. Unfortunately, as our closing date approached, things began to fall apart. On multiple occasions, I’ve said that I don’t wish our closing on my worst enemy! It’s not worth reliving the details, but my thought at that time was, "if we end up with this boat, it was truly meant to be." After a painful two weeks with our finance broker, we received the final call at 4pm on Friday, August 11, 2016; we own a 2005 ROBERTSON AND CAINE LEOPARD 47, Cool Change, soon to be Kuma Too.
The boat buying process was not easy, but it all worked out in the end! To learn about charters on board Kuma Too, visit www.SailingKumaToo.com
Until next week, Happy Sailing!