OURS!!!

It's a done deal!

'Pelican Rose' is officially our new baby as of February 28th, 2010.

And NOW...the fun begins.

Do we send our boatstuff by fedex and fly ourselves to Fort Myers? Or rent a one-way car?

Or will Frank insanely offer to go the distance twice in one week?

Health Insurance. Boat Insurance. Clothes. Supplies.

Condo coverage, mail and bills during our absence...and the dreaded taxman on April 30th.

Do we head south to the BVI's and leave her there, or head north back to Canada?  Hmmmm...right now, winter in the islands every year is sounding

very attractive to these retirees! 

MUCH to do in 28 days.

But....

SHE IS OURS!

FOUND! (?)

Several boats later...and no joy in Florida in finding our trawler. With just 24 hours to our departure from Florida...a new listing is found on yachtworld. A 1999 Mainship named Sea Dog and she's less than an hour away from us in Punta Gorda!
We get an appointment and both love her instantly - this is the one.
But, we have a conditional offer in on another boat two years newer than this and the owner has accepted an offer for $30,000 below asking price... less money than the 1999 list. We leave Fort Myers at midnite to drive 10 hours out of our way to view the 2001 in Pensacola before continuing on back home to Canada.
We promise the broker for the 1999, that we will let him know what happens. We decide to give him a post dated offer 'in case' ....
The Pensacola boat is an instant 'no thanks' for both of us.
We stop in Chattenooga to call the other broker and give him the green light GO on the offer we had previously given to him.
Our offer goes in at 3:30pm....but the owners are leaving the country
in 12 hours for a month in Mexico.
By the time we reach our hotel late evening, the owners had put in a
counter offer to ours. We flipped back an offer higher than our first and went to bed.
We continued our drive back home and were finally able to get a wifi connection at 5:30pm.... I see 'thee' email!
The owners have countered again and as far as we are concerned.....this is a
done deal!!!!!
Next steps:
We have a haulout and survey scheduled for Jan 26th and Peter is flying back to Fort Myers on the 25th. Pending no major issues, the deal closes Feb 28 and we will be in Punta Gorda Florida to take possession. They have agreed to let us stay at their dock behind their home for 2 weeks, and will give us some much needed orientation to this new stranger in our lives.
This will no doubt go down as one of THEE quickest listings/sales in the current
economic market! One half day listed....And 24 hours before we
departed. Fate we ask?

TRAWLER HUNT

We have put our privately listed boat 'on hold' as we are just not 100% certain this is 'thee' one. We are looking at another boat this Friday in Pensacola, 9 hours from Fort Myers and 20 hours from Toronto. This is listed with Yachtworld. The owner is in Asia, apparently selling after owning this 2001 Mainship for 2 years and not having enough time to use her. We have put in an offer (without even seeing it..seems to 'be the way' down here) but it is conditional on our satisfactory inspection, sea trial, survey and haul out. We are currently waiting to see if our offer is accepted. As usual in this search it's 'stay tuned.'

TRAWLER HUNT

We have spent hour after hour, month after month, in search of the boat of our dreams: liquidators, private offerings and brokerage listings.
Now we are in Florida, enjoying a balmy ZERO degrees....an unheard of cold spell that even has the iguanas falling from the trees and going to sleep until it warms up!
We are staying in Fort Myers at the townhome of some wonderful long lost friends, rediscovered...Rudi, Gaby & Esther. (The adults haven't aged a bit bit and the daughter has blossomed into a beautiful young woman!)
*If you are interested in booking a rental at this gated community in a very good area of Fort Myers, please check out this link: http://www.perfectplaces.com/vacation-rentals/13548.htm
We have seen two boats that we feel are 'this' close to completing an offer on a private deal; however, at the time of this update, there has been a mechanical snag that may be a show-stopper.
We did a perfect sea-trial out of Bradenton, Florida. Afterwards, we found small amounts of leaking oil near the turbo and a few other 'new' leaks that had not been present before the sea-trial.
A dolphin swam past the transom as we came into the slip. We were thinking this was a good-luck sign, and maybe it was, as it is better to discover serious issues before you own the boat.
There is a good chance the turbo needs a rebuild.....and given that we also discovered the owner has never done any maintenance on the turbo....but I digress. We also noted water around two of the four bolts for the rudder post. Seems it will have to be dropped out, cleaned, resealed and reinstalled. $$$
Peter and I are becoming so adept at surveying these boats, we could very likely qualify as boat surveyors for the 390 Mainship.
At least it was finally sunny and warm today, so we headed to Captiva and Sanibel Island for the day. Looks like this Mainship is a 'stay tuned' situation for the moment.

This is a picture of the turbo oil leak that surfaced immediately after the sea-trial... which is much better than surfacing after purchase!

TRAWLER HUNT

October 2009
We rented a car and headed out of Toronto, Ontario to Maryland. Our hopes were high that the 390 Mainship photo's we had been sent by the owner, were going to prove this boat to be just as fabulous at the dock as they were in cyberland. The owners were lovely, but the boat was not to be ours. She looked to us as if she has had an unhappy life. Lots of wounds and bandages.

Very disappointing, as we had travelled with cheque book in hand. We went home with our allotted quantity of rum in hand as we crossed back into Canada.

The first picture is inside the engine compartment where you can see the shaft...and the bulkhead separation from hull! Ouch!

The second picture is the portside flybridge... with a lovely wide crack midship.

TRAWLER HUNT

September 2009

Peter had contacted a Mainship dealer in New York quite a few months back. She called today and indicated that she knew someone who was privately selling their 390 Mainship, Year 2000 at $99,000US.

The price was too good to be true, and you know what they say about that! This is her in her slip.

We contacted the owner and spent the month going back and forth with photo's and questions, before finally setting everything into place for a trip to New York.

The day before departing, and having booked a car rental and hotel reservations, Peter contacted the owner for directions and any final matters to be discussed. Well, the final matter was that his wife had decided that she liked the boat after all (hasn't apparently liked it for several years, but has taken a sudden change of heart) and the boat is no longer up for sale. Boat #1 - gone.

And so it begins....the agony and the ecstasy of searching for the boat of your dreams. AAAGGGGHHHHHH!!!!