Found a Boat

Or better yet, I bought one. But lets start from the beginning.

For some time now I own a berth in a nearby marina. They are hard to come by, especially if you want them at a reasonable price and close to where you live. So when the opportunity arose I took a leap of faith and bought it. That was almost two years ago and I told myself that I will buy a boat when the time is right. Until now I let other people park their boats there, otherwise it was just two empty mooring fingers with water in between.

This autumn, while on vacation in Greece I saw quite a lot sailboats anchoring in the bay from our hotel room and thought “the right moment may be never, so why not buy a boat now?”.

Primary objective for the boat is cruising on extended trips around the Norwegian coast to begin with. Maybe crossing over to Denmark/Shetland when I get the hang of it. I only sailed once or twice with my father-in-law on his Fisher 30 motorsailer but I enjoyed it immensely when the engine was of and we were going only by the power of the wind, so I knew that it should able to sail. From my impression of the size of the Fisher 30 I derived a target size of between 32ft and 38ft (it has to fit into the berth). A bit bigger than the Fisher and roomy enough to accommodate another couple for some extended trips. The weather in Norway and especially around Bergen can be quite nasty for weeks on end and a steering place with a roof above your head is appealing. Of course the boat has to be the right price, i.e., inside my budgetary constraints, and not a complete renovation project. I want to use it from when I get it and not spend a year on renovation.

From looking through our marina i found Nauticats or Nauticat-like designs always very interesting. I even found a Nauticat 38 in my price range in Germany which I inspected with my brother and a surveyor. The latter saved me from a very costly and probably time consuming adventure with this Nauticat so I kept looking.

Some days ago my father-in-law got a targeted ad while changing his online-newspaper account password. (There might be a chance that I accidentally used his password to skip a paywall, forgot to log out, and the system made a profile from all my searches for Nauticats and other pilot-house sailboats. That in turn gave him then the targeted ad of the boat.) He called me, forwarded the listing and we made plans to check out the boat which is located conveniently just two hours by car from Askøy.

While waiting for the day set out to survey the boat with my father-in-law I was obsessing over the online ad. A 2002 Nordship 35 DS, i.e., type deck-saloon sailer and according to the ad in immaculate condition. Especially the last part made me somewhat skeptical but also antsy to finally have a look for myself. Nevertheless, the boat ticked all the boxes of my list of what I was looking for. Granted, there is no inside steering position per se, more of a lookout, with good forward visibility and control of the autopilot.

So the day arrived, we set out by car and arrived in Bømlo, where the boat had its home so far. We were greeted by the owner directly. That alone put my mind a bit at ease, since in my previous experience with the trashy Nauticat in Germany I had only contact with a salesperson.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The pictures give only a small impression of it, but what was really interesting was the condition of this now roughly 20 year old boat. Its interior really was in immaculate condition and it seemed to have been only lightly sailed. The teak was well aged and I could not locate any obvious flaw. The owner volunteered all information he had or he was aware of. He even pointed out minor flaws which we had not found by ourselves (like a minuscule leak in the forward cabin which only happens rarely, so he could not locate the source of it, more of that in another post).

So after inspecting the boat for nearly two hours, opening every hatch and crawling into every space to look for flaws which could potentially be a turn-of we came to our conclusion. My father-in-law is an outspoken man with many years of experiences with boats and building on and around boats, and he told me his verdict while the owner was on the phone with another potential buyer: “it does not get better than that”.

After some chat in the boat on why he wanted to sell (mostly because of age and difficulty in handling a sailboat due to a medical condition) I made the decision on the spot and we sealed the deal. The decision was also made easy because the owner seemed to be honest about the condition and did not try to hide anything. Even after we agreed on a deal he asked if I’d like to have the dinghy he used with the boat and the dehumidifier at no price. I graciously accepted.

So, now I am the owner of 35ft sailboat. I could not be happier, but there is of course a list with some things which need fixing.

It is a used boat, therefore some work is expected. Nevertheless, judging by age and condition it is a good deal and I cannot wait for the day we can sail it home.