Saturday, November 27, 2010

Headroom. And headroom.

Well, the hard-luck, "I coulda been a contender" epoch in our boat search continues...


We were very enamored with this steel 45 footer, lying in San Francisco Bay.  We got used to a few drawbacks, including an undersized engine, and were about to make an offer.  But we had asked the broker to check a few details on the boat for us, and to measure the headroom.... It was advertised as 6'4", but he measured it at 6'3" on the centerline, and dropping from there as you go outboard.  So suddenly she was off the list, after four or five days of frenzied interest as we queried our friends about various aspects of the design and built up to the emotional apogee of deciding that she might be "the one".  But luckily we had a second choice in hand:


41 feet, steel, lying Queensland.  We had ruled her out back in April because we didn't want a full keel design unable to sail out of its own wake.  But she's new, with quite good kit.  We gave her another look and she ended up second on the list.  I had a chat with the broker and he assured me that she had enough headroom...But then he called Alisa a day or two later (the same day the previous boat fell through) and recanted - he had been aboard and realized that at 6'3" he was unable to stand up...

So, on one day, two good possibilities vanished and we were back to the beginning.

On the rebound we briefly considered this steel 45 footer in Sydney:

But the displacement is listed at 17 tonnes, which is a bit rich for us, and also 2.5 tonnes over the design displacement...  We'll take another look, but at this point our heart isn't in it.

But we don't stay down for long!  Our current first choice is something completely different, this cold-molded, Kiwi-built, French-designed 43 foot dériveur, lying Raiatea.  Stay tuned!

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