Judy Waldman

I’m just getting caught up with reading the latest posts on Yacht Blogs. Nice to see the cruising life is continuing to be enjoyed and written about. And for those still in the yard, good to read of your ongoing progress

I had intended to write some posts that might be helpful to for those looking to buy a trawler. No sales pitches, just generic information, helpful hints, and inside scoop. But, fortunately I have been too busy to write (for those who read my posts on other forums, I’ve been MIA there too.) So for the good news:

The trawler market continues to improve! I sold a new build Bering 60 with construction beginning next month. She will be spectacular when completed in 12 – 14 months. I closed on my Dutch 65′ steel trawler in New Orleans. The new owners will be leaving NOLA soon to take her to their home port in NJ for the summer before doing extended cruising this Fall. I also closed on a Great Harbour 37. Interesting story of clients for whom I sold their Pilgrim 43. Then they bought a Nordhavn 55 with plans to cruise the Med for a few years. They have found a wonderful harbor in Turkey and are calling it home. But, it’s been a little cold in the winter months so they were looking for a live-abord trawler for wintering in Florida. Their son has built a marina in New Orleans and they will dock the GH there while they are in Turkey the other 9 months a year. In the small world of boater coincidences, the Nordhavn/Great Harbour’s son’s RV Park-Marina was right next to the yard where my haulout was on the 65′ deAlms. Be sure to check out Pontchartrain Landing if you’re planning on being on the Gulf – it’s new and it’s nice!

So whew, explains my absence here I hope. But I’m determined to make some time soon for “Buying a Trawler” tips!

Keep up the blogwork – it’s so nice to read!

Judy

After the first few trips to Bahamas, the family discovered that diving and fishing became journeys in themselves. Time for the first major refit on M/V Discover. They removed the mast with the crows nest, added a davit , installed dock boxes, added stanchions and railings to the upper deck, and made the swim platform more accessible for water play. The John Deere main engine was fine as was the Volvo get-home engine. There was minor tweaking and Discover  was ready to venture past the Bahamas to the fishing grounds off the coast of Central America. After enjoying the Caribbean waters, Discover returned to Florida. More diving and fishing, family and friends, Dry Tortugas and Bahamas, and time for Discover to discover home waters.

M/V Discover was shipped to Vancouver. She had already been proven as a serious passagemaker and the owners didn’t have the time for the trip once again to Central America, which would have been Discover’s third. As ideal as M/V Discover seemed to be for the Bahamas and Caribbean, she was perfectly suited for PNW. There’s a professional album onboard that shows Discover with family, fish, food and exemplifying all of the fun things that the cruising lifestyle offers. Pictures really can say a thousand words.

I got a call from the owner saying they are looking for a larger boat and want to put Discover on the market. I got information on the latest refit including complete Awlgrip paint job, new pilothouse helm. and so forth. But since I hadn’t seen this Cape Horn 55 in several years, I needed to see her condition for myself and take updated pictures.

And that’s how I came to fly from Ft. Lauderdale on a Monday, meet with the owner aboard Tuesday, and fly out from a snowy Vancouver morning early Wednesday. Being aboard a boat I had sold twice already, appreciating her upgrades and improvements, was like meeting with an old friend. And being with an owner who appreciates what his trawler is and has taken care of it demonstrating that appreciation, and well a client I have stayed in touch with for 8 years – it is being with old friends.

Just short of the Panama Canal, the owner calls Peter Sever and says she is having mechanical difficulties and bringing the boat back to Fl. and dry-docking. I’m not sure at what point, but it was soon after return to Lauderdale that it was determined she supposedly had dirty fuel filters and neither she nor the mate knew changing the filters would have enabled an onward passage through the canal. But dry-docked at Lauderdale Marine Center, all personal items removed, there she sat. But not for long. I got an “alert” from YachtWorld that M/V Billy was new to market. The list price was a crazy low number, especially for a new Cape Horn 55 that had cost well over a million dollars to build. The broker who had the listing was a local broker who specialized in Hatteras. I called the broker and asked for history and information. The broker didn’t seem to know much and had never heard of Cape Horn before.

I immediately called the owner of  of the 2nd of the 3 Kanter/Cape Horn 55s. I told him the ask price and to wire me full funds – no negotiating, just a simple unconditional contract, vessel as is/where is at ask price with immediate closing upon acceptance of contract. And that was how Billy was in the hands of owner # 2 and renamed Serendipity.

This new owner had spent several weeks in Lauderdale having his own Cape Horn 55 serviced for warranty work at Derecktor’s Shipyards and he had started his cruise back north for the Great Lakes and had gotten as far as Washington DC when he got the call from me. This couple spent several months living aboard their CH 55 at Lauderdale Marine Center with their CH 55 Serendipity in the adjacent dock.  They were anxious to resume their own cruising plans but knew the diversion for Serendipity would pay off. And indeed it did. After new transmission and minor upgrades and refinements, Serendipity was ready for resale. I sold Serendipity to her third and current owner somewhat over  a year from the time she was near the Panama Canal enroute to Hong Kong.

Owner # 2 continued cruising their CH 55 for several years both on the East Coast and in the PNW before they decided to put her up for sale to spend more time back home with new grandchildren. The 2nd owner of that boat was cruising South America last I heard and heading towards the Cape, and that was about 8 years ago.

And thus began the cruising dream for owner # 3 and his family, starting back in the beginning of 2004 on the newly named M/V Discover. The initial plan was to get a captain onboard for training from Lauderdale to Central America and then owner would take it from Panama to Vancouver. Problem was this new owner got his feet wet in the Bahamas. Diving and fishing became a serious and significant delay and way-point change.

In exemplifying why my job is interesting, I mentioned that I was in Vancouver last week to list a Cape Horn Trawler. This is the 3rd time I have sold this trawler – that’s unusual for Cape Horns and unusual for my trawler owners who tend to have ownership longevity far beyond the standards. Hmm, length of ownership is a subject for another post one day. So what’s the story and why did I fly to Vancouver for the listing if I’ve sold the boat twice previously?

Cape Horn Trawlers were built under the direction of Peter Sever and primarily in Nova Scotia. After successfully building a 58 for himself and subsequently two 52s and three 63s, he decided perhaps he could sell more boats if he had better “pedigree.” So Peter decided to build the Cape Horn 55s at the Kanter Yard in Ontario. Kanter was well known and respected for their sailboats and metalwork.

Billy’s owners were from Australia. He a doctor and she a nurse, they had done missionary work in Borneo and finally settled in Hong Kong for medical practice. They had a Cheoy Lee 66 that they used on weekends. They had 2 children and subsequently adopted 4 special needs children locally. They wanted to live aboard with the children and return to missionary work. A Cape Horn 55 was in their budget and was the perfect bullet-proof, go anywhere boat for the journey.

Launch of the Cape Horn is delayed. The wife flies from HK to Ontario to speed things along. She hires a mate and starts her way towards Fl. The husband flies with the 4 special needs children to Fl. to join the wife on the boat, provision, and head towards the canal on to their home port in Hong Kong.   Well, I was hurting for poor hubby arriving FLL with 4 special children all jet-lagged and instead of sleeping on their new boat, sleeping in a hotel. Any normal person would be sympathetic to the situation, but since my husband Howard and I share the blessing of having a daughter with Down Syndrome, we were “feeling their discomfort.” So impulsively, I offered for the husband and 4 children to stay at our house with us until the boat arrived.  And to make things worse, I got a contract on a boat and had to leave town for a sea trial and survey. So Howard took care of our Dina and the client with 4 special needs children for something like 4 days!

Billy arrives Lauderdale. The wife says the delays have used up the husband’s sabbatical time allocated for delivery so he was flying home with the children and she was continuing with the mate for the delivery.

To be continued…

In my First Blog I said that (1) I have a great job and one that is interesting and diversified. Let me tell you why I think so:

Firstly, keep in mind that I have a sales job. But I’m selling YACHTS! Thank goodness I’m not selling coffins! This is happy stuff! Buying a boat is serious business, but yacht shopping and dream fulfillment is FUN and I get to be a part of it. At some point I’ll give examples of walking through my yacht shopping with clients, those who are totally new and uneducated, and those that are on subsequent boats.

Why do I sometimes call them yachts & sometimes they are boats? Sometimes they are vessels. That’s a post for another day. Maybe under the category of “sales pitch stuff…”

So here’s what my schedule has been for the last approx 8 weeks. At the beginning of January, I went to Port Canaveral for 2 day sea trial and survey on M/V Masterplan, a Hatteras 58 LRC. At the end of January, I went to Dunedin, Fl. for a sea trial and survey on a 36 Sabre. End of February, flew to Vancouver to list a Cape Horn 58, take pictures, assess value, etc. I leave next Wed. for a 2 day sea trial and survey on a boat in New Orleans.

Of course I have just given the bottom line. I could write a book on each of the one-line summations. Each boat different, each seller and buyer different. Each story from every side oh so interesting. And that’s nothing to speak of what the boats could say.