Finding the boat for the Escape
10 June 2020
by Alan Duffy
I had been looking through the boats listed on different brokerage sites, searching for either a smaller sized catamaran around 35' or a centre cockpit mono hull around 40'. Was after a boat that would be suitable for two people to easily handle plus have room for guests.
The boat had to be suitable to cruise through the Caribbean without too much discomfort as this was to be my preferred cruising ground. Another goal was also to cruise up/down the east coast of USA on the ICW.
Keeping those two cruising areas in mind, there was a plethora of boats from which to select. Having so many options then became a problem; I could spend way too many hours looking at all the boats.
There were a few boats which stood out while scanning and I was thinking to focus more on those types. These Catamarans included Fountaine Pajot 35 Tobago and the Gemini 105. I preferred the interior of the Gemini 105 and is shallow draft, but thought the FP 35 would be better for the Caribbean Sea. The Beneteau 40 CC was my favorite in the mono-hulls.
While searching, I also saw the Lagoon 37, and it really appealed to me. The styling, interior layout, and the good reports on its sailing ability started to take hold, and I found myself looking for boats larger than planned. Similar boats to the Lagoon 37 also began to creep into my thinking such as the Kennex 380, and the Leopard 38.
This was becoming a dangerous trend, I was searching for boats larger than I had imagined, and more expensive than planned. I would need more time to continue building the kitty, not an issue, I was still dreaming!
Often while searching for images of the Lagoon 37 TPI, its bigger brother would appear, the Lagoon 42 TPI. They had similar profile lines, but while the 37 had a "crisp" coach house the 42 had the more typical Lagoon rounded line, similar to the Lagoon 380.
The Lagoon 42 certainly looked nice in the images of it sailing, but they were over my price line, I would look without really focusing. Occasionally a more cost effective 42 would come up in the search and I would reach out to the contact, typically get no response (most likely an old advertisement and the vessel already sold).
As time went on, work became busy and was eating into my personal time leaving no time to search (but my cruising kitty was growing).
Once on top of work items, I was again able to then sneak a few scans of the brokerage sites looking for Lagoon 37s. A Lagoon 42 appeared on one of these searches and it had all the cruising gear and really caught my attention. I reached out to the broker and he responded and was very helpful and sent through more photos that weren't shown on the website.
Then disaster struck, Hurricane Irma! The boat was located in the path of Irma at the BVI. The images that were shown on the TV and internet showed the total devistation of the houses, infrastructure, and boats. For some reason, I had a feeling that the vessel had survived the destruction, not sure why I thought alone those lines. Tried to contact the broker, but was getting no response. The communication in the BVI was a mess for many months following Irma.
After a few weeks, the broker replied, he had been in the BVIs living on his own catamaran during the hurricane and sat it out onboard while tied into the mangroves. He reported that the 42 TPi had infact been damaged, but was not sure of the extent of damage and would find out and report back. Anoter few days passed and I received details that the vessel had fallen from the blocking and the mast came down. When the vessel landed, the force caused the Starboard keel to fold under and break 3/4 of the way up the keel. It also landed on a stand which punctured the outer layer of the hull.
The vessel had also been looted of several items in the days following the hurricane. Some of these items were survival items, so not surprised the local population would have needed them and included the two portable Honda generators, the house batteries, as well as the tools ransacked. Other opportune items included the Hookah air system and the new outboard (they left the old one), chart plotter, and VHF radio.
The broker visited the boat (it was on a different island) and took some photos of the current state. It had been lucky as the boat in front (totally crushed) and to boat the side (bow broken off) had been damaged by Lagoon 560 which had been lifted and dropped by the force of the wind.
Several months past while the current owner sorted out the insurance claim. The positive side of this was that the damage was not sufficient for vessel to be written off and therefore very feasible to be repaired. The current owner was already of the mind set of selling, so it was then offered up for sale "as is, where is".
The broker was able to help obtain and furbished the quotes which the insurance company received for the repairs, giving a good idea on the damage. This led to me making an offer on the vessel unseen, which was eventually accepted.
I visited the vessel a few weeks later and was pleased to see the vessel in ok condition apart from the above mentioned damage and items scattered from when the looting occurred. The pictures provided were a good representation of the boat.
Meanwhile my own work became very busy again and the repairs would have to be delayed, which suited me as the good tradesmen still had too much work.
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