Normally when things do not go according to plan, it usually means that things have gone in the worse direction. Delays push off closing dates for houses. Storms arrive sooner than expected and before you’re prepared. We were intending on closing on our new (to us) yacht on Thursday. Then the closing date got moved to Tuesday. Except that it happened yesterday (Monday).
So now I’m an owner of a sailing yacht.
It hasn’t sunk in yet.
What HAS sunk in is that I’ve taken on a huge chunk of responsibility. The clock has started ticking and I have 30 days to bring the yacht into compliance with the suggestions made by the marine surveyor. This is to satisfy the insurance company that they haven’t made a mistake insuring us. If we aren’t in compliance within 30 days, the insurance company reserves the right to cancel our insurance — which would be disasterous.
In these current days, with COVID, this may well be a challenge. There’s a list of stuff that needs to get done. Getting parts is not so easy now. I can’t just run to the marine parts store to get something since the boat is (will be) on one side of the border and I live on the other, and the border is closed to all “non-essential” traffic. I doubt that they will agree that changing the safety lines on my yacht is an essential thing. It might be to me, but my definitions don’t count.
So, instead, each time I discover a part that needs to be ordered, I have to order it and then wait for it to be delivered, install it, discover I need some other adapter or something and order THAT. Of course, that gives me time to actually investigate and plan rather than just bodge something together. In the long run, this is a good thing.
So what will I be doing if I am roadblocked waiting for parts to appear, assuming that all jobs are stonewalled at the same time?
Well, I plan on bringing my captain’s license materials with me to study. I plan on working on my sailing software for the Raspberry Pi. I plan on working on my crocheting. I plan on reading. I plan on walking and bicycling. I plan on sleeping. And, assuming that the boat is in a state where it’s reasonable to take it out sailing, I’ll even do some sailing, though there are definitely some projects that I want to complete before taking her out too much – not because the previous owner is giving me an unsafe boat, but because I don’t want the insurance company mad at me.
I finally figured out that although there are rules and regulations for boating, we are likely far more governed by what the insurance companies require in order to provide insurance than the actual rules and regulations. It’s almost like they’re a shadow legislature. It’s not shady or a conspiracy. They want to protect their investment. I get that, but it’s still an interesting way to look at things.
Today I head up to the yacht brokers’ office to pick up the _actual_ paperwork. They already emailed to me PDFs of the paperwork so that I could start the licensing and insurance stuff, but today I get my hands on the actual sheets of paper. After that it’s down to the boat to meet the previous owner and start onloading and offloading of things as well as gain the beenfit of his experience and knowledge. That process will, hopefully, continue for the rest of this week culminating in a last trip on Friday where Anne will drop me off and I’ll take her from where her previous owner kept her to her new home.
It might well be a 2 day trip with a very short hop off the docks to an anchorage, then the longer trip the next day. This is due to, potentially, getting off the docks rather late in the afternoon and my not wanting to end up on a new boat to a new harbour with me fuzzy-brained from a full day, late at night. That’s a no-good combination, for sure.
Stay tuned for more on how the trip went!