May 2022: Getting Started . . . How Did We Get Here

Some say that getting started is the hardest part . . . maybe. For me, the hardest part is sticking with it to the end, especially when I am not sure what the end really looks like. That is probably a discussion for some other time. Getting started with the boat and this leg of our sailing journey is underway – painfully slow (much like sailing sometimes) especially when the most recent pace before leaving work had been Mach 2 with hair on fire! (For the sailing people that is 667 knots – WHOA! For non-sailors that is 768 mph!)

Missed Opportunity: SV Ketoro

Tom left work in July 2021, my official last day was December 31, 2021. But our plans changed before I left work. A little history: We were planning to purchase a 2009 Admiral 40 from a couple in South Africa when negotiations fell apart in December. They were great people and we were so looking forward to beginning our journey where theirs left off, but we were unable to complete the sale as quickly as they desired. (For those that care about details read on – otherwise skip to the next paragraph): once a boat sale is completed in South Africa the boat must leave the country within 90 days or pay the VAT tax – 15% of the sale price – almost $50,000 for this purchase. Then tax would be required again in the US – OUCH!) Multiple challenges or compromises would have been required to accommodate the sale and leave the country within 90 days. Since I was still working, the only option would be for Tom to make the journey on his own, complete the sea trial (sailing around the Cape of Good Hope) and up to Cape Town, complete the inspection, learn to sail and complete services that needed to be done – including hauling the catamaran out of the water and having the bottom painted, etc. Learning to sail a cat would require a few lessons in SA, since our only experience has been on a monohull. We expected that I could get there by the end of January, if my passport came back in time, since it would need to be renewed before I would be allowed in the country, because it would expire within 6 months of arriving in South Africa and we would start the LONG journey back to the US. It would mean there is little time for us to explore and enjoy South Africa before catching the winds to head back to the US. We tried to explain to our sellers to no avail. They promptly sold to someone else. C’est la vie!

Meet Celtic Yachts: Tim Duncan

We continued to scour the world looking for a catamaran that met our needs. The market is tight unless we wanted to practically re-build an old boat. That is when we met Tim Duncan, the owner of Celtic Yachts, and builder of the Admiral 40 catamaran (the same type of catamaran we were hoping to purchase from the couple of South Africa).

Admiral 40

Click this link to hear more from Tim about his history taking over the building of this catamaran and his visions for the future: https://youtu.be/6Ecn190pLQ8