Our decade long planning phase was cut short by a frenzied week-long boat buying experience. Ralph Naranjo, Chap’s sailing coach at the Naval Academy, called us up a few days before our Thanksgiving break to tell us that 3 of the Navy 44 fleet of sailboats were on a little known government auction website. Only those really in the know were to be watching the auction, as it had not been publicized heavily. The starting bid? $12,100. For a 44 foot long offshore racing boat, decked to the nines, looking like something out of a Ralph Lauren Catalogue, and originally purchased for $380,000! It was made clear to us that we would be disowned if we didn’t put into the bidding process.
After years of abuse from rounds of summer plebes learning to sail, Audacious, Alert, and Swift were looking a little less than their names but still in very good condition. What rounds out the story of this purchase is that Chap had sailed on these very boats as a midshipman, which not only solidified the relationship, but also allowed us to purchase it “sight-unseen.” (we had photos and a surveyor check them out, of course)
So this is how it went: Call from Naranjo, anxious hesitation from us (no money & no plans to buy for another year, plus she was too big!). We determined Audacious, the first auction to close by 15 minutes of the others, was the best of the three…it had teak flooring interior and was stick built, vs. drop in fiberglass interior, plus it had all of its parts (more on that later). It was the boat from which the entire fleet was modeled. We watched the bidding slowly move up. We put in our bids, played psychological warfare with the other participants in online bidding. It came down to the wire and shot up about $10,000 in the last 20 minutes. With 2 other boats trailing in price of about $15,000, the other bidders got off of our tail and we landed her for $41,600…The better boat for about $5,000 LESS than the other 2!
Then we had to deal with the government. Totally inflexible, but also inefficient…and on holiday to boot! We had 48 hours to secure financing and submit payment. Banks don’t really like to do this. To top it all off, Chap was in the process of securing a new job and we were about to move to a new city.
With financing secured, we finished our holiday, and prepared to leisurely move our new family member to a new home. That is, until, our surveyor reported theft to the tune of about $7,000. We’re not sure exactly what happened…all we know is that one of the other boats was missing a marine head and a winch in the auction photos, which, coincidentally, were now missing from our boat. The Naval police were called in, a private detective was interviewed, and then the Navy decided to sweep it under the rug, placate us, and replace the parts, citing common part-sharing, or mis-labeling of the auction photos…which was just fine with us!
Our surveyor was a dream come true and facilitated everything we needed for a total cost of $1,100. We tried to force more money on him, but he wouldn’t take it. John Howell came on recommendation in Annapolis, and was worth his weight in Gold as he watched over our boat and used his connections at the Navy boat yard to get the missing parts replaced, get us the sails we needed, and send her on her way to Bert Jabin’s Boat yard.
And there she sat for 4 ½ months. Alone. In the cold. And, facing the worst winter weather the East coast has seen in years. No protection, no visitors.
