We wanted to share an insight into our journey of how we ended up buying a boat. Picture it, Sicily 1948 … oh wait.
This post wouldn’t be accurate in any way if we didn’t start by sharing that Chris has wanted a boat for more than 20-years. James has always been the reluctant one, and to his credit in 2012/2013 when we could have bought a boat, we built a pool instead. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a compromise. Small steps, right?
On Labor Day Weekend in 2019, Chris had acquired tickets to watch our favorite band – Band of Heathens – on a houseboat on Lake Austin for three hours. Yes, it was a three hour tour… The trip was fun, the band was awesome, and it was the beginning of the journey.
The next day, as we were heading homeward bound, James mentioned to Chris about the idea of checking out some boats on Lake Travis on the way home. Chris could barely contain his excitement, but casually replied “sure.” After looking at some marinas, we continued our journey home, where the discussion focused on what if we owned a boat and perhaps kept it in Austin to facilitate more frequent trips to central Texas.
The first step – it seems – is figuring out what kind of boat would be ideal for us. Chris had his ideas, and James really didn’t know what he wanted. Key amongst our thoughts was how the dogs would manage on whichever boat we decided on. Chris liked the open deck boat style, whereas James liked the “hotel room” style. There was clearly some work to do to narrow things down.
After a lot of discussions, and looking at a lot of boats online, we decided that our focus was going to narrow to the “motor yacht” style. It was at this time that our friend and professional marine surveyor, Casey, mentioned a boat that was available on Lake Texoma that he knew was in good condition. She was a 2005 Sea Ray 390 Motor Yacht. We walked through her, and fell in love (well that first love, that really isn’t love, but infatuation). We made an offer, but another buyer beat us to the punch, and we didn’t get that boat. Enter disappointment.
Next, we checked out a 2003 version of the same boat, and while it was not as nice as the first boat, we felt that it met the needs we had for the most part. So another offer was made and, this time, accepted. We scheduled the haul-out and sea trial with Casey as the surveyor. Casey shared his thoughts, and it didn’t sound good. He found some issues, which he wanted to explore more, and wanted to let us know that it was going to take a few more days. Those days were the longest, as we were super excited about the idea of becoming boat owners.
Then came the call from Casey and the words “I’m not going to tell you not to buy this boat, but if it were me, I wouldn’t.” Enter disappointment, once again.
So after two disappointments, and not finding more of the Sea Ray Motor Yachts available locally, we started to rethink our parameters for a boat. Over the course of the next couple of months, we looked at Carver Motor Yachts, Cruiser Yachts Express Yachts, and other Sea Ray styles. We travelled to Houston to check out some of these, and decided that salt-water boats were not going to work for us due to corrosion that is common in salt environments, and the financial “hit” we would take in bringing a salt water boat with more corrosion than other boats to a fresh-water lake. So this reduced our inventory to consider. We decided to wait and see and as the holiday season was nearing, we decided to focus on that, and pick up the boat search in the new year.
You know that saying about boyfriends (or girlfriends)? Stop looking and you’ll fall over your next love? No? Hmm… well that is exactly what happened to us.
On the Friday after New Years Day 2020, we got a call from the broker we had worked with on the other boats we made offers on. He had just taken a Sundancer (open deck) type boat in trade, which had some of the main features of the motor yacht style that James was most interested in. Chris initially declined to go look at it, given it wasn’t the style James thought he wanted. James decided we should look at it primarily to rule it out as an option. Given that the next day was a sunny one, we decided to drive up to the lake and have a look.
*THUD* She made quite an impression on us immediately. Firstly, she has a blue hull, which is somewhat rare. She has been maintained very well and even though she had not yet been cleaned professionally to show for sale, she just gleamed in the sunlight. It turned out to have a relatively spacious layout for the style of boat she is and James deemed her to have enough “below” space to be ours. We discussed the pros and cons and researched pricing online (James using his mobile phone on the car ride home) and made an offer about the time we got home.
After a bit of back and forth, we came to terms. Shortly thereafter, she passed Casey’s survey with the stipulation of a few repairs. The broker was pretty fair with us and completed the material repairs on time, including a “bottom job” so she spent a little time in dry dock. We formally took possession on Saturday Feb 22, 2020.