We have found a candidate boat!

Woohoo! Through the joys of the internet we have a found a candidate boat.

The only trouble is we are about 6 years away from fulltime cruising – do we wait, or do we jump?

We are mid-way through a jump.

We had found a number of smaller power cats that fit the bill enough that we thought we would visit Europe and check them out in person:

• the Fountaine Pajot Greenland 34 were the first of the breed of modern power catamarans (as well as the Maryland 37). Since they are older, they are in our price range if we don’t wait for retirement. They also are narrow and low enough to fit through the canals. They do have 1000nm range on internal tanks, but would probably struggle to take on a load for the Pacific (the Atlantic via Cape Verde could be possible).
• the Fountaine Pajot Highland 35 were the upgraded model of the 34. They are coming out of charter so there are more around. Again, width is ok, height is getting more but usable, range is still 1000nm, and the boat is almost the same as the flybridge model 34 (there is a half-flybridge model).

Then we saw a wee big thing that seemed interesting: a “Ligure 50”.

Whatever that is!?

So we investigated and asked the broker, and found out that:

• she has the range to do what we want around the world
• she has the width to do what we want in the canals
• she has the size to liveaboard
• she is a strong, tough and rough, not fragile, beautifully molded
• she has two full engine rooms with full head height, and older engines just ready to electrify when they stop along with load carrying to take the batteries

The only question was about air height (slightly too big) and whether that can be fixed (chainsaw!).

So we put in an offer, subject to survey and trial…and it was accepted!

Now we’re off to visit and trial and…see what happens.

Fair winds and waves – the story continues…