A quick update: we reached agreement on the price and other conditions with the seller of 'Islandia'. On Monday, a professional surveyor will take the boat through its paces during a 'sea trial' and the boat will be hauled out of the water to get a good look at the hull. Another surveyor will examine the engines. If those surveys come back positive, and we obtain the necessary permits, we will be all set. We expect to have all wrapped up by or shortly after Christmas.
So our visit this week has been highly productive: we found a very nice boat, also found LA and the marina to be better than we had hoped for, and 'en passant' also saw our son Victor, who started his university studies at University of California at Irvine last September, a couple of times during our week's stay.
Now we are all packed, ready for the flight back to France in a couple of hours. I will be returning on Sunday for a week in LA at work and to take care of a few things related to the boat purchase and permit applications.
Result!
Thursday, November 23, 2017
Sunday, November 19, 2017
Fingers crossed ... we made an offer on a boat
Last Thursday evening we arrived in Los Angeles, after a long-ish journey that had us fly from Paris CDG, via Montreal, to LAX. We picked up our rental car and settled into our AirBnB apartment in Venice Beach for the week:
The next day we met our broker, Steve Curran of Marina del Rey Yacht Sales, at his office in Marina del Rey:
Steve showed us the three boats we had selected to see, as well as another one that he had identified might fit our profile.
The first boat needed a lot of freshening up, literally as well as figuratively. It smelled a bit musty and was just tired. We then saw the second boat (our 'favorite' from an earlier post), a 1995 47 foot Lien Hwa aft cabin motor yacht built in Taiwan, named 'Islandia':
The third boat was much smaller and also a bit tired. The fourth was a true classic yacht, that had been owned by a prominent member of the Marina del Rey Yacht Club and was docked there, waiting for its new owners:
Long story short, after this tour of the first four candidates we decided to suspend the next day's viewings, in San Pedro, Long Beach and San Diego and put in a written bid on 'Islandia'.
We are keeping to Europe time, turning in around 4 (Anneke) and 6 (Cees) PM, and wake up around 3 AM. We're not the only ones awake at this time though; our friendly and laid-back neighbours are still out, chatting, playing music, sometimes making a small wood fire. It's definitely a beach community.
One great discovery we made early yesterday, as the sun was coming up, is that beautiful nature is only 20 minutes away from the marina. At the crack of dawn yesterday, we drove to Topanga State Park:
The park is just west of Santa Monica / Marina del Rey and gives us a very similar nature sensation we get at our home in Guyonvelle. So when we want to smell the trees we just circle up there and go for a hike. No doubt there is lots more of beautiful nature around.
We topped of the early morning with a coffee and omelet at this place, just off the Venice Beach boardwalk. A meeting place for surfers young and old, joggers but most of all dogs:
So now we are waiting to hear back on our offer on 'Islandia'. If accepted, next steps involve selecting two marine surveyors (one for the Ford diesel engines, one for all the other facets) and getting her out on the ocean for what is called a 'sea trial'. Steve is confident we can work this out, and really likes this boat. We agree and hope this will become our new home for the next thirty or so years ...
The next day we met our broker, Steve Curran of Marina del Rey Yacht Sales, at his office in Marina del Rey:
Steve showed us the three boats we had selected to see, as well as another one that he had identified might fit our profile.
The first boat needed a lot of freshening up, literally as well as figuratively. It smelled a bit musty and was just tired. We then saw the second boat (our 'favorite' from an earlier post), a 1995 47 foot Lien Hwa aft cabin motor yacht built in Taiwan, named 'Islandia':
The third boat was much smaller and also a bit tired. The fourth was a true classic yacht, that had been owned by a prominent member of the Marina del Rey Yacht Club and was docked there, waiting for its new owners:
Long story short, after this tour of the first four candidates we decided to suspend the next day's viewings, in San Pedro, Long Beach and San Diego and put in a written bid on 'Islandia'.
We are keeping to Europe time, turning in around 4 (Anneke) and 6 (Cees) PM, and wake up around 3 AM. We're not the only ones awake at this time though; our friendly and laid-back neighbours are still out, chatting, playing music, sometimes making a small wood fire. It's definitely a beach community.
One great discovery we made early yesterday, as the sun was coming up, is that beautiful nature is only 20 minutes away from the marina. At the crack of dawn yesterday, we drove to Topanga State Park:
The park is just west of Santa Monica / Marina del Rey and gives us a very similar nature sensation we get at our home in Guyonvelle. So when we want to smell the trees we just circle up there and go for a hike. No doubt there is lots more of beautiful nature around.
We topped of the early morning with a coffee and omelet at this place, just off the Venice Beach boardwalk. A meeting place for surfers young and old, joggers but most of all dogs:
So now we are waiting to hear back on our offer on 'Islandia'. If accepted, next steps involve selecting two marine surveyors (one for the Ford diesel engines, one for all the other facets) and getting her out on the ocean for what is called a 'sea trial'. Steve is confident we can work this out, and really likes this boat. We agree and hope this will become our new home for the next thirty or so years ...
Saturday, November 11, 2017
Going to look at boats next week!
We have narrowed our search for a boat to live aboard in Marina del Rey to a shortlist of 10, all between 43 to 50 feet long (13 to 15 meters), most of them built in the eighties. Next Thursday we are flying to LA from Paris and our broker has arranged viewings on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Fortunately, all but one of the candidates are in or close to Los Angeles: San Pedro, Long Beach, San Diego. The furthest away is one close to San Francisco but we think we will drop it from the list.
Our current favorite is this one:
Essentially three living rooms (one inside, and two outside, which in the California and Florida climates are actually usuable) and two bedrooms. This boat is from 1995 and already berths in MDR. Yes, the boating world has a language of its own, as most people probably already know. Living room is actually called ' saloon' , bedrooms are 'cabins', the kitchen is called ' galley' and a bathroom is referred to as ' head'. Balconies becomes ' cockpits'.
Buying a boat has to be done with great caution as there can be many costly demons lurking underneath shiny exteriors, so the financial stakes are material. Boats like these can cost as much as $1 million new and good, older ones are still not cheap. So usually prospective buyers opt to have a professional perform what is called a 'survey'. which we will likely also do.
It is usually possible to negotiate on price as it is difficult to estimate a fair value of most older boats. For us, quality and features, and ' how it feels' are as or more important than getting the best deal. We look at this as our home for the next 25 or so years, so spending $20 thousand more now to get what we want will be ok.
Wish us luck next week! I will update this blog more actively when we are in LA, going through our process. Anneke and I usually act quickly, so we expect that we will buy the right vessel next week, or shortly thereafter (allowing time for surveys to be done ....).
Ahoy!
Our current favorite is this one:
Essentially three living rooms (one inside, and two outside, which in the California and Florida climates are actually usuable) and two bedrooms. This boat is from 1995 and already berths in MDR. Yes, the boating world has a language of its own, as most people probably already know. Living room is actually called ' saloon' , bedrooms are 'cabins', the kitchen is called ' galley' and a bathroom is referred to as ' head'. Balconies becomes ' cockpits'.
Buying a boat has to be done with great caution as there can be many costly demons lurking underneath shiny exteriors, so the financial stakes are material. Boats like these can cost as much as $1 million new and good, older ones are still not cheap. So usually prospective buyers opt to have a professional perform what is called a 'survey'. which we will likely also do.
It is usually possible to negotiate on price as it is difficult to estimate a fair value of most older boats. For us, quality and features, and ' how it feels' are as or more important than getting the best deal. We look at this as our home for the next 25 or so years, so spending $20 thousand more now to get what we want will be ok.
Wish us luck next week! I will update this blog more actively when we are in LA, going through our process. Anneke and I usually act quickly, so we expect that we will buy the right vessel next week, or shortly thereafter (allowing time for surveys to be done ....).
Ahoy!
Wednesday, November 1, 2017
Finding a boat, and how about that slip?
When we took up the idea of living on a boat in Los Angeles, the first thing I did of course was to research on-line. I found some articles and discussions on web forums about living aboard in southern California. Generally, the opinion about Los Angeles was that it was doable, but not the easiest thing, to find a marina that would allow you to live aboard your boat, especially in Marina del Rey ('MDR'). Other marinas in the area, in Long Beach, San Pedro or Wilmington, would be easier.
Arial picture of part of MDR:
One of the fruits of my searching on-line was a boat broker, based in MDR, who specializes in liveaboards. I called them and talked through the possibilities. Then, on my first trip to Los Angeles in November of last year, I paid them a visit, and also checked out MDR and the other marinas in the area, closely. I concluded that indeed MDR would be our favorite, due to its location and general appearance. It's quite large, and actually consists of multiple individual marinas all located in the same area. Venice Beach is close by, and I bicycled all around the marina, Venice Beach and along the ocean to Santa Monica where my office is located:
Finding the boat: as it turns out, it seems that most boats offered for sale are listed on Yachtworld, which is an international on-line marketplace. Typically there are brokers representing the sellers, rather than people trying to sell their boats themselves, although one does find those, typically in the lower price segment, on places like Craigslist. We did most of our searching so far on Yachtworld, and we also decided to limit the investment to ' cheaper' boats - think still around $100 thousand. That seems to be the right amount for a good boat in the size we think we need (around 45-50 feet).
Here's one of our contenders:
So we are now waiting for the broker to make appointments with the boats we chose so far, adding what he thinks could also be good candidates, while our trip is coming closer: in just two weeks!
Arial picture of part of MDR:
One of the fruits of my searching on-line was a boat broker, based in MDR, who specializes in liveaboards. I called them and talked through the possibilities. Then, on my first trip to Los Angeles in November of last year, I paid them a visit, and also checked out MDR and the other marinas in the area, closely. I concluded that indeed MDR would be our favorite, due to its location and general appearance. It's quite large, and actually consists of multiple individual marinas all located in the same area. Venice Beach is close by, and I bicycled all around the marina, Venice Beach and along the ocean to Santa Monica where my office is located:
Finding the boat: as it turns out, it seems that most boats offered for sale are listed on Yachtworld, which is an international on-line marketplace. Typically there are brokers representing the sellers, rather than people trying to sell their boats themselves, although one does find those, typically in the lower price segment, on places like Craigslist. We did most of our searching so far on Yachtworld, and we also decided to limit the investment to ' cheaper' boats - think still around $100 thousand. That seems to be the right amount for a good boat in the size we think we need (around 45-50 feet).
Here's one of our contenders:
So we are now waiting for the broker to make appointments with the boats we chose so far, adding what he thinks could also be good candidates, while our trip is coming closer: in just two weeks!
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