Meet the New Neverland!

Well, after having high hopes and making an offer several weeks ago on a Crealock 34 that looked just like Neverland, the whole thing fell through, due mostly to problems that turned up at the survey. Long story short, we withdrew our offer and began looking again.

And we have good news!

We recently found another Crealock 34 in Rockport, Maine, made an offer, visited this past week, had her surveyed, and we are sure that she's the boat for us!  If you want a sneak preview, the boat "Lucy" can be found at http://www.yachtworld.com/boats/1998/Pacific-Seacraft-Crealock-34-2675380/Rockport/ME/United-States#.VxwElasz6_V.

Lucy is a 1998 Crealock 34; Neverland was built in 1992, so this boat is quite a bit newer.  She has been kept in the off season in a barn. Yeah, it's Maine so that's 9 months of the year indoors - a very good thing for us. She has under 1,300 miles on the engine. Her owner relied entirely on an excellent boatyard - Rockport Marine - for all her care, storage and maintenance. We have been provided with all the maintenance records, and they're impressive.  

If you want a treat, check out "Rockport Marine" and watch the videos they have made of building some huge, gorgeous wooden boats. Of course, those classic wooden boats are 'waayyyyyy out of our league, but what an accomplished team of craftsmen.  To walk through the boatyard and watch these guys working is an experience. I feel pretty out of place there as the owner of a fiberglass boat (and sort of cringe at the thought of showing up with our inflatable dinghy and outboard engine - not quite the "rowing dinghy standard" for New England), but wooden boats are becoming rarer and fiberglass more common, even in boatyards like Rockport Marine.

While the carpenters at Rockport Marine are busy morning, noon and night, luckily we have no need of carpentry on Lucy. Their electricians and other guys have time to handle the relatively small number of changes to be made to turn Lucy into Neverland, which will be her name.  Mainly, we'll have the bottom soda blasted and repainted, and an electric windlass and a deck wash will be installed. A nearby canvas company will replace the old dodger and fabricate a new bimini with velcro'ed-in flexible solar panels we had already bought but never used for Neverland. And we'll do a few more relatively minor things to make her safe, easy to manage and comfortable for living aboard.

The owner is a gentleman several years older than us who apparently is finished with sailing and was ready to accept an offer well below the asking price. Clearly, he was terrifically well-organized and kept and made available excellent documentation for all systems on board, spares, etc, which we really appreciate. In addition, he has left many things on the boat that are not even in the listing, and had had the boatyard clean her up nicely to put on the market. It appears that he used Lucy quite lightly, especially in recent years. He did two Marion, MA to Bermuda races, and she is well equipped with safety gear. As you will see from the photos, we will have to learn to varnish (!!!).

As planned, we will probably be ready to go sailing by mid-June. We'll sail in Maine for the summer, weather permitting, and then head back down the coast to arrive in Annapolis by September. We plan to head south again for Florida and the Bahamas sometime a bit later in the fall.

While we will always deeply regret what happened to Neverland and be grateful for all that she brought to our lives for so many years, we're looking forward to this new adventure and are excited to be able to get back out on the water.

Once we are ready to go, I'll be back in touch. I promise photos next time!