Life On Sail

 We started comparing insurance options way too late. By the time we signed for the boat and had it in dry dock, we didn’t have any insurance. We began receiving most of the quotations, but not all.  April Insurance We narrowed our list down to two insurance options and finally picked April, which specializes in nautical insurance. We received their quotation and thought it was reasonable. (We also checked them out using AI and forums.) We called them to proceed with the multi-risk quotation, but it didn’t work out as planned. They wouldn’t insure the boat without a survey! They could only offer us minimum civil liability insurance, which cost around 300 euros . We took it since we were still in dry dock and had just purchased the boat. They gave us the name of a surveyor located near our dry dock. We called him and found out that an insurance survey would cost 1,000 euros —almost the price of April’s full-year multi-risk quotation (around 1,200 euros). It would be an addition...

Boat owners We signed for the boat today, and the previous owner has received the money transferred from HK. We are now officially boat owners! We bought the boat for 50,000 euros, though it’s worth 70,000 euros or more based on market value. It was sold at a lower price because a LOT of things need fixing. So, we’re planning a 20,000-euro refit to bring it back to market value —or higher. There are only about 200 of this model ever produced, and some are now worth 100,000 euros. We visited many boats in France and Croatia before deciding on this one because it fits our needs. It’s comfortable for living aboard! However, there are issues—it wouldn’t be fun without them:   Insurance We don’t have proper insurance yet. I asked Nico to take care of it weeks, or even months, ago… but on the day of signing, we still didn’t have one. So, we grabbed one hastily without thinking it through or comparing options carefully. Also, when you buy an older boat (over 20 years old), you need a boa...