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EmptyPontoon

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14 Dec 2017
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33
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Hampshire UK
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Yes, at last!! We are getting contracts drawn up on a nice little sportscruiser to take up some room on the pontoon at the bottom of the garden.

I had missed chance to look at it about a month ago when I was in Valencia and it went under offer in 3 days - before I got home! Sad story around that means that purchase did not complete.

Set eyes on it first time at 3pm. Had a really good poke around what was a well presented boat for its age. Made a sensible offer at 4:00 which was accepted, paid a deposit and grabbed life jackets from the boot of the car. The very accommodating broker set up a sea trial at 4:30 and we had agreed the purchase of a good little boat by 5:00. Two hours start to finish on the transaction. Will be transferring the rest of the funds to the broker client account tonight.

I know what you are thinking... I am not nuts enough to buy without a survey. Due to the sad backstory, one was done last week and the surveyor helped me with info whilst my offer was proposed to the seller. I have agreed buy the report from him as a thank you - note, it was not demanded before he would help and is a very reasonable cost in boating terms and a nice document to have on the history. What a nice guy.

One other thing, Mercury Vesselview is really useful on a sea trial. If I was selling a boat that would be 200 quid well spent - providing the boat is in tip top shape of course.

Can’t wait to get her home. There is a bit of fettling and snagging to be done according the survey, but the most critical is essentially the auto fire extinguisher having no date. Other stuff is largely nice to have which will be done over time.

Hopefully the seller is happy. My lovely lady and I are ecstatic after a long wait to do this. And finally, I hope that the previous buyer who could not complete gets well soon.
 
Good luck and enjoy. I have an offer accepted on a boat but the surveyor I want to use is unfortunately not available until next Friday.
 
derekbland said:
Good luck and enjoy. I have an offer accepted on a boat but the surveyor I want to use is unfortunately not available until next Friday.
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Seems an age when you can’t wait!

@Emptypontoon - congrats; but it doesn’t count without pix!
 
benjenbav said:
Seems an age when you can’t wait!

@Emptypontoon - congrats; but it doesn’t count without pix!
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No pics until deal is done. I think I may be jinxing it just by mentioning it, hopefully not. I will make a sacrifice to Neptune asking him for good luck in the purchase.
 
derekbland said:
No pics until deal is done. I think I may be jinxing it just by mentioning it, hopefully not. I will make a sacrifice to Neptune asking him for good luck in the purchase.
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@benjenbav, Doh! sorry, just realised that you weren't talking to me re pics. Getting used to all this modern terminology.
 
Thanks for the good wishes folks. Compared to many of your superb boats this will be small beer, but we are very happy to have completed on the purchase and are looking forward to some time on board. Believe it or not, with all the push to get things done yesterday I did not take one picture! I hope that will change once we get her home.

One thing I am very aware of before I start my little bit of crowing with pictures of the actual boat, is that there will be a disappointed person out there who is not very well and may be less than happy to see me in the ownership of a boat that he wanted to experience but clearly has been unable to do so. :( So I am a bit nervous about expressing too much glee associated to an actual pic so soon.

All I can say is that I am deeply sorry to hear about that situation and hope that things start to go the right way for him soon. In the meantime, I will try to suppress my public facing enthusiasm a little bit if possible.
 
EmptyPontoon said:
Thanks for the good wishes folks. Compared to many of your superb boats this will be small beer, but we are very happy to have completed on the purchase and are looking forward to some time on board. Believe it or not, with all the push to get things done yesterday I did not take one picture! I hope that will change once we get her home.

One thing I am very aware of before I start my little bit of crowing with pictures of the actual boat, is that there will be a disappointed person out there who is not very well and may be less than happy to see me in the ownership of a boat that he wanted to experience but clearly has been unable to do so. :( So I am a bit nervous about expressing too much glee associated to an actual pic so soon.

All I can say is that I am deeply sorry to hear about that situation and hope that things start to go the right way for him soon. In the meantime, I will try to suppress my public facing enthusiasm a little bit if possible.
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That’s very noble of you. However nothing alters the fact that you are now the owner. For the other person who had to drop out, there will always be another boat for him.

What is the boat that is now on your pontoon? Wishing you lots of fun days aboard.
 
longjohnsilver said:
That’s very noble of you. However nothing alters the fact that you are now the owner. For the other person who had to drop out, there will always be another boat for him.

What is the boat that is now on your pontoon? Wishing you lots of fun days aboard.
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Many thanks for the good wishes. Heh heh... The clue is in my user name ;)

I have had a couple of boats in the past, all motor, one river and a couple coastal on marina berths but at present, my pontoon is empty :). The full 11 metres also won’t be filled by this one, but at least the bank manager should be happy(er).

WRT praying to Neptune, I am hoping there is nothing left to go wrong on the transaction. The broker now has the full purchase amount sitting in their client account. But not finalising the chicken count just yet... contracts, contracts... :hopeless:
 
Off to get her this morning. Hardly slept last night, excited but apprehensive about remembering all the handling techniques I need after 10 years off boats. At least the weather forecast is good with the bonus that I should be blown onto my pontoon at home this afternoon to avoid embarrassment in front of the neighbours.
 
EmptyPontoon said:
Off to get her this morning. Hardly slept last night, excited but apprehensive about remembering all the handling techniques I need after 10 years off boats. At least the weather forecast is good with the bonus that I should be blown onto my pontoon at home this afternoon to avoid embarrassment in front of the neighbours.
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Congratulations!! know the feeling well and looking forward to lots of photos.

Practice makes perfect with berthing and can highly recommend some own boat training to brush up and build confidence.
 
Well, we got back without getting wet and she did not miss a beat. Perfect seas in the Solent today, but a few things to do before we set off home.

I picked up an electronic flare before leaving Port Solent today. Hadn’t time to install the dock fenders on the pontoon yesterday however. Left a bit late this morning, but didn’t worry as the weather was only going to improve.

Got to the broker, finished the last bits of paperwork and grabbed a trolley for all the bits and provisions from the car. Got to the boat, shore power was unplugged and some more things (tonneau, infills, flares etc) had appeared inside the boat. I guess the owner had one last little run out for an hour on the meter, and why not.

Sun shining, so (new) covers removed and carefully folded into the coffin (they say aft cabin but this is 25 feet, do you remember what that looks like) except for Bimini. The missus has dark skin you see, and she doesn’t like it getting any darker. This pasty Surrey-ite sees this as a potential minor bone of contention going forward.

Removed all sized docklines and replaced with spare loose lines, way too fat for the cleats. A bit of coaching for the missus on lines and mooring given that we have a lock to negotiate later. Hung fenders all round. Then the serious stuff begins. Quick checklist, all ok. Now let’s plot a route back in safe deep water. Oh this is not my familiar Garmin, but fortunately the owner had left the manual so all was relatively simple after breaking the man code of not reading instructions and blindly pressing everything.

I know we are at last ready to go but let’s radio the fuel dock as I don’t trust fuel gauges and this boat is still unknown and showing half. Hang on a sec, where’s the bloody radio! Check inventory list, sure enough no radio listed. Went and bought an ICOM handheld. All good now. Let’s get some juice! Was told I didn’t need to radio... well I will definitely need it later and I wouldn’t put to sea without one, so no sweat.

So, as mentioned, it has been a while since i had used a boat like this. We were being blown on the dock, but she came away with no issue. Turned the bow into wind and hit neutral to see how she would react. Quite calmly for her small stature vs uneven weight and windage. Kind of happy, so off to the fuel dock with mucho trepidation about splintering fibreglass sounds. Shouldn’t have worried, pointed her at about a 40 degree angle port side on, about 2 feet away from the dock coasting in neutral, loads of port steering followed by a touch of astern and we were in 2 inches off the pontoon. Got off and tied two ropes. This is waaay too easy... hmmm, wait for the lock back home.

So off we plod at 6 knots for what seems forever, Vesselview showing all good things, oops, stop staring at that, mind the ferry! We hit the Solent and frankly, there was hardly any difference in sea conditions to the river. Out of the 6 knots limit, I hit the handle to unload 300 of Detroit’s finest ponies, shortly followed by bow down trim and yessssss, this thing is flying across the water really nicely.

Thinking about the just shy of £200 that I had just converted into unleaded at a stupid marina exchange rate, I pulled back the hammer to about 3000 revs. Still 30mph+ on the Vesselview and plotter, so that’ll do. Nice and comfy for my complete rookie missus. Seemed the right time to ask “are you glad we bought it dear”. Affirmative! Yeeehahahahaha.

I pointed at a lot of pretty stuff ashore, explained some of the things in the water to her, and we had a lovely journey. Hit the SBC at Pompey, plodded back home towards Port Solent lock. Will the missus remember the way to tie a line from the bow to the dock? I didn’t want to give her a long reach on her first time, so angled the bow towards the dock, and once she had got a line on, planned a small shot of astern and lock would get me close to shore the other end. It all kinda worked, except she did not get a turn and eight so I could not go astern for fear of pulling her over the side. A lady from the boat ahead offered the line from the lock, but these stupid cleats on the boat are so small that the line was a pig for her to tie off. Anyway, we did that, and all was good after that. Just the home dock to negotiate in the goldfish bowl of experienced boaty neighbours homes to go.

Now you know I mentioned that I had not installed the dock fenders? Well, I would be blown on, and didn’t really fancy putting a large scratch down the starboard side from the corner of the wooden pontoon, so decided to come in astern 45 degrees, tie off stern and wait for the bow to drop in... just as the wind died. Hohum, can I be bothered to get back on and tickle her forward, or do I manhandle the bow from midships? You guessed it.. grunt groan.

Ok we are in. But this boat was on a much smaller pontoon until this afternoon and has custom lines. This pontoon is 3 metres longer, and has bigger spaces between its cleats. After a lot of head scratching, untying well embedded knots, trying to find lines to do bow, stern and springs to hold position on stupid little boat cleats, she is roughly parallel to the dock and hopefully will not drift away if the weather gods fart. Now, let’s do the canvas, plastic, zips and poppers jigsaw puzzle called “the covers” and have a coffee and a smoke.

Cut a grisly story short, an hour and a half after getting home, it is all done but boat not washed down. We have one car still at the other marina and need both tomorrow, so the boat is not getting washed till tomorrow. Two and a half hours tired driving later, we are back, hungry and sitting in front of a Tesco dirty micro meal. An extra hour in the gym tomorrow for the missus!

So what does all that tell you? Well hopefully that we had a fun day as we love the little boat. But more importantly, it should tell you that I have no pics yet as it is very dark here :)
 
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