I bought a sailboat
Yes, I did buy a sailboat! It's been my dream since I was a little kid reading Daniel Defoe, Jules Verne and Jack London's novels during summer vacation for the foreign literature class for the coming school year. Here's a story how my dream have finally became a reality ⛵
I grew up on mainland Ukraine hundreds kilometers away from the nearest shore and had absolutely no contact with any kind of boat. My father and I might have rented a rowing boat a couple of times, but that's about it. My father though grew up on Desna and Prypyat that are big rivers in northern Ukraine and even had a motor boat back in the days. He told me stories about their camping trips with friends and all the fishing they were doing. Classic fishing stories, when you wish you had longer hands to show the fish size, you know:). Unfortunately he had to leave all that behind because of the Chernobyl nuclear powerplant tragedy. But that is a different story...
It wasn't until I moved to Helsinki that I had a chance to see a sailboat in real life. Having a sailboat seemed to be one of those dreams that seem (for various reasons e.g. lack of information) so unattainable that you kind of keep dreaming about it and deep inside you are cool with the idea that you might not get it. Anyway, after I moved to Helsinki I loved spending a lot of time on the shore and as you might expect there were boats :) And I looked at them and thought to myself "wooow, that is so cool!". Until then it was not all that obvious to me that there can be sailboats of various shapes/types/sizes etc.
Once I came across a great book called "The voyage of the Heretique" by Alain Bombard. This was when I really started thinking about getting a sailboat. Naturally I had this question in my head: "where does one even buy a sailboat?". If you want to know the feeling I had when I asked this question think of buying a turbine for a hydro powerplant: where do you get it? You don't know because the whole field (most probably) is new to you. I was asking around and little by little I started hearing about those people who have a friend whose friend's father had a sailboat when he was 29 or something like that. Eventually both my questions and the answers I was getting became more concrete: I was wondering if people were buying new sailboats or was there a chance to buy a used one too? (I swear I am laughing now remembering those questions I had 😆 ) In my defense, I also had more reasonable questions: how much does it cost to buy and maintain a sailboat?; where do people keep them during winters?; where do I get a boat place for the summertime?
It was one of my co-workers who told me about the web-site where locals buy/sell their boats. With no hesitation I punched in the address, put filters and searched for a 45 feet boat 😂 I was really surprised to find out how much did it really cost! I don't remember the exact number but it was way less than what I expected: I thought it would be tenths of thousands of euro. Don't get me wrong, it was still expensive but at least it seemed doable with some saving.
By this point I had been on a sailboat once (!!!!). It was a boat owned by a Finnish guy living in Kyiv. We rented it for a small corporate get-together.
I was really inclined towards buying an Albin Vega, so I started preparations by applying for a boat place from the city of Helsinki. I heard that waiting can take years, so I figured that I should apply right away because finding a boat is relatively easier than getting a place for it. It took me only 1,5 years of waiting before I got a boat place.
Just as I got the good news about boat place COVID-19 happened and I lost my job... I had to decide whether I was taking the place or letting it go and staying in line for who knows how many more years. I decided to take it! Boom! 💥 However buying a sailboat right after loosing a job and with a baby coming did not seem like the wisest idea so I decided to pay the rent and keep my slip empty for one summer. Every now and then I would go to marina to take a look at the water space that I was renting. Very beautiful!
After fixing my job situation and becoming a father I would start thinking about that piece of sea that I was renting and what should I do with it.. I did not have an answer to that question until one day when using my computer I decided to....update the hardware😆😆 I started checking how much different components cost and their compatibility etc etc. When I realized that the final amount would be somewhere close to 2000 euro (which is a lot) just out of curiosity I checked what kind of sailboat this much of money could buy. I did not hate what I saw and one boat really caught my attention.
My logic back then was pretty straightforward: why wait for buying Albin Vega (which can be a very demanding boat for a complete beginner) and possibly get disappointed in sailing and get rid of it (maybe even at a loss) if I can do exactly same thing with a smaller and cheaper boat? I found a good looking Helmsman My in a decent condition. Before contacting a seller I read every little piece of information I could find about this boat and watched all the videos with it (yeah, all four of them). I really liked the boat and went to check it out.
When I came to check the boat a guy selling it was very nice to give me a ride to the boat storage place. While driving he said that there was another potential buyer and the boat will be sold to whoever offers the highest price. I said that I totally understood him as a seller but told him that I was not taking part in any auction. If the other guy gets it--good for him. I decided to stay cool although I was bubbling inside and just wondered what happened to the good old "first come first served"? Anyway, while waiting for another buyer I checked everything I needed on the boat, opened up sails etc. I still wanted to buy the boat real bad, but decided to stay put and see what the other buyer had to offer.
Two young guys came, had a quick look at the boat and said that they needed some time to think about it. Then seller tried to put some pressure on them and said that he had me there who was willing to buy the boat right away. I said that in reality I was in no rush to get the boat and gentlemen could take all the time they needed to think about the purchase. The guys said that they would be in touch within a couple of hours and left. I helped the seller to pack all the boat stuff and we left back to the train station from where I would go back to sunny Helsinki.
On our way to the station the seller offered me to buy a boat for a higher price so that he would say other guys that I made a better offer. I offered him to pay exactly as much as he was asking in the advertisement although I had plans to negotiate a lower price. That settled it for him and we had a deal. Long story short, next morning I woke up with a thought
"shit..I bought a sailboat!"
Unfortunately for me the boat was located almost 100 km inland and needed to be transported to the shore... Long story short it costed me an arm and a leg but it had to be done, so I just swallowed it. My very good friend came with me all the way to Lahti to help me with loading the boat on a truck and putting it in a slip in home marina. Neither of us have done it before, but we managed.
Before the move I bought four ropes with carabiners to be ready to moor the boat at the marina, so when heard my friend who was attaching stern
"man... the rope is too short!"
my heart sank😂😂. Luckily after some re-arranging the problem was solved. But just imagine yourself thinking that you are prepared and then ending up in a situation when you have a sailboat that you need to moor with the ropes that are too short. (Give me another year and I will start saying "lines" instead of "ropes")
Now I am a happy owner of a cute little sailboat. It needs some love and attention before the summer 2023 and to-do list keeps growing:
- fix a jib
- change standing rigging: shrouds, stays
- renew running rigging
- repaint the bottom
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