Sailing Songa

This is the first in a series of posts looking at the process of buying a yacht for cruising. Songa is my fourth sailing yacht, and in this post I share the things we considered that led us to choosing Songa as our next boat.

Our yacht at the time, which we had from new since 2014, and had been living aboard since 2016, was an 11.4 m sailing monohull. It was comfortable for cruising, for the two of us, but its small spaces could be squeezy when we had guests on board. Over time we started meeting other cruisers who were on catamarans and realised that they had more space, and so eventually we decided that we wanted to upgrade from our monohull to a catamaran. This surprised Sonja as I had been quite adamant for such a long time that I would only ever have a monohull.

Step 1: Understand Our Requirements

The first step in our search was to understand our requirements that any new boat would need to meet and the priority of each requirement. We didn’t do this as a formal written list, rather we had a series of discussions on what we wanted and how important each requirement was to us. Eventually we had a common understanding that we agreed on. Of course, we changed our minds and evolved our requirements as we went along. In terms of priority, we thought about each requirement as a “must have” or a “should have”, nothing more complicated than that.

You could use a more formal approach of writing requirements down, or having more levels of priority, or creating a checklist of evaluation criteria to check each candidate boat against. I think it’s important to do whatever works best for you. I also think that the process shouldn’t be a chore and that it’s a journey that you should enjoy.

Our main decision to upgrade was for a very clear reason – we wanted more space and we wanted more comfort when moored. Well, any catamaran or even a larger monohull would fit that requirement. The design spec for Yamoya (the previous yacht) had been based on past experiences, and some of those elements we wanted to carry through to our new yacht. Yamoya had been very well equipped and had a nice layout, and was very stable. However, there were aspects of her layout that we wanted to change, as well as things we wanted to add. I won’t provide a definitive list here, but I will share our main objectives.

• A living area where we would feel connected with the outside. A modern catamaran fits this perfectly with the salon and galley on the bridge deck and the sleeping cabins and heads in the hulls. (On Yamoya our main living area was the main cabin, down inside the hull)
• A cockpit as another living area that we could lounge in, have meals in, and be protected from the elements.
• A helm area that was protected from the elements, was comfortable for watch keeping, provided a large amount of control without needing to go out on deck, and was connected to the cockpit.
• Space for lounging on deck. (Yamoya’s deck space was mostly occupied by equipment)
• A dedicated cabin and bathroom for guests. (Yamoya had 1 bathroom for the boat and a 2nd sleeping cabin that was also the store room)
• Easily handled by 2 people all of the time, and handled by1 person when underway.
• All the same comforts as Yamoya. Additionally: clothes washer, air conditioning.
• Able to be lived on full time as our primary home; able to be cruised; and able to cross oceans.
• A production yacht that would have reasonable and easy resale in the future. It had to be a known and respected brand.

Step 2: Budget

At the same time as understanding our requirements we were also discussing budget. Our boat is our home, so we approached the budget in much the same way by determining how much we could spend on acquiring a boat and how much we would need to operate that boat.

We were already cruising, so the operational cost of cruising and how we would fund that wouldn’t really change. Some additional cost for a larger vessel would need to be allowed, but we felt this would be easily dealt within our normal operational budget. Our insurance cost would probably double, but we felt we could absorb this cost. So we ignored running costs and purely focused on acquisition: purchase and commissioning.

We also made a conscious decision to not make an allowance for selling our current boat. We did not want the availability of purchase funds to be dependant on selling the current boat. This money would feed into the back end of the acquisition or into the running of the vessel.

Step 3: Candidate List

Armed with an understanding of what we were looking for, we started the search for boats that fitted our requirements and budget. This was done as a desk search using Google and YouTube. In the first pass we looked at new yachts and ones that were 0-5 years old. We definitely didn’t want a boat that was 10 yrs old (or more) as there would be a refurbishment phase to allow for. We spent 10 yrs building Yamoya and didn’t want to spend time doing that type of activity again. We started looking at everything and slowly whittled away at the list of possible candidates. We considered:

• New purchase cost, along with options.
• For a new boat: pre-delivery and post-delivery support.
• Used cost and availability, along with any difference between the new and used models.
• Brand reputation.
• Reviews and feedback on user forums.

What we learnt along the way was:

• Most new boats were quoted as just the basic boat; you then had to price in the options you wanted. Only a couple of the builders quoted a new price that was actually the fully optioned boat ready for long term and long distance cruising.
• The used boats (0-3 yrs old) at this time were roughly the same price as a new boat. The older boats were also definitely over priced as well. These used boats (any age) sold within weeks of being put on the market.
• As with most things in life, the boats we really liked were well and truly out of our budget.
• For new boats there was a wait, anywhere from 2-6 years.
• Newer boats (<5 yrs old) tended to have layouts that made better use of the space.

At the end of the desk based evaluation we were left with the standard production catamarans at around 12 metres. In car terms these are like Fords and Toyotas. We had decided to buy a new yacht because this gave us the maximum time to have the yacht before requiring major refurbishment. Our plan is to have this yacht for up to 10 years. It also meant we could specify what we wanted, rather than buying someone else’s specification and adding to it.

The candidates were: Fountaine Pajot, Leopard, Lagoon and Bali. Seawind was on the edge because it had a long wait time of 5-6 years. Now was the time to start getting on boats, talking to owners, talking to dealers, and generally getting into the detail about each boat.

We didn’t particularly like the layout of the Seawind, and with its long wait time it was quickly struck off. We also didn’t like the layout or the interior finish of the Bali, so it was quickly struck off as well. That left 3 manufacturers which also happened to be the 3 most popular brands of production catamarans.

Step 4: Choosing One

From technical and budget perspectives, I don’t think there is much difference between these 3 brands. They’re all competing in the same market segment and so they’re offering is very similar. There were aspects of all 3 that we liked and that we didn’t, but all 3 met our requirements. In the end, it came down to our personal preferences. The two things that stand out for us on the Fountaine Pajot are:

• The general layout felt easier to live with, day in and day out over the long term.
• The helm was raised and could be accessed directly from the cockpit. It was enclosed and provided a feeling of safety.

We organised a test sail with the dealer and assessed the differences between the models that we were considering: 40 ft, 42 ft and 45 ft. We chose the 42 ft and before making a final choice, we made sure that we got on to this model for a really good look.

Step 5: Signing the Contract

Take the time to understand the contract and know what it is that you’re agreeing to, as you should with any contract. Make sure you agree with the cancellation clauses. Our contract had a wait of just over 2 years – unforeseen circumstances may happen, necessitating the cancellation of the contract.

Also take time to understand the financials. Our contract was in EUR (converted to AUD for convenience), and on signing only the base price of the boat (in EUR) was fixed. Factory and dealer options could change price, and of course the currency conversion rate is always changing. We had the option of paying extra to lock in the factory options pricing, which we did. We’re happy we did this as prices increased significantly since then. There are also various financial options to deal with future currency exchange rate fluctuations.

The decision and the commitment is now made. In a future post I’ll explain the process from signing the contract to taking possession of our new yacht.