At the beginning of March 2019 we finally found our catamaran!
A reason to celebrate… 🎉
…but also a lot of work, which came with the takeover of the own catamaran!
What has to be organized?
First, of course, the purchase contracts had to be signed.
The old owners, Frank and Janine, are from Amsterdam and our common language was therefore English.
The search for an English contract, which is also well structured, was not easy. We had to change the contract several times because important content was missing…
But finally both sides had a signed contract. 📝
Then I organized a survey.
Since a catamaran is not cheap and a boat can always break a lot, you should do this in any case before the payment!
Thanks to facebook, I got some surveyors recommended. Most of them from Germany, but we wanted to keep it English here as well and above all locally.
Finally, I found Geoff Skinner, a damn accurate surveyor from England, but mainly active in Portugal. Quickly we agreed with Geoff. I was also able to organize the appointment to crane the catamaran in parallel. Geoff was supposed to inspect the catamaran from below.
While the survey finally was going on…
…Tom was on side and I was able to take care of the new registration and insurance.
The insurance price ranges are huge and you have to read very carefully what the differences are.
As a selection I looked at Bavaria, Pantenius, YachtPool and Wehring & Wolfes.
We did not make the decision easy and now we just hope that it was the right one in case of damage.
Well, of course we hope that we will never need the insurance! 😁
At the same time I did research on how and where to register a boat…
…which documents are necessary.
Of course there are shipping registers in Germany, but the easiest way for us was via the boat department of the ADAC. Fast and for little money our catamaran was registered there. 👍
Meanwhile, the survey was completed and Geoff was able to give us a clear buy recommendation.
Tom’s feeling had not deceived him and the catamaran is in very good condition.
Of course, some things still need some care and we need to replace the rudder bearings (which was clear before), but otherwise there are not any big works to do!
The takeover of the own catamaran could go on…
Survey: check✔️
Rigg report:
Spontaneously, the rig was also controlled by a specialist.
For the non-sailors: The rig is the mast and the steel cables that are located at the front, back and sides (and fix the mast) and everything that goes with it…
Hairline cracks were discovered in one stage (steel rope 😉) and they were exchanged directly.
Otherwise everything was fine. 😅✔️
Get the catamaran from Portugal to Spain:
We knew that for the first visit we would have to drive to the catamaran by car.
Therefore, it should be brought to the Spanish coast.
We had already agreed on this with Frank and Janine (the previous owners) and they would bring it to Malaga or Almeria.
Now only the wind had to turn…
Registration: check ✔️
Insurance: check✔️
Number for the radio (Ship Station License) is still missing:
Since I thought I needed the registration number for the application, time was running out! But the employees at the Federal Network Agency were incredibly fast and after only three days I had the new MMSI (phone number) in our mailbox. ✔️
And the journey goes on!
Meanwhile, Frank and Janine had made it safely to Almerimar with our catamaran. ✔️
Tom had accompanied them through the narrow strait of Gibraltar. The goal was to get to know the boat better.
On the way Tom saw a few dolphins. We were pretty jealous!
I was told that dolphins bring good luck…
The next step had to be the reprogramming of the radio (VHF) and the AIS.
The MMSI is permanently programmed as an identification feature and can only be changed by the manufacturer or dealers.
When they arrived in Almerimar, Frank was so nice and brought both devices to the Raymarine specialist in Almerimar.
They should be ready till Easter holidays…
In the meantime, we have diligently organized and did lots of shopping and packing in Germany…
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To make sure that the article is not too long, I will write about the final preparations, the final takeover of the own catamaran and our first visit on board in another article.
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April 2019
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