Brisbane, Here We Come!
A casual conversation about the year ahead and planning life around upcoming business trips, prenatal appointments and the impending arrival of another baby, lead to a life-changing last minute decision....
But first, some background.
After many a night researching and agonising over the details of both new and secondhand boats, we had already concluded that a catamaran between 40-44ft would make the most sense for our family. It would allow ample room for us to grow, store what we need, keep us as safe as possible, afford us to be comfortable, and be capable of eventually crossing oceans.
From there we had narrowed our choice down even further. Realistically, there were two catamaran builders who fit the bill for us; Lagoon and Fountaine Pajot (FP). These brands seem to have the lion's share of the cruising/liveaboard market, and there are relatively plenty of model options available (both new and old). The more blogs, videos, forums and reviews that we came across allowed us to understand the advantages and disadvantages for each one. We were then able to price and project what these vessels would cost us in mid-2019, when our time to set sail arrives. (Of course, all good research is captured in a Google spreadsheet, the details of which go beyond this blog post!)
From here, we started trending towards a new boat for a number of key reasons:
It provides a predictable and fixed time to pick up the boat and move aboard, so that we can get sailing right away.
Purchasing and renovating a secondhand boat would seemingly require a fair amount of additional time and money to bring it up to liveaboard and safety standards.
New boats seem to be holding value well today. Given that this is an open ended journey, it would allow us to use the boat for many years to come, and still hold its resale value.
We are strong believers in buying the best we can afford without living beyond our means. This means making smart purchasing decisions in the beginning, investing in quality upfront, and therefore spending less in the long-run.
We want this lifestyle to be self-sustaining in its motivation for us to continue as long as we love it. The comfort and fun factor play a big part.
And so, given all of the above and the serious lack of catamaran choices to view in Singapore (new or old), we knew that we had a big decision to make. After viewing the FP Lucia 40 and others at the Singapore Yacht Show, our broker contact had asked us if it would make sense to come to the Sanctuary Cove Boat Show down on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. We immediately wrote it off. At 2.5 years out from departure it sounded far too early to invest in doing so.
However, given the lead time on ordering a brand-new catamaran, and the upcoming work and baby commitments, we soon realised that this might be our only opportunity to view two serious competitors for our future home: the Lagoon 42 and the FP Helia 44. Like many of our decisions, we focused immediately on making it happen in record time!
Within 6 hours of floating the idea, and just eight days out from the boat show, we had booked a return flight to Brisbane, secured an AirBnB, paid for airport shuttle transport, found entrance tickets to the show, made two viewing appointments for the boats, and started to plan the trip in intense detail.
A week later I was on a red-eye flight, eagerly anticipating the weekend. There was only scope for one of us to attend, so I was shouldering a larger burden than usual... I had to be the eyes and ears of the future for my partner and family. It was my responsibility to potentially make a big and final call on which boat we might end up on in a few years' time. No pressure!
But it's quite an amazing feeling taking meaningful action towards your goals, and setting the wheels in motion for big and life-changing events. This moment was clearly going to be a key milestone for us. Stay tuned...
-Ben