She sold and our sailing project has come to an end! Our goals evolved as we started to convert our dream into a reality. Grand plans of going across the pacific changed to Tasmania and ended up being just being Sydney. Selling a boat isn’t as easy as selling a car. We needed to have an attractive boat, at the right price for the current market. Luckily investing in a Beneteau was a great choice, their reputation and quality of build helps any second hand sale.

Plan A – Private sale

There are a number of steps involved in selling a boat, meaning you need time… something which we didn’t have much of. To make matters more difficult we didn’t wanted to use a broker unless we needed to.

Steps

1. Find a buyer.
2. Organise a viewing. This proved to be a frustrating experience as our first couple perspective buyers were no shows.
3. Negotiate, sign a contract and pay 10% deposit. Erica had created a contract when we bought our boat from the previous owner that was based on the contract he had with a broker. It was really clear and only relevant to a private sale.
4. Organise a boat survey (Surveyor, Boatyard). Luckily Erica and I didn’t have many constraints, the more challenging item was to find a boatyard that had availability within Sydney harbour. We had a really good experience with White Bay 6!
   My main concern was the potential damaged created by the chain rubbing our keel. Thankfully it was just deemed cosmetic, what a strong boat!
5. Re-negotiate. No major issues were identified and therefore the first offer was still standing.
6. Complete the sale.

Our time constraints

Plan B – Broker sale

We needed a backup plan to reduce the risk of not selling our boat privately in April and to put our minds at ease if our timeline meant we continued to try and sell while in the US 🤗. I had contacted Yoti and organized that in the case we didn’t manage to sell our boat they would have a mooring available for us.

What damages did our chain do?

This was the most nervous part of the survey, I was confident for the most part but was still a bit concerned about the potential damages sustained to the keel during our chain / anchor nightmare. It turns out that it was barely anything. As some might say, the boat is always stronger than the skipper.

We sold our boat on the 17th of March to a fabulous couple who were excited to take her down to her new home in Tasmania and love her as much as we did. She shined up pretty well and took us on so many fun adventures along the coast. We had mixed feeling letting her go, but this was the last step in our project and completing it meant we could start on the next project – whatever it may be.

As long as the MMSI stays the same and she is in AIS shore range, French Kiss can be followed here in her new adventures.