I've been in touch off-list with a few of you but I thought I'd go public with what's been up with me the past year and a half.
To make a long story short, last June (07) we were out motoring around Oyster Bay and hit a submerged uncharted rock in 7' of water (H-T drew 6' but that rock stuck up about 3 feet from the bottom judging from the ding in the keel). The hull was cracked behind the keel where it was pushed up into the hull but not far enough to breach it so there was no water coming in at all. There was a lot "in between" but the end of the story is that based on the repair estimate, my insurance company, BOAT/US elected to "total" the boat so I got the full agreed value on the boat. Coincidentally I had been thinking of selling H-T for about a year since, after 18 great years I was ready for something larger, wider, and more headroom. This accident just accelerated my timetable. I started looking for a new boat that July and was perusing Yachtworld on almost a weekly basis in addition to any other brokerage websites I could find. Between Last July and this past June I was all over the Northeast and mid-Atlantic states looking at boats. Since I had a "trade up" in mind before the accident, I restricted my search to boats between 38 and 42 feet, no older than early '90's vintage. Ultimately I ended up focusing on a '97 Hunter 376 in Marblehead. I went up to look at her in July and, since she was still on the market went for a 2nd look in early August - this time taking my wife, Carolee, with me to get her impression. She loved it. About two weeks ago after a lot of back and forth with offers, counter-offers, counter-counter-offers, we finally met at a price which worked for the seller and me and I went up for a survey and 'test' sail and she passed with flying colors. We closed yesterday, the 22nd, so I'M NO LONGER BOATLESS (pardon the shouting!) Oh Happy Me !!!! I'm planning on heading up to Boston over Columbus Day weekend to bring her back to Oyster Bay so I'll have another good month of sailing prior to winter haul-out. Now about the boat. As I mentioned, she's a 1997 Hunter 376 and I'm buying from the original owner - a great guy, as it turns out. A tough negotiator but a good guy, nevertheless. And she's loaded! All Raymarine instrumentation including a below-deck autopilot. The nav stuff was state of the art in '97 (Raychart 620 10" display). It's a little long in the tooth 10 years later but still works fine (I guess I could say the same about myself!!!). In '97 chartplotters were mainly grayscale and state of the art was differential GPS. WAAS wasn't on the market yet. For creature comforts she rolled (floated?) out of the factory with the normal goodies (Alder-Barbour refrigeration and freezer, microwave, etc in the galley) plus factory installed 16,000 btu reverse cycle heat and air-conditioning and a Phasor 6KW diesel genset! Those of you who know me well will start talking about how long it will take me to get my tools and start 'customizing' her but the reality is that there's really nothing she needs immediately. Down the road I'll probably think in terms of a new color chartplotter but everything works perfectly so there's no rush on that. About the only thing I might do right now is remove the existing hot water heater and replace it with the Excel instant-on tankless system. That will gain me a huge storage locker under one of the salon settee's for dry goods, canned goods, etc... If anyone wants to see pictures, I've put them up on Snapfish. Write me off-list and I'll send you the link to sign on. If you're familiar with Snapfish I have to put your email address onto the site and then "invite" you to look at the pics. So anyway, I'M BAAAAAAAAK !!! And note the new signature block below! Steve Weinstein S/V CAPTIVA 1997 Hunter 376 Hull #276 Sailing out of Oyster Bay, NY All outgoing mail protected by VIPRE A/V
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