We found our boat!

It's official, we made an offer on a boat. Technically we made the offer before Christmas. But with the whirlwind that was the holidays, I'm just now able to post about it. She's a 2001 37' Fortuna Island Spirit Catamaran (the second boat we saw, that we all fell in love with). She has been well maintained and never chartered. The current owners are only the second owners she has had. The first owners sailed her from Capetown to Trinidad in 2004, and she was purchased in Trinidad by the current owners in 2005. The current owners have sailed her extensively in the Caribbean and the Bahamas for the last 8 years. She is designed to be sailed single-handed with all lines leading to an electric winch to haul the mainsail as well as the dinghy on the davits. She is self sufficient with regard to power and water. She boasts tilting solar panels, a wind generator, and a water maker. She is probably the most spacious catamaran for her size with excellent turn of speed. She has been found to have very comfortable live aboard space comparable to anything in the 40' range and larger without compromising sailing ability. She is completely outfitted for a circumnavigation. She comes equipped with everything we had on our bucket list for a boat (that we assumed we would have to buy and add ourselves), plus a lot of extras. She even comes with two folding bicycles, a pasta maker, and a sewing machine (not sure what I'll do with that)! This boat is in impeccable shape. We thought we were on a boat that was less than five years old, that's how nice her owners have kept her. The current owners countered our offer, and we accepted. Our inspection is January 19th. Provided she inspects well (and we all are very confident she will), we close on January 29th. Her current name is "Cloud Nine." While we love the name, there are over 80 boats already registered with that name (in different ports). So we will be going with our original naming plan. For details on the name and how we came up with it, see my previous blog "The Name." Apparently we have to pick a home port to list with her name. We are thinking of going with Palm Beach. So she will be "Liliana out of Palm Beach." Below are a few pics of her (which don't do her justice at all) along with a floor plan. A lot of people have trouble picturing what she looks like inside, so I thought showing a floor plan would help. I will try to get better pics of her at the inspection, especially inside pics.





For anyone interested, here is her listing (it will be gone by the end of the month):
http://www.multihullcompany.com/Catamaran_for_Sale/FORTUNA_ISLAND_SPIRIT/CLOUD_NINE