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  • Hiring a Capitan and Covid-19 Pandemic

    One of the (many) hurdles we faced as new boat owners was obtaining boat insurance as liveaboards. Many insurance companies simply will not insure boats whose owners live full time on the boat… for obvious reasons, they would much prefer the boat be used as little as possible and tied to a secure dock for the occasional “weekend warrior” use, instead of having two newbies like ourselves on the vessel 24/7 in the open, blue water. Just finding an insurance company who was willing to entertain insuring liveaboards was a struggle… we would eventually find out that the insurance company would also require additional training with a fully-licensed captain, and that captain would have to train you to the point where they could sign off on an insurance waiver that you were “worthy” to operate the hopefully “to be insured” vessel. At the time, it was early March 2020… the pandemic was begging to force much of the world into total lockdown. We were forced to find a captain crazy enough to help some strangers learn how to sail during a pandemic. Who the hell would sign up for something like this? Turns out it would be a crazy, South-African LEGEND by the name of Mr. David Hibbard. But ultimately finding him wouldn’t be easy…

    Before we even knew who David Hibbard was, our broker, Jim, had provided us with a few other captains/ sailing schools to help satisfy the insurance requirement. After looking into them a bit more and speaking to several of the captains directly, we were not too happy with the willingness of the captains to actually train us. We wanted more than just a sign-off… we really wanted to use this time as a learning tool to get some serious sailing education. Prior to this, we had one week of sailing in the Sea of Cortez and that was it. We were complete newbies so we wanted a bit more “hands-on” experience. We reached out to Bluewater Sailing School to see if they could offer the specific training we were looking for. The blog, Gone with the Wynns, is the reason we chose to go with this school as they too had no experience with sailing and were able to be trained up to skipper their own sailing catamaran.

    A few emails back and forth with Blue Water Sailing School and we had a clear line of sight on what they could provide as instructors, and they followed the correct curriculum to get us ready to captain our own boat. The plan was, once we closed on the boat, take off from the Fort Lauderdale area, sail across the Gulf stream and cruise the Bahamas for a week. While in the Bahamas we would work through the insurance-provided checklist and tick all the boxes to get sign off as competent operators. This was extremely attractive to us as we knew the Gulf stream could be particularly tricky to cross and to be able to accomplish that twice with trained professionals seemed like a worthwhile endeavor. And plus, we would be in the Bahamas, baby!

    The only problem with this plan was that after we had sailed to the Bahamas and back, we would still have the boat stuck in Fort Lauderdale and would need to have it up to the Chesapeake Bay by summer, once again for insurance purposes (the insurance companies do not let you stay in certain “hurricane” zones, like Florida, at certain times of year during the hurricane season. In fact, our insurance company would require us to be north of Cape Hatteras, NC by July 1st). Despite this, we still decided this would be the best route in order to get our insurance sign-off quickly while also getting in some much-needed sailing education. We would figure out getting the boat up north afterward. Within several days, we were officially booked with Blue Water Sailing School for our trip and we would just have to wait a couple more weeks before we were Bahama-bound.

    With the insurance and a plan for a captain sorted out, we anxiously awaited the final steps for closing on our new boat back at Kelleys family’s lake house in Virginia. After signing some papers, having them notarized and sent back to the yacht closers’ office, we simply waited for the funds to clear and we would be all set. March 17, 2020 was not a typical Saint Patrick’s day for most people given what COVID-19 was doing to the world, but it was an exciting day for us as it was the day we officially closed on our boat. This was the same day the US government finally recognized the severity of the coronavirus and many states and counties began to require residents to shelter in place. At the same time, the stock market was plummeting and all the news agencies were predicting a recession as a result of the stay-at-home orders and movement restrictions. Needless to say, the excitement of owning our first boat was quickly diminished by the thought of purchasing a luxury item like a catamaran during a recession that surely would devalue as rapidly as any other investment one could have made. Gulp! What had we just done?!

    The next month and a half was as long for us as I am sure it was for most people who were stuck at home, not sure what the hell was actually going on and just wondering daily what was going to come next. While some worked out and others baked bread, playing cards over some Yuengling beers seemed to be our savior for keeping our sanity throughout all the craziness. As all this was going down, we were trying to have JustCatamarans repair some items on the boat that we had agreed upon with the insurance company to fix as part of “vessel compliance”.  Unfortunately, all of that eventually came to a halt as everyone was told to stay home. So until we could get these items fixed on the boat, we weren’t going anywhere. On top of this we had heard from the Blue Water Sailing School that they were not able to facilitate our training because they were unable to find any captains who felt comfortable enough to work. So again, we were back to figuring out how we were going to get the proper training in order to be able to operate our vessel and have it to the Chesapeake before July 1st.

    Back where it all began at the Annapolis sailboat show in October 2019, we had met a very interesting South African gentleman at the Lagoon boat display. He introduced himself to us as David Hibbard and explained that he had spent the last three years sailing around the world with his wife and two kids on his own Lagoon 400 sailing catamaran. After a cordial chat with him he also explained that he was a captain and a  personal cruising coach, which we found intriguing and thought may come in handy later on when we bought our boat, so we took his card and carried on with the day. It turned out that keeping David’s card handy was one of the best things we could have done. Nearly six months later, we would end up reaching out to David and it turned out he was the only one to even entertain the idea of moving a boat during the early stages of the pandemic; he had no fear of the Coronavirus, at a time when no one had any idea what this thing was… just one of many moves that earned him his “legendary” status. Every other captain we reached out to either didn’t call us back or was too afraid to be with two strangers. From the moment we reached out to David he was extremely responsive and had our best interest at hand.

    Morgan, our insurance broker, recommended that we hire a captain to take us up the east coast so we could learn the “ins and outs” of the Intercoastal Waterway, as well as navigating inlets and other navigational challenges that are unique to the East Coast of the US. This made sense as this was going to be our primary cruising grounds. With this in mind we presented this idea to David and he was all for it. We would be able to learn everything we needed to fulfill the requirements by the insurance company while at the same time get some solid sailing experience overall. What was even better was that he had sailed around the world on a boat similar to our Leopard 38. Getting hooked up with David was truly awesome and he would continue to be a major asset in our travels as we learned the boat in the years to come.

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  • Acquiring Insurance for a Cruising Catamaran

    The next and most important step was to acquire insurance for our soon to be new to us sailboat. With the use of a recommended broker from Jim we began the process of securing insurance. After sorting through the various quotes that were provided to us from the insurance broker, we decided on the policy that would allow us to operate our new vessel after “time” with an approved captain. I put time into parentheses because this would be one of the bigger headaches when it came to securing insurance. The other policies provided by the broker required us to have a captain for up to a year of operation which was just not going to work as we were going to be taking ownership of the boat in March and would need to have the boat out of Florida by July 1st.

    Because we had an understanding that we were going to need to hire a captain we began researching local captains that could help get us some experience. At the same time, we were discussing with the insurance broker what the experience requirements were from the insurance company, of which opened an entire can of worms. After three weeks of back and forth with the insurance broker and getting nowhere in understanding what the requirements where going to be to get clearance to operate the vessel on our own, we decided to move onto new broker. After searching the internet for a bit we came across a broker located in Annapolis, MD by the name if Morgan Wells (see link to his contact information below). With Morgan our new broker helping us, we cleared up the convoluted issue of what exactly the insurance company expected from us in regards to hiring a captain. What took 3 weeks and tireless back and forth with the last broker, was cleared up with just a few emails, and Morgan was able to obtain a concise check list from the insurance company that described the exact exercises we needed to achieve before we could operate the vessel on our own. Amazing how some of these companies and brokers operate and able are to stay in business. This would be one of many learning lessons we would have when it came to the marine industry. 

    The hassle of understanding the insurer’s expectation would only be the beginning of the struggles we would experience with interpreting what the insurance company required in order to insure our new vessel. Surprisingly, one of the biggest lessons we learned with purchasing this boat was not even the requirements an insurance company had with the operator’s experience, but rather the requirements they had for survey results and fixing a majority of the issues that had ariose from the surveyor’s findings. This came as a shock to us as we were not really planning on fixing a majority of the issues as most of them were still functioning and in good working order. Obviously, the heat exchangers and other engine issues were on our top priority list but replacing running rigging or low freon in a refrigerator was not as we did not see these as safety items or issues that were going to inhibit us from safely operating the vessel. The insurance on the other hand thought differently. They required what was called a “letter of compliance”, which essentially was a list of survey findings that the insurance company felt needed to be fixed not necessarily before we operated the vessel, but in a reasonable time and wanted the owner to describe and consent to a certain date to have these items fixed.  Again, another rabbit hole of back and forth began with our insurance broker trying to decipher what the insurance company wanted us to fix or what they wanted us to disclose on a “letter of compliance”. In our opinion, this letter was basically a get out of jail free card for the insurance company to lean on if we did not fix these certain items prior to the date we indicated and a claim was to arise.  We went back and forth with the broker and insurance literally until the date of closing, not knowing if we were going to be able to be insured even with all the work we had already been getting done prior to closing and with what we had budgeted to do before operating the vessel.  To keep the story short, it was cause for a lot of heartburn, and after we had got it sorted we still didn’t feel great about the coverage we had received. On top off all of these issues this policy was costing us over $7,000 for the year and had and $8,000 deductible. Double if you had damage sustained in a wind storm. Needless to say, the insurance saga continued throughout the ownership of the vessel and did really put a damper on purchasing such a high-priced vehicle. 

    Morgan Wells Insurance Broker Contact Information:

    https://jackmartin.com/team/morgan-wells/ 

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  • The Hectic Journey of Buying a Catamaran

    The search began back in October of 2019 when Kelley and I attended the Annapolis boat show. Naive and full of excitement we began our search for our new adventure vehicle. With us was Kelley’s mother and father as well as her aunt and uncle (of whom own a Jeanneau Sun Odeyssy 45). Throughout the day we indulged in a few delicious bloody marys, a proverbial Pussers pain killer and looked at all the beautiful and out of budget boats, imagining what a 10 year old boat would look like and how it would fit us. We really loved the Lagoon 42, but with a price tag of over $500k, we moved on. We were able to connect and have a face to with our future broker Jim Ross and discussed our interest in purchasing a used catamaran surprisingly aboard the famous YouTube Outremer La Vagabond.  All and all it was a fun, exciting and successful day in Annapolis.

     

     Over the coming months we perused Yacht world looking for all types of used catamarans within our budget with very little avail. We were particularly interested in some of the smaller Leopard 38, 40 and 42/43 as well as some of the smaller Lagoon 38 and 40, all of which were a hot commodity and hard to come by in our searches. We did however have a look at on up in Norwalk Connecticut which was in great shape but it was November in Long Island Sound, so we figured come springtime this boat should still be available. The one trend we were noticing when looking for boats was that there were a lot more in Florida, particularly the Fort Lauderdale area. 

    With no luck through the end of the year we decided to hitch back up with Kelley’s folks and use their RV in the Florida Keys as our home base to search for our new home in south Florida. We planned to spend the entire month of February looking for our boat with hopes to land one before we head back north.

    After a wonderful trip back west to see my family for the holidays, it was time to follow the snowbirds south in search of our hopeful future boat and home. After we arrived in the Keys we got in touch with our broker Jim and arranged a time to head to Ft Lauderdale to begin our search for perspective boats. With the assistance of our broker Jim we had a variety of boats to check out in the Fort Lauderdale area with one in particular that we were interested in, a 2010 Leopard 38. We spent a day in Mid February running around all the fancy and funky neighborhoods of Fort Lauderdale walking into random back yards to look at boats, none of which fit our criteria. So we booked a hotel room in North Beach Miami for a couple of nights with hopes the boats the following day would bring some promise. 

    That morning we set out to look at a couple of Leopard ’40s and a Leopard 38. We looked at one 2008 Leopard 40 that piqued our interest so much so that we contemplated making an offer. But before we did that there was one final boat we wanted to see, the Leopard 38. We met the selling broker of the Leopard 38 at the Dinner Key mooring field south of Miami and jumped in his 2 hp dinghy for a slwo wet ride out to the boat. Upon stepping on the boat, we loved the layout size and condition the boat was in despite it being a ten-year-old boat. Overall this was the nicest boat that we had seen and it had all the requirements we needed for our first boat, especially the generator and A/C for our aging but loved pugs who struggle with the heat. Excited about the vessel we began discussing numbers with the broker, he made it clear that the seller owed money on the boat and he was not willing to budge on the price listed on yacht world. Discourage by this news we decided to head to a local brewery after the showing to discuss the day’s events to try and make sense of which boat was right for us, especially knowing the owner of the Leopard 38 was firm on his price. We left the brewery, and as soon as we jumped back into the car we got a call from the selling broker of the Leopard 38. He had chatted with the seller and asked us to make our best offer. So we informed Jim that evening that we wanted to make an offer and the next day an official offer to the seller. After a bit of back and forth, we came to an agreement and we were under contract. I will spare the details but to say there was no dramas between the two brokers would be lying, but off to the survey we go.

    After about another week hanging in the Keys with Kelley’s family, touring around and visiting the Dry Tortugas, it was time to head back to south Florida to do the survey and sea trial on the Leopard 38. Upon arriving at the boat the survey was already underway as our surveyor, John Sands, had already been in the engine rooms and determined that both engines would need new heat exchangers, not a good start! The remainder of the morning was filled with hoisting sails, climbing under beds, and hauling the boat out of the water. All of which exposed issues that would need to be addressed or negotiated when it came to deciding on the final sales price. All and all we were happy with the survey and ready to start the negotiations.

    Again we headed back to Sunshine Key to continue to hang with Kelley’s family and finalize the negotiations via some phone calls with our broker Jim. We were able to split the major issues with the previous owners and agreed on a final sales price. This is what would seem to be the most stressful part, but then there was insurance…

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  • About

    hello.

    We are Kelley and Corbin Webber

    Welcome to our little corner of the internet where we will take you along as we tour around on our vessels. We have spent the first year of our mobile adventure sailing on our 2010 Leopard 38 up and down the eastern seaboard of the United States and now we are off to tour North America in our Dodge 3500 and Airstream Flying Cloud. 

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