After several years of trying and failing to find a route out of the rat race we had finally decided to stop looking, take some time out and see the world, then worry about what we will do when we finish (if we finish) with hopefully a much better outlook of the world. Once we'd made that decision we really just needed to make the commitment and make it happen. We already had a deadline, March 31st 2008, the end of Kevin's current contract and now our wedding day too, because we really don't do things by halves. So now we have 9 months to buy a boat, sell a house and all contents, two cars, hand in my notice, oh and organise our Wedding / Leaving party. The trip was planned well before the wedding, then about 2 weeks ago Kevin quite spontaeously proposed in our favorite restaurant, so now we have quite the most amazing honeymoon planned. So, there was a lot riding on today, we really had to make a decision on a boat and get a delivery date (we found out there was an 11 month wait which could leave us waiting for two months) as we'd really set our hearts on setting straight off after the wedding.
We were meeting Karen from M.I. Cats at Chichester Harbour at 10.30 to go down to their demonstrator model followed by a sea trial later in the afternoon at high water. We were on the road before 5am and so managed to arrive in the lovely town of Emsworth for a tea and snack by 9.30. Conversation was dominated by Kevin's discovery of a 5000 Euro price hike on the Mahe the day before which had been posted on YachtWorld.com. It was a pretty big blow because we'd been in email contact trying to arrange a date to see the boat for about 6 weeks and so felt we'd unfairly missed out on the old price. We'd really begun to question our plan to buy a new boat, it's easy to dismiss 5k on top of a 168k Euro base price, but we'd started to measure the cost of everything in terms of how long it would last on our trip and 5,000 Euro was three months of sailing or a complete set of boat electronics. So we were just hoping that we could persuade M.I. Cats to let us take it at the lower price.
At 10am we headed over to Chichester Harbour to meet Karen and head over to the boat. We had seen the demonstrator quite by chance a couple of months before when viewing another boat in the area and had been amazed by the size and sturdiness of the appearance, in fact we hadn't even recognised it as a Mahe at first. We were so impressed that from that day the Mahe reached the top of the list and the Athena 38 or Lavezzi 40 the previous favourites were back up options in the event of an unfavourable sea trial.
We were grinning from ear to ear as Karen stepped aside to let us on board and we finally got look around, this may not have been best tactic for our later negotiations but as we both agreed later we'd pretty much both decided at that point anyway. We headed into the saloon and were amazed at the size, the pictures we'd been pouring over for weeks had made it appear much smaller than it actually was, which again we both just kept repeating whilst grinning to Karen. Then we were all over the boat like it was Christmas, in all the cabins and lockers, "look at this", "look at this", all pretence of impartiality now gone.
The Mahe 36 is built more as a family cruiser than it's predecessors which are really designed more for the charter market often with ensuite heads (toilets) to each of four double cabins, great for 8 people on a one week holiday but not the best use of space for 2 people for 2-3 years. The Mahe has 3 double cabins and a full size heads, taking the equivalent of a full cabin, creating a great "Master" hull with King-size cabin and shower with full standing height access. Add to that 6'3" headroom all round and all sheets lead to the helm for easier short-handed sailing, separate engine lazarettes and still with all round visibility from the saloon at deck level leading to a fantastic cockpit with loads of seating and a double helm seat, it felt like it had been built with us in mind.
Carl from M.I. Cats
We'd been finally converted to catamarans after a week's charter of an Athena 38 from Gosport this Easter where we'd instantly seen the benefits of a level stable platform, visibility all round from the saloon and galley, lower draught, increased speed and better maneourvability from two engines. Easily the best sailing we'd ever done, the sheer joy of not having to hang on to prepare food and move around. We were just so ridiculously over excited by that all week, because now not only were we going to sail around the world but it was actually going to be comfortable and enjoyable rather than just merely a challenge, fantastic to achieve but pretty gruelling whilst it lasts.
So, now it was just a sea trial and the price to be negotiated, we headed off for lunch to digest the updated price lists that Karen had given us, also the news that she had previously tried and failed to get another customer an order through on the old price. The good news however, was that the newer boats had some upgrades to them - Spifurl (screecher) sails instead of gennaker, volvo engine management console, white gel coat in the salon in place of battleship grey, electric fuel gauge and two hatches in the front windows. These were all changes which we would have made if able, we'd be pleased to get the newer looking model to reduce future depreciation, better yet the factory had started a double shift and we could now get the boat on our chosen date of the first week of April 2008. So you can see now how we started to justify the increase in budget to ourselves, though we trolled through the prices of options and recalculated our previous figures. Kevin was still determined to get the lower price and so we headed back early from lunch for Kevin to start the haggling, whilst I had another look round, being completely rubbish at those sort of negotiations.
Karen was slightly surprised by our unusual approach of price negotiations before the sea trial but after a few calls to France and to Carl one of M.I. Cat Directors we'd reached a deal subject to sea trial. We were pretty sure that this would be fine after all we had read from forums of current owners and following our Athena experiences. So Carl headed over and we head out to sea. It was quite a gusty day so ideal from our perspective to really see what she was like. As we were pointing to wind, we set up 2 reefs then dropped the sail before motoring out. It was very similar to the Athena and was done in a matter of moments. Carl took the helm to take us out of the harbour and through the very narrow lockgates at Chichester, now on flow through. We headed out down the channel, having already agreed that we would not be allowed to the open sea as the wind speed was now gusting 25+ knots and sea conditions were rough outside. I think it is company policy not to risk a bad review by scaring the potential customer, we wouldn't have minded but could understand their perspective and agreed to a 2-3 hour sail up the channel and back.
Jo at the helm
Kevin took the helm as soon as we were out of the mooring area near the entrance. Carl set the main with 2 reefs and a reefed genoa and we set off close hauled as soon as we were able to make 40 degrees to the wind, we were at 6 knots as we eased the engine into neutral. We were amazed by how high it pointed, this not being a great quality of the Athena or cats in general. I took the helm so Kevin could have a look around. There followed a great 3 hours of sailing that flew by, we managed several points of sail as we wound down the estuary and finished up downwind hitting 9 knots briefly on the way back. She handled really well and and made little notice of the choppy albeit sheltered conditions. We were now both utterly convinced and so headed back with Carl and Karen to hand over our cheque for the deposit. We'd done it, there was no turning back now! Delivery April 2008 with a factory visit in October.
