During a long weekend in early October, we made arrangements with brokers to see 4 different Beneteau Center Cockpit sailboats that were listed for sale in Italy. We had a packed agenda and had to stay on schedule. Although we were very close to Pisa and Venice, sadly we didn’t have time to stop and visit.
We did get to make a quick stop in Pompeii, or Pompeo as it is called in Italy. This ancient city was destroyed by an eruption from Mt. Vesuvius, the bodies of people and animals and buildings were covered in ash, preserving their position in their last moments. This statue is one example. Viewing this city from outside the gates, we knew this was a place we needed to return when we had more time.
On our agenda, a well-used Beneteau with a totally remodeled salon with a couch and no navigation desk or salon closet, a blue Beneteau owned by a broker who was looking to maximize his profits, a 44 foot Beneteau owned by a lonely old man, and a 42 foot Beneteau that had only been used 1 month a year, had no updates or modifications, was taken out of the water and stored 11 months a year, and had unmarked woodwork.
Having fallen in love with that first boat we saw (in last post), we really loved the 44 Beneteau owned by the older gentleman. He spoke no English, we spoke no Italian, but as soon as we got to his boat, it was obvious he was taking us for a ride. We had barely made it out of the marina when he gestured for Gary to take the helm and just like that, he disappeared into the galley. We could hear him banging around. Soon he came back upstairs with a plate of freshly slice prouchetto, cheese, crackers, and wine. He talked the whole time with us not understanding a word. It was a beautiful day. He walked on the back deck and threw out a couple of fishing lines. An hour later, he reeled them in and we headed back. The whole experience made me think this guy was recently widowed and was very lonely. I don't really remember the tour of his boat, but I am sure we looked it over very well because this was the boat we decided to make an offer on. My suspicions were confirmed when the broker called back to tell us that he wasn't ready to sell until he found a new boat to buy!
Our trip included some beautiful sites along the way that we would return to at a later date.
We drove a lot, stopping when we got tired. One time, we stopped in a small town a ways off the main route and got a hotel room. Most Italians outside of Rome do not learn much English. We've been told it has to do with their contentious history with the Brits. Anyway, the hotel was quite empty, though it had a large garden for outdoor weddings and a fancy dining room where we enjoyed a full European-style buffet breakfast (meaning, mostly carbs! Breads and sweets of many varieties, cheese, and thinly sliced meats. No eggs, pancakes, cereal, etc). Only one other person was in this whole dining area, but our American English caught his ear. We learned that he and his sister, both Americans, had flown back to settle their parents estate. It was such a small, out of the way town, he wondered how, and why we had decided to stay there for the night. He was quite shocked that we were there. We were equally shocked to find that the only other person in the whole dining room was also American!
When we got to the farthest southern spot, we reached the only boat we would tour that was "on the hard". The broker here, at D'addario Yacht Sales, spoke in broken English. She got a ladder and we climbed aboard this 2003 Beneteau Oceanic Center Cockpit clipper sailboat. The wood shined. The stove and oven appeared to have never been used. The downside was that this boat would need so many things to make it into a cruising boat...new canvas for starters, solar, a solar arch, new batteries, updated electronics...the list went on.
Michaela, our broker, was young and new to selling boats. She took a long time to return emails- until we learned that she took all the emails to a friend to translate them into Italian,then to help her write a reply in English. We started using Google translate to send her emails in Italian. The replies came much quicker.
Buying a boat in Italy wasn't exactly straight forward and easy. We got lucky in many ways. The surveyor we had hired in Trieste we learned was one of the best in Italy. He had done us such a favor on the first boat, charging us only a very small fee, that we decided to fly him down to survey this boat. It passed with flying colors! He also told us he was very impressed with our broker. He told us she was new and seemed to be wanting to do her best for us. He felt she was very honest and a hard-worker. And, she did work hard for us. She gave us rides to various government buildings, translated for us, figured out how we could get the Italian documents translated into English so we could register our boat with the US Coast Guard, helped us to get copies of the VAT paid documents (European taxes paid proof), etc, etc.
Did we save any money by buying our boat in Italy? It's hard to say, but probably not.
The next step was to figure out how to purchase things for the boat- but I will leave that for another post.
Here we are, celebrating being boat owners with a Leffe...
Thanks for reading! Would love to hear your questions and comments!
No comments:
Post a Comment