The project
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The project
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Once again, an aluminium-hulled, lifting-keel boat? Well, yes! In fact, we were not fixed on this type of boat; our objective was rather simple: - leisurely cruises in the Mediterranean (Croatia or Greece, just to mention the more obvious), with the option if we will find ourselves and the boat to be up to task, to reach the French canals and perhaps sail in Northern Europe and then, who knows, a jump to the Carribbean, which we would revisit with pleasure. This translates in the following requisites for the boat: - size just below 10 meters, which in Italy represents the
threshold from a regulation and tax point of view, while at the same time being
spacious and comfortable for 2 people during an extended cruise (aft-cabin
appreciated although not mandatory). Furthermore, our budget was limited: we were thinking to spend not more than 30-40.000 Euros to purchase the boat and then a further 10-20.000 for repairs/refurbishing: we soon found out that this meant to focus on boats built in the 80's or 90's. We would have liked to find a "small" OVNI: in the size range
we were thinking about, there are 3 models, all out of production since a long
time, all hard to find in the used market and generally overpriced: In one year of searching, we did not find any of the above at
a reasonable price! We were close to giving-up and go for a GRP boat, although
after having seen a few we found that in our target price bracket offerings are
typically rather old and with some problems, such as: In Croatia we found a couple of Bavaria's belonging to German owners and in reasonably good condition, and then we found the advert for this "Alu Legend 1040", aluminium hull with lifting keel, described as "ready to sail", with an asking price of 39.000 Euros (plus 5% broker commission), a lot more than our budget but worth seeing, just in case there was some room for negotiation... ----and this was the beginning of our troubles!!
The boat turned out to be a terrible disappointment, nice lines, moders for its
age, roomy interior, but in appalling maintenance status, a terrible chaos
inside, the outboard clamped to the table (and dripping gasoline on the cabin
floor!), the wooden parts in urgent need of a repaint (or even replacement, in
some areas), rusty winches, all ropes on deck moulding, sails left to collect
mould throughout all winter, and the owner sternly refusing to negotiate the
price!...
Would you show a boat like this to potential buyers? We had almost decided to buy a Bavaria, but we wanted to make another attempt: at the end, the seller agreed on a price which was halfways between his request and my offer, and so the deal was done, we are the new owners of a worn-out, battered aluminium boat!
The chart table is very large, but electronics are very limited and totally outdated! Ropes and winches on deck give an immediate feeling of lack of maintenance Clearly, our initial budget has blown out: the relatively high purchasing price, plus the refurbishment works much more extensive than planned will require a (much) higher expenditure than planned!
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Webmaster: Gianfranco Balducci - email: gfbalduc@tin.it Last Update: 11/11/2014
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