Over the past few years I have spent a lot of time looking at various boats on the internet as well as at marinas in Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland in an attempt to find a vessel that I could potentially put into service as a charter boat. Unfortunately, there are many Charter Captains up and down the east coast that have fallen victim to the downturn in the economy and who are no longer carrying fishing trips for hire. As a result, there have been many boats on the market that would have suited my needs perfectly well. Through my search, I have had the pleasure of meeting many good people and inspecting a lot of nice boats, but none of which I was particularly excited about owning, until July of this year.
The main tool that I used in my search was yachtworld.com, which is as close as I have found to a multiple listing service for boat brokers. In my spare time, I would search listings of my favorite boat manufacturers including Markley, Robbins, Somerset, Hulls Unlimited, Duffy, Tiffany and others. Over the years of searching this site, there was one Tiffany Yacht listed for sale (off and on) in Montauk, NY that always caught my eye, but because of the distance from Virginia I never really gave serious thought to the idea of owning it. After looking at many boats last winter, and not finding what I was looking for, I nearly gave up until I saw that the 39’ Tiffany in Montauk was still listed for sale. I visited Tiffany Yachts and asked the builder, Randy Cockrell tons of questions about the boat and decided that it was worth a trip to the end of Long Island to have a look at the boat. As it turns out, Randy had maintained a good relationship with the owner during the years that he has owned the vessel, and he was nice enough to give the owner a call to let him know that I was serious about taking a look at the boat. Within a couple days of my conversation with Randy, I received a call from Tom F. who invited me to come out to Sag Harbor to take a look at his boat the One Day. I arranged (with Tom’s help) a train ride from Richmond, VA to East Hampton, NY. Once there, I met up with Tom and his brother John who are two of the nicest “Northern” Gentlemen that anyone could ever hope to know. Even though they didn’t know me from Adam, I was treated like an old friend the entire time that I was in their company. After looking the boat over, we had a great dinner & John even allowed me to stay in one of his guest rooms for the night. Needless to say, I wasn’t sure of what to expect when traveling that far from home, to an area that I was not familiar with and meeting people that I didn’t know for the first time, but I quickly knew that I didn’t have anything to worry about.
The test drive and my inspection of the boat went very well. Mechanically, she was very sound. The motor had minimal hours and I could tell that she had been well taken care of during the ten years that Tom owned her. Overall, she was laid out to fish! Structurally, I knew that she was built well because of where she came from. Tiffany Yachts has had the reputation of building quality vessels throughout their long history, and this one was no exception. She was wide enough, and had plenty room in her cabin for 8 people to fish comfortably all day. Her bow had enough flair to keep everyone dry while cruising in most weather that we can expect to encounter in the Chesapeake Bay. Her sides are high enough that I will never have to worry about a wave making its way into the boat and getting everyone soaked. In general, I could tell that she would perform very well in the waters that she was designed to work in, and she is a pretty good looking boat on top of all of this.
I realized that I had finally found a boat that I was excited about owning, and that I needed to bring this boat back home to the Chesapeake Bay. In short, it just seemed “right”.
Over the next few weeks I had a hull survey done, Tom and I came to an agreement on purchasing the boat, and on August 12th I returned to Sag Harbor to bring her home.
In my next post, the fun begins. We will start our trip down the coast.
Thank you for taking time out of your day to read my blog. Please return again soon!
Take care!
Joe
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