First 10 days in Antigua

It’s been over a week since Tia and I have left Ottawa for Antigua. Apparently the “u” is silent in Antigua, who knew?

Tia and I have spent our time in a cozy Airbnb in Jolly Harbour. When we are not doing boat related things we’ve explored the area through various means available to us: walking, biking, SUP, bus and car on the few days we rented one (driving here is interesting). Some of those pictures have made it to instagram. It’s a picturesque area with some secluded beaches. The water at the beaches is warm but not very clear, and the waves are too small for my liking as we are on the leeward side of the island, but regardless we’ve enjoyed superb father daughter bonding time.

As far as school is concerned, so far we’ve settled on 6 days a week with a 1 day break. Tia’s developed a two day split with English, Science, on day one and French, Math, History/Geography on day two. So far it’s worked well for the most part and she spends about 2 hours each day. The curriculum books we have provide a framework and exercises but for details we need to use the internet. So far the only struggle we’ve had is with English, mind you I can’t check her French work… For English I must have forgotten everything that I learned in her grades because I could swear I’ve never heard of a Gerund or present participle. There’s is like a whole other language to describe English grammar that we needed to decipher first before we could complete that single exercise in her book.

Boat wise, the day after we arrived the surveyor, David Duong from St Martin, joined us in Antigua. I found David on the internet, through the Society of Accredited Marine Surveyors (SAMS) website. Finding a surveyor is a tricky process as there are dozens of “accreditation” organizations many with dubious levels of training and certification requirements. Initially we planned to fly a surveyor from Florida which tends to be the hub for the boating business, however the travel costs were going to exceed the survey costs in that arrangement. I’ve been reading and following sailing/cruising forums for over a year now, so I’ve gained some knowledge about the process along the way and I knew that SAMS was the way to go. St Martin is a short flight from here and David was recommended by name on the forum that I’ve followed. I contacted David back in August when we signed the conditional agreement to purchase the boat. The arrangement with David included a fixed fee for travel, survey and seatrial. What you get at the end is a formal survey report that goes through all the systems onboard. Ideally, as was the case with us, you are also present for this, so that you can see things first hand. This is similar to a house inspection.

Since the boat’s was sitting on the hard over the summer, for us the survey and seatrial process were performed backwards from the usual arrangement, where prospective buyers typically do the seatrial first and then if that’s successful pay for a haul out (~1000 USD) and survey. With our arrangement we were able to save on the cost of the haul out as the owner agreed to hold off on his usual start of season splash until we could do the survey. From what I read, to both save on money (i.e. only pay to formal survey a boat you are going to buy) and also to be a more educated buyer it was recommended to study up on boat inspection. There is a great introductory book on the subject by Don Casey called Inspecting the Aging Sailboat, which provides a 30 minute initial survey process. So, over the summer I put this newly acquired knowledge to the test by surveying 8 other boats of similar size and vintage, with 3 of them being the exact same model/year. This helped me greatly to understand what I was looking at on SeaSparrow.

That brings us to the survey on SeaSparrow, which is a 40 foot South African catamaran made by Robertson Caine with a model name Leopard 40. These are well built boats that travel on their own hulls from South Africa to the Caribbean. We selected this particular model and year for multiple reasons:

1. 4 by 2 layout – we wanted a boat that had 4 berths and only 2 heads. The catamarans made by the 3 main builders: Lagoon, Robertson Caine/Leopard and Fountain Pajot are mainly produced for the charter market, which means the typical configuration for a 4 berth layout is with 4 heads. We really didn’t want 4 heads for many reason which include space, cleaning and maintenance. On a boat this size a 4 head setup doesn’t have a dedicated shower, but rather you pull out the sink tap and do gymnastics over the toilet to try to shower off. It’s a nightmare for someone my height. On a 2 head setup like the Leopard 40 you get a dedicated shower space and a separate sink/toilet space.
2. budget – obvious
3. sailing capability – we wanted a boat that balanced the living space with sailing capability. Recently there has been a trend in the catamaran industry to focus on the living space at the expense of sailing capability as the boats are built for people on a short charter.
4. Size that we can handle with 2 adults and 3 young kids but also have guests on board for visits. The forces and costs involved in handling a boat start increasing dramatically when you get to 45 feet and beyond. We felt that 40′ was something we, with our limited experience, could handle.
5. Reputation – the Leopards have a good reputation for quality builds that last. We wanted something that wouldn’t be too difficult to sell in the future, and usually the main 3 builders are a safe bet for that.

Since I had already seen most of the boat in August I was prepared with a set of questions for David that we addressed as we went. It helped that the current owner fixed some of the items I had found in my initial inspection in August. David was familiar with typical failure modes and signs of neglect for these types of boats and he was happy with what he saw on SeaSparrow, and therefore so was I. There was a number of little things to indicate a good standard of upkeep. However, he also pointed out many items that are wearing out, but nothing unexpected on a 12 year old boat. Overall, there was only one item which was a surprise to everyone including the current owner, and something that very likely happened while the boat sat on the hard over the summer. After some deliberation with David and Erin we decided to ask the current owners to address this item, as we felt that they were in the best position with the yard to get this done quickly. The owners agreed and the boat was hauled out again this week and the repair is underway. Tia and I have visited the yard on the other side of the island to review progress of the repair which has been going well even with all the rain that we’ve had.

With our visits to the yard we’ve also taken the opportunity to get to know the current owners, Jeff and Debbie, who are great and also fellow Canadians from Nova Scotia. They have given us a ton of information on the boat and systems, cruising in general, and taught us how to play Mexican train dominoes. I guess that’s a great advantage of buying a boat through a private sale rather than a broker ;).