March 15th I took a 6AM flight to Ft Lauderdale and made it to the boat by 10AM. Spent two hours going through the survey list with Richard and everything had been done. Between Richard, Apex Marine and a couple of sub contractors a two page list was completed in two weeks.
A call to Connie Crews of “All Yachts Registry” authorizing the release of the balance of the money due was all it took. Richard and I signed the closing statement and the Selene 53 “Big Smile” was ours. Cath and I had just purchased a boat 42 tons larger than any boat we had ever owned. It felt great.
Acknowledgement needs to go to several people who helped along the way. First as mentioned above is Connie Crews. She handled all of the yacht registry and documentation paper work, registration of both tenders, filing the tax payments and hand delivering documents direct to the boat so that I would have them on board. She did a superb job. Richards attorney Jody Foster and our surveyor Bill Slattum were both extremely professional. Lastly, Richard and his wife Jane were a pleasure to work with and more of a pleasure to get to know. Cath and I hope to remain friends in the years ahead.
I spent the next three nights living on board “on the hard” at Apex Marine. The weather was beautiful and Saturday was St Patricks day which added an exciting dimension to my long weekend. The New River was packed with boats of all sizes and many decked out in green. I spent days going through every drawer, cabinet, locker and assorted opening taking inventory and marveling at the amount of space the 53 had. I also spent time with Bill Dalton of Apex arranging some additional work.
Sunday I took a cab to the airport and was back in NY by 3:30 Sunday afternoon. If all goes well we will be launching the first week in April. Have already booked our flights.