The surveyor’s report comes in sooner than expected while we are having breakfast the morning after the sea trial.

As predicted, our boat “SV JACE” gets a pretty clean bill of health.

The 34-page report covers a great deal of detail with lots of photos of all the elements essential to a boat’s seaworthiness and safety. There is age-appropriate wear and blemishes, some of the seacocks (valved openings in the hull to let water pass in, like for cooling the engine, or out, like waste water) show signs of corrosion and are recommended to be replaced soon. And a few other little items.

But no issues with a “must fix now” priority 1 status. And from our prior boat ownership experience we know how overly conservative marine surveyors are trained to be. So in real terms, SV JACE is in very good shape as we had thought and hoped.

The assessed value is meaningfully above the price we negotiated, which we take with a grain of salt. To the best of our knowledge only three boats of this model were sold globally in the past five years. So how do you really run a comps analysis and put a price on her? From all my research, looking also at the smaller 46 and 47ft and the larger 54ft Moodys and the fairly comparable albeit even slightly higher quality Oysters, I am pretty sure we are getting an exceptional boat and a really good deal.

We have a quick call with the surveyor David, to cover a few questions. Off the record he confirms what we thought we knew. This boat is a rare find and in great condition. Yes!!

With the report’s findings in hand, we have run out of all excuses to procrastinate any longer: It is time to make the call! Are we or are we not doing this?

We take the day to talk it all through. For the 20th time this week.! To do so we get a rental car and loop the entire island, stop at a couple of beaches, treat us to delicious grilled Mahi-Mahi, and try to look at it again from all sides. It is a bold and slightly crazy move and rationalizing it helps us. But in the end we just laugh at ourselves: there are no new arguments and we know full well that we have made this decision already.

So here it is: YES, we are buying the boat! We will call the broker tomorrow morning.

But first it is time to let our family know. Only our kids and a few very close friends know about this trip and even fewer about its true purpose. We have a lot of explaining to do and start with my parents and my sister, who at first think it is an April Fools joke when we send them pics of the boat. It is a lot to take in but they know us and get where we are coming from. And they are happy for us. That means a lot.

We will have more explaining to do in the weeks to come. It will be interesting to gauge the different reactions. Hopefully more supporters than head-shakers.