***SOLD**** 2020 Fountaine Pajot Saona 47 (Maestro version - 3 cabins)
Better than new, completely turnkey and outfitted for liveaboard world cruising, unique opportunity. Walk off the plane and sail into your dream the next day!
Wait, you're doing what?!?
Before I talk about the boat, the first question everyone has is 'why would you sell a boat you just got and completely tricked out?' It sounds crazy right?!? Here's why it makes sense to us.
First, when we started looking at boats, we set an initial budget envelop. This cut out a lot of new boats we never looked at and when we looked at used boats there was absolutely no inventory for a 3 cabin version for something 3-5 years old, anywhere on the planet. We also decided we wanted some kind of production boat, because we wanted to be sure we had access to parts, support through a large network of owners and could address warranty issues quickly and easily. This narrowed our list of builders to basically three we liked; Fountaine Pajot, Lagoon and Leopard. After researching all the boats we picked Fountaine Pajot Saona 47 as the ideal boat to cruise worldwide in comfort.
We spent the first year after delivery doing more work on the boat to outfit it for world cruising. We initially thought this would not be intensive, but in reality these boats don't come out of the factory set up for short-handed sailing and blue water sailing...at all. A lot of work and money went into it for things like bringing everything to the helm, installing the necessary hardware for the downwind sails, replacing all the lines (since the factory lines weren't good at all), to adding equipment like dive compressors/tanks to upgraded solar, just to name a few. During the first season we were basically just working on the boat and upgrading things that made operating the boat with two people more manageable and ready to sail around the world.
In the second season, we were solely focused on living the dream. What we learned was how we thought we were going to operate and live on the boat, is not actually how we do it. We use way less space than we have, we don't use the generator (18 hours over 2 seasons in the Med), six AC units, washer/dryer, air compressor (not useful in the Med), etc. We learned we have a performance sailing tendency versus a comfort yachting tendency. Since Stephane is a 'recovering racer' (that's what I like to call him), the sailing is as much the joy of this lifestyle, versus simply a means of transportation to see the world and travel. We also realized that with all the additional work, we had pushed our budget envelope into the area of what a performance cat would have cost. They are still more expensive, don't get me wrong, but it's not as big of a stretch as we originally believed it to be once it was all said and done.
So we started having this debate about performance versus comfort which you can listen to in our Covert Castaway podcast in the link or anywhere you listen to podcasts: Part 1: Comfort versus Performance and Part 2: Comfort versus Performance. Between the time the podcasts were published we realized it wasn't doing any good debating with ourselves since we had never sailed a performance cat, so we booked a trip to La Grande Motte, France to visit Outremer. Stephane understood the difference because of his sailing experience but I wanted to understand whether the 'joy of sailing' thing was worth the cost and trouble everyone was talking about. I couldn't wrap my head around what it meant. It's a boat, you move it over water to the next place safely and what is left to experience besides the sunbathing lounge on the lido deck?
After spending two days on the Outremer, one in light winds, one in 25+ knots and confused sea-state, my mind was blown to say the least. A completely different sailing experience and suddenly all the songs about sailing made more sense.
So now that that was settled we explored what our options were and Outremer had a slot within a reasonable timeframe for a new boat in 2023. The decision was: do we fully commit to our boat over the next 10 years? Or do we swap platforms now to support how we truly want to be sailing around the world and sell our Saona 47 while it's still basically new to get the best price we can? We decided to go for it and that's how we got to the place where we are that crazy couple who sells a brand new boat.
Better than new and completely turnkey!
This boat is fully equipped for world cruising, we bought in new from the factory and spent a year outfitting and upgrading it, which we have fully documented. Just a few features here: 1,950 W of solar, air conditioning, generator, watermaker 12V-105l/hr, coppercoat, washer/dryer, dive compressor and tanks, OC tender, all new lines, downwind sails (Code 0, gennaker, symmetrical spinnaker), fresh water heads with salt water backup, ARC ready and setup to be easily sailed by a couple, shorthanded. It comes with everything, including tools, spare parts, galley supplies and many custom changes that make living on a boat fabulous.
You could walk off an airplane with a duffel bag and sail into your dreams the next day.
The situation: After spending the summer in the Med, the first real season officially cruising on the boat, we have decided to shift our world cruising platform to a performance catamaran and will be getting our new boat in 2023. The option was to sail this boat for one more season then get a broker and sell it sometime in 2022. We are in the process of lifting the boat out on the hard for the winter and we thought since we are here with the boat now until December 5, 2021, a new potential owner might benefit from being able to see it out of the water while we are still here, get a survey, etc.
Location The boat is currently in Turkey, favorable to US and other non-Schengen visa holders. If you want to start your journey now, from the exotic Turquoise Coast (one of the most beautiful cruising grounds in the world) and not wait for 2 years for a new boat that needs one more year of outfitting, you can benefit from all the work we did to make this a home for a liveaboard couple or family.
Visit our Facebook page @SailingAwen to see our the amazing posts about Turkey!
Or visit our photos and destination map here...this could be you!
NOTE: This boat has been sold.
