Chapter VI...Starting To Research

Over the next couple years, Kat and I spent our vacations traveling to different areas and looking at many different boats. We checked out a 51 ft Morgan in Tampa, a home made Bruce Roberts 45 named Alfred(it was painted black like the bat boat) in Wisconsin, a beautiful Nelson Merrick in Detroit and many new designs at different Strictly Sail shows. We continued to sail Some Beach locally and we found a charter company out of Burnt Store Marina on Pine Island Sound with a Hunter 34 that we really like.

We returned to the BVI In 2010.

One of the highlights of that trip was a dive on the wreck of the Rhone. This was the shipwreck used in the movie The Deep.


We checked out some boats on a dive trip in Bonair

And, of course, we rented a Harley

We looked at some boats in Mexico

this one was too big.

this one had a nice picture window.

We learned that we really like boats with character, not cookie cutter designs. I love the Gozzards and the Formosas. We learned that the 40 foot range fits us well. We don't feel cramped or overwhelmed handling the boat. We decided that we didn't want to mortgage our lives for something new. We began to narrow our search to a boat line with a pedigree for durability and outstanding design.

Capt. Mike