TRADING UP
With a new adventure on the horizon, Heidi Hasler seeks out a more spacious version of her beloved Chilaxin
When we bought our C330 Chilaxin we were fortunate to be able to buy her new, from the Sealine dealer at Southampton Boat Show in 2016. She arrived in April 2017. Chilaxin is a lovely boat and has had some great adventures – local boating along the Devon coastline, across to Guernsey, and our longer trip in 2018 from Brixham to Torrevieja, Spain. However, for our next adventure, we require a little more room.
Back in January 2019, we flew out to the Düsseldorf Boat Show and looked at dozens of boats. Kev insisted that now was the time for a flybridge. This would give us that extra bit of space for entertaining and two heads for when guests are on board.
After five days walking the halls and looking at many boats, nothing really grabbed us so we decided to look at used boats as well. Ideally, we wanted to stick with a Sealine as we really do like the brand and build quality.
After looking at lots of deck plans we felt that either the F42 or F380 would be the ideal boat. The F380 was the first boat built by Hanse after the takeover and so had the same heritage as our C330 and many of the same features. The F42 was older, and just before the takeover, but still a lovely boat.
Hanse only ever made 31 F380s, which meant we would be lucky to get the model we wanted with the right engines. There were a few F42s for sale, so we hit the road to take a closer look.
The first trip was to Bowness-on-windermere. As lovely as this F42 was, she had a few too many issues and would be extremely costly to fix. We explained to the broker exactly what we were looking for and asked him to give us a call if anything popped up.
We travelled to Surrey to view another F42. Unfortunately, similar issues to the one on the lakes so another non-starter for us.
Back at Brixham, just down from Chilaxin, was an F380! She had just arrived in the marina. Exactly what we wanted. The right colour scheme, engines…omg! Time to speak to the owner to see if he wanted to sell. We met Andy, a lovely chap. However, he had just bought her and was definitely not ready to sell her. Then an F380 came up for sale in Alicante, so I grabbed my passport and took a quick flight out...
She had most of what we wanted but we would still need plenty of changes, and the asking price, in our opinion, was too much.
We noticed another F380 in Brighton. We met with the owner – who obviously loved his boat, it just wasn’t right for his new family. The only downside were the engines – not the ones we wanted. Could we chip them to increase the power? Not advisable according to everyone we spoke to.
It was now the beginning of the boating season so we decided to wait and see if anything came up at the end of the year.
During the August Bank Holiday, whilst working, we got a call from the broker in Bowness-onwindermere to say that an F380 had come onto their books an hour ago. We downed tools and headed north straight away.
We’ve been on board every weekend since
October and even spent Christmas on the water
WORTH THE WAIT
We got to the broker as they opened their doors and had a look around. We knew the layout but just needed to see what condition she was in. Ironically she hadn’t been used regularly enough so was in need of some TLC as well as VHF, radar and software updates. The mildew in the cabins and the heads would also need treatment. The plus side was that she was only four years old, had spent her life on the lake and only had 39 hours on the engines.
We put in a cheeky offer, once we had priced everything up we’d need to spend. This was rejected but our second offer was accepted. It was at this point that we found out she had never been serviced so we did manage to get the owner to drop the price enough to cover the cost of servicing the engines and generator.
It had taken two weeks to get to this point and now we had the Southampton Boat Show coming up. We spent several days at the show checking items for the new boat and pricing up. We spoke to the mortgage company who started the paperwork, and contacted surveyors to keep everything moving along.
Jonathan, the surveyor, met Kev in Bowness and got the F380 lifted. They spent a long day going all over her and found a few issues but nothing that couldn’t be resolved. The mortgage was in place, the survey done and the lorry booked to bring her to Devon. We just needed to transfer the funds.
A few weeks later we were back in the Lakes prepping the boat for the journey to her new home. We lowered the radar arch, washed her down and cleaned the interior the best we could. We headed to Maiden Marine to pay for the lift out and contacted Andy, the lorry driver, who would be bringing her south to Darthaven.
Two days later on the Tuesday morning we got another text to say he was heading into Exeter.
She was finally in Devon!
So the new Chilaxin of Brixham has been serviced, polished, repaired and generally feeling the love. We have been on board every weekend since October and even spent Christmas on the water now that we have more room. She is berthed next to Chilaxin of Exeter (yes, we now have two – “his and her” boats if you like!) But the C330 is under offer and may well be doing the Europe trip again. It took eight weeks from first seeing the F380 to the sale going through and being transported down. About the same as a house sale!
We are planning to go round Britain this year, down to the Isles of Scilly, across to Ireland, through the Caledonian Canal and into the Dutch waterways before heading back home. I think it should be a decent test for Chilaxin. We need to ensure she’s fighting fit because eventually we’d like to take her on The American Great Loop – now that really will be an adventure!