This is the day when we made the final decision. A professional survey gave us a clear picture of the boat’s status, and we could only move on and buy or back up and let it go (spoiler: we moved on).
It was a gorgeous day this November in Biograd, when we met with Jure, representing the owner, Sinisa, from Maritimus Consultant and Bruna, his daughter. We had chosen Sinisa and Bruna as surveyors, recommended by Nick Hathaway, from 45 Degrees Sailing. Nick was very helpful at the very beginning, a few weeks earlier, when we had to make a quick decision about this boat and make an initial offer without having seen it already. He visited the boat on our behalf and sent us a video with his comments.
Jure had shown up first. He was so nice, making it easy to quickly let go of the little anxiety. This anxiety often comes when you move your first steps onto uncertain ground, or, better, in uncharted waters.
We quickly untied the boat. We moved to the most remote corner of the marina. There, a giant blue traveler was waiting for us. In a few minutes the boat was hauled out for us to inspect the hull. It had been a charter boat. It was the end of the season. The first look was not so encouraging. There were plenty of barnacles on the keel. Many rust strikes were coming from the exhausts and the through hulls. The sides were non-polished.
Back to the boat, we find a clean hull, with all the barnacles gone. We focus on issues, but there aren’t many. The boat needs more love after being handled by too many charter captains. The hull, the rudders, the saildrive, and the thru-hulls are all in good condition. We will need to sandblast the bottom and repaint it due to too many layers. The sides will need polishing after removing all the charter stickers. However, there is absolutely no sign of collisions or osmosis.
It is now time to send the boat back into the water, and go out for testing it. The conditions could not be better, 4bf, calm sea and plenty of sun with summer-like temperatures.
Under sail outside Biograd
The sails are as new. The boat with a clean hull is doing greatly. We are really enjoying the day and the company. We are so excited because everything looks great. Bruna and Sinisa are testing and photographing everything. Jure is skipping. We resist the temptation to be at the wheel, just in case something happened …
And yes! everything checked out, only minor issues, the Neo Star II will definitely become Jane & Darcy! Thank you to Nick, Bruna, Sinisa, Jure, Marco, and Zelinska. The rest of the Pitter team have been so nice and helpful!
S/YJane & Darcy 
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