The last few weeks have been very hectic, exciting and a little scary for us, all at the same time. This all started back in May 2018.

I had made two appointments for us to look at two different Hallberg Rassy boats for the the 25^th of May. I also had a test sail of the new Najad 395 AC scheduled the 26^th. We were going to make a weekend of it since all the boats were about 4 hours north of us. We were pretty excited since the HR boats checked all the boxes for us and if they turned out to be less than desirable, then we always had the test sail of the new boat, the one we were really interested in, to look forward to. We had some high hopes for the weekend but then the cold hard slap of reality hit us. About a week and a half before the test sail, Najad canceled since there was a mix up with scheduling and the boat was not longer in Henån but about an hour south of Copenhagen. Since we already made plans to see the HR boats, we had to reschedule the test sail for another time.

A week before we were to see the HR boats in person, one of the yacht brokers called and said someone had put an offer on one of the HR boats and the seller accepted. So this meant that we would only be able to get to look at one boat. Since we already had the hotel and rental car booked, we figured we would still try to make a weekend of it and see what Uddevalla (where our hotel was located) had to offer.

We arrived in Stenungsund to look at the first boat. After a thorough look, we decided that this was not the boat for us. Here is a little of what we saw.

On our a way back to the car, Anna came up with an idea that would in turn, save the weekend. She suggested the we drive up to Henån marina and talk to the yacht brokers that had their office there at the marina. We hopped into the car and drove up to Henån. We arrived around 15:30 and went straight to the office to talk with a yacht broker. Luckily for us, they had not gone home but they were having an afterwork party and were all in a good mood. We told them that we were interested in seeing some sailboats and asked if they had anything with the requirements that we had. Since they were feeling no pain, Magnus, the broker with whom we had previous talks with about a year before, told us about some boats they had. Suddenly, we went from only having one boat lined up for viewing, to having 3 other boats to look at. The weekend turned around for the good in a split second. Good job Anna!

Anna and I went to the dock to where a 2010 Malö 37 was tied up. Now when I first started to look at boats, I had discovered Malö. But after reading about how they went bankrupt, the not having any real updated info on their webpage at that time, or not able to find any update info about them, I kind of wrote them off and focused on Najad. Now we were stepping onto a beautiful, well kept boat and we liked it a lot. We looked though the boat for about an hour or so and then it was time to drive to the hotel and check in. We had another boat to look at the next day and one more to look at on Sunday.

The other two boats were nice but they did not get us excited like the Malö did. We talked about it all the way home and more on Monday. Monday evening, I asked Anna if she wanted to put an offer in on the boat. She said yes, and asked if I wanted to make an offer on it as well. I said yes and then we notified Magnus that we wanted to put in an offer. After some negotiations with the seller, we agreed upon a price and struck up a deal.

The Haul Out

The haul out and hull inspection was schedule for the 11 ^th of June. The boat was hauled out on Friday afternoon so that everything would be ready for the inspection which was scheduled for 07:30. Since I wanted to be there for that, I rented a car and left home at 03:00. I arrived at 07:00 and figured I would get a look at the boat before the inspector came. Walking around the yard, I could not find the boat. I was thinking "How hard is is to find a 38' boat on the hard". I called Magnus and told him that I could not find the boat and the tone of his reply was like "This guy must be blind or something because how hard could it be to find a boat on the hard". He called the boat yard and a few minutes later, he called me back and said there was a mix up. The boat yard splashed the boat at 06:30. They said they had other boats to splash and thought the inspector came on Sunday.

So needless to say, the hull inspection did not happen. The inspector started on the inside and did what he could but the rest of the inspection would have to be completed before the sea trials. The boat was hauled out again Monday afternoon so that everything would be ready to go on Wednesday morning. See a pattern starting here?

The sea trials were scheduled for the 13 ^th . Anna and I got to sleep in since the inspector would not be there until 09:00. So we did not need to leave until 04:30. Upon arrival, we could see that the boat was in the slings and ready for inspection and ready to be splashed directly after.