How and Why We Bought a Yacht

In a recent post I mentioned we bought a yacht. You may have visions of a luxury vessel roaming the open sea, but let’s be real. We don’t even know if it runs.

How, and why, did this happen?

It all started in late summer 2020. We were sitting outside the camper, tucked away on the edge of our property while guests were renting our house. One of the many ideas we dreamed up about the future was having a boat to travel and live in part of the year.

Shortly after, while the idea was still fresh, we met with a financial planner to get clarity on our short and long term goals. The boat actually seemed like a realistic endeavor, so we slated in a purchase of a nice, used yacht 5 – 10 years down the road.

Then, fate intervened.

Be careful what you wish for.

Fate… or Brett’s new obsession with looking at yachts for sale online. His research was helping us narrow down our most important criteria.

1. Trailerable

• So we could store it on land and trailer to the body of water of our choice

2. Open back deck

• For fishing, of course

3. Located in our area

• Making it realistic to view in person

At first it was an indulgent pastime, until one morning he came across something on Craigslist that could actually fit in our budget at the time.

I almost spit out my coffee when he showed me the listing. No. Way. We laughed at the prospect of buying a complete fixer-upper when he had barely finished restoring a 17-foot Yar-Craft fishing boat. This was a completely different level.

Technically, it fit all our criteria. Once you got past the cosmetic shock.

A few hours later, one of us posed the defining question: What if we just went to look at it?

Call me Captain (or First Mate)

One week later, on September 20, 2020, we became the proud owners of a 1981 Carver Santa Cruz 26.

It couldn’t come home with us that day because the trailer tires were flat from sitting on land, unused, for the past decade. Can you tell?

We could, however, dream of all the amazing places we’d go. Down the Mississippi. Up to the Apostle Islands. Along the U.S. coast, to the Caribbean, and beyond. We could offer sightseeing tours on our local lakes in the summer and start a fishing charter business in the south during winter. The options were endless!

But first, reality

Our engines were turning, but the yacht’s was not. At least not on the initial test of the motor during our walk-through with the previous owner.

For the listed price, we weren’t really worried about that. And apart from a soft spot in the front bow deck, which helped during the unbearably uncomfortable negotiation process, the bones were solid.

A few days later, steadied by fresh trailer tires, The Highknocker (formerly named Rejoice) stood tall in her new home.

We got to work on the low-hanging fruit. That included taking inventory of everything in the drawers and cupboards, removing musty cushions, curtains, and carpeted ceiling, and vacuuming out years of dust and hornet nests in every crevice.

Engage elbow grease

As fall closed in, Brett got motivated to see what could be done to the exterior before winter. He pressure washed, bleached, and waxed the scummy surface, brightening our spirits along the way. She’ll be a real beauty once we do a full facelift someday!

He then spent many dark evening hours after work laying face up in the bow, removing and replacing the rotted wood by lamp light. It took much longer than expected, but that unfortunate job was crossed off the list just as the calendar changed to 2021.

Going with the flow

Amidst all this excitement, the winds of change blew through. Soon our priorities shifted to Brett’s new job, moving to our newly purchased land, and the need to build a house.

So, the ever-patient Highknocker sits under a makeshift garage tent, waiting for us to pick up where we left off.

Now what?

Our new house still needs lots of work, but the yacht project is emerging from the back of our mind. The tentative plan is to:

• Get the motor running this summer
• Gradually work on low-cost cosmetic improvements as time allows
• Take a maiden voyage on Lake Michigan by the end of summer 2022
• Save up for larger improvements and outboard motors, which will likely take several years

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Lessons learned so far

I share all this to document our journey and hopefully inspire you in some way. As I look back, there are some lessons I think can be gleaned from the experience so far.

Dream big

The Brett and Carrie of two years ago, loyally working our 8-5 jobs in a comfortable routine, could not have fathomed all these changes would happen. Give yourself space to dream without fear or judgement or worrying about how it can all possibly work.

Define your priorities

How do you move forward in one direction when anything is possible? It helped us to set some parameters.

Finding a boat that was trailerable was our biggest priority, which would give us flexibility to launch from places near and far. That ended up cutting out a lot of options that could’ve been disguised as good opportunities.

Be realistic & flexible

For us, this looked like knowing our finances. Meeting with the financial planner through our local bank was incredibly helpful. It was empowering to see our life mapped out and how changes big and small could affect our future.

A nicer boat wouldn’t be an option for years ahead, and we ultimately decided the extra work would be better than waiting for another opportunity that may not come (26-footers are hard to find!). It wasn’t as scary to make the purchase right away knowing where we were financially. I highly recommend doing the same to give yourself confidence and clarity.

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What does this mean for you?

Does something in our story resonate with you? Do you have questions about our plans or process? Let us know below. I’m anxiously awaiting a first comment that’s not spam!