We Bought a Boat!

Position: 38°57’47″N 76°28’42″W

The reassuring whiplash of our Boeing’s tailhook grabbing the arresting wire at Baltimore Washington International jerked us awake. We had landed just in time for dinner and bed in the noisy airport Hilton. After a fitful night’s sleep, we jump-started our crusty rental car and headed south for a mid-morning appointment with Bernie Jakits, CEO and founder of Rogue Wave Yachts. While he always had a couple of other big blue-water boats on hand, as a Valiant owner himself, Bernie had carved out a niche selling his chosen boat. Both passionate and deeply knowledgeable, there’s not a Valiant owner in America that hasn’t met or heard of him.

The winding, tree-lined road came to a sharp bend. There a forest of white masts rose above the dense maples. Civilisation Ho! A full mile of cyclone fence later we hung a left and entered the dusty confines of Port Annapolis Marina’s compound. We parked, took a couple of deep breaths, and found a door with Rogue Wave’s logo on it. Pushing it open, the momentary rustle of a metal venetian blind announced our arrival. Seated at his desk, impish, a Prussian leprechaun with long silver hair and piercing blue eyes, Bernie glanced up and said, “How can I help you?”

We each took a seat as I explained that the west coast was short of good blue water boats. As a result, we had flown east and set a goal of seeing every double-ender we could before the week was out. He considered this and asked, “What kind of sailing do you want to do?” We replied that we wanted to circumnavigate. To see the world. To cast our fortunes to the wind and waves and throw our lot in with Poseidon. Listening carefully, he lowered his head slightly and shot us a glance from under his brow. His eyes darted between us. “You two don’t know what you want, do you?” His distinctive accent putting a sharp edge on his words.

With 40 years of research and coastal sailing under my keel bolts, I took a little umbrage at this. I knew almost exactly what I wanted – either a Pacific Seacraft 40 or a Valiant 42. But rather than cut the conversation short, I decided to see what he was going to say next. Besides, Carol had no idea about boats or circumnavigating, so perhaps Bernie could bring her around to my way of thinking. “Come with me”, he said standing up and leading us outside.

CHOICES

The boatyard was well stocked. Two Valiant 42s, a rare Valiant 50 (Miss Red), a big, broad English-built Bowman 48, and a couple of other boats that didn’t stick in my memory. Next door, at his competitor’s, sat a Pacific Seacraft 37 and an Island Packet 40. Miss Red was too big and expensive for us, and from experience the shorter Pacific Seacraft too small (and this example too old). He turned our attention to the Island Packet.

I’ve never liked Island Packets. While they are solidly built, between their signature beige gelcoat and oddly bent self-tending jib boom, they’ve never held any appeal. Stepping inside, though, it had everything for a new-to-cruising spouse. A comfortable salon, wide galley and nice finishes. Attractive for the marina-based sailor heading out for nothing more than a long weekend. Like so many other modern designs, they’re better for short trips, not crossing oceans. Bernie looked at Carol and said something along the lines of, ‘These are very attractive boats, especially for a certain kind of woman. But they’re slow. So slow they’re known as Island Piglets in racing cruiser circles.’

His subliminal message to Carol about becoming a sailor with serious goals was precisely targeted. It hit home. The lip gloss came off the piglet just long enough for our exploration to continue.

BEGIN THE BEGUINE

Directly across the way sat a Valiant 42, The Beguine of Marysville, Kansas. I can’t think of a less nautical location for a hailing port. Perhaps her previous owners wanted a conversation starter, as if her name weren’t enough. Most Valiant’s keep their off-white hull colour, but The Beguine was deep blue from her waterline to her toerail. Clambering up the long ladder we made our way on deck. For a boat that had been around the world already, she looked shiny and new. As a broker, Bernie was doing his job.

Inside, her layout couldn’t have been more different than the Island Packet. Deep, rich cherry-wood hand finished in tung oil dominated and warmed the interior. A large nav station to starboard, a snug galley to port, a practical main salon, a queen berth forward, and a good-sized cabin aft made up the accommodations. Most importantly I could stand up straight. She was the right length, too. Our criteria of big enough for safety, small enough for single handing, was met. There were elements of the Pacific Seacraft 40’s layout I liked more, but something about this boat spoke to Carol.

Valiant Efforts

Poking around the other Valiants in the yard confirmed what others said, that the centre entry, queen forward layout is the most liveable of the 42s. Having sailed the seven seas, The Beguine’s previous owners had amassed enough spare parts to fill a storage locker. They had fitted a water maker, an additional 80 gallons of fuel, single side band radio, Automatic Identification System (send and receive), along with a long list of pretty much everything I thought I needed for a long voyage.

They had also spent (despite Bernie’s precis) 10 years sailing her. If it were another brand of boat, I might have walked away. But for a Valiant that’s only a shakedown cruise. Every boat needs work and 10 years is the time to start replacing things. On the other hand, 10 years is also the time depreciation on better boats plateaus.

More people, Bernie told us, have circumnavigated in Valiants than any other boat. (We later corroborated this with enough anecdotal evidence to believe it is true.) They are fast, manoeuvrable, proven, and defined a whole new class of yachts when they first arrived on the market. With its classic lines and high build quality, it remains an aspirational boat for many true blue-water sailors. For the full story of its origins, click here: Birth of the Valiant.

No Resisting Temptation

Bernie moved off so we could spend a little time getting a feel for The Beguine. She wasn’t perfect by any means, but who is? And she whispered to Carol, who had just quit her job and was about to sell her house in pursuit of grand adventure. After an hour of talking and thinking, Carol looked at me and said, ‘I think we should buy her.’ A few minutes later, Bernie turned up and asked, ‘Well?’

Neither of us had bought a boat before. But, with multiple inspections and layers of paperwork, the downside risk of buyer’s remorse is manageable. Plus, we’d examined the storage locker’s worth of spare parts that came with the deal. So, we made an offer. Just like that. We climbed back down Beguine’s ladder and walked over to Bernie’s office where we sat down and began the lengthy process of buying a boat

HAIL ALETA!

Since we had to notify the government of The Beguine’s sale, it made sense to rechristen her at the same time. Given our biases about naming boats, titles of Cole Porter standards never registered on our list of alternatives. Instead, we opted for an obliquely retro pop culture reference and named her for the grey-eyed Queen of the Misty Isles, Aleta, a leading character in the long running Sunday newspaper comic, Prince Valiant. Tough and resourceful, she is Val’s one true love. The woman he went to the ends of the earth to find. They married in 1946 and have been adventuring ever since. May we all live so well. Besides that, she looks a lot like Carol.

Video: Buying Aleta

 

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