Acquisition of the Boat

Here is the Chronology of the Purchase of Caspian

  • 10/24: Walked away from Aliyah M, 1989 Bayliner 3888, twin Hino 175s
  • 11/3:  Spotted Black Swan on yacht world "priced to sell", suggested it looked like a good deal to Jason. Jason says "there has to be something wrong, that's a [much higher figure] boat. Offer them [much less than the priced to sell price]. Okay Jason, you are our boat buying expert.
  • 11/4:  We were countered at a little higher than our ridiculous offer and accepted. Jason is adopted as an honorary Bacon and is now assured to be our boat broker for life (not sure if he offers family discounts).
  • 11/20: Tony and Jason go to Huntington Beach, CA for survey and sea trial. This was kind of fun because Tony booked his flight a week early. What fun to pay double the cost of a normal flight by needing to rebook to the correct date.




  • 11/29: Survey received, revised offer to even lower than the first ridiculously low offer. There was quite a delay in the survey reports coming in. Both surveyors were optimistic they would have the report to us the following Monday and certainly by Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Nope, didn't happen.
  • 12/1: Countered again at slightly more than ridiculously low and they accepted
  • 12/4: Loan approved 
  • 12/5: Insurance quote received
  • 12/8: Select Associated Transport to truck the boat here from CA
  • 12/11: First bid on prepping the boat for transport comes in at $7,648. Gasp!!!
  • 12/11: Bernie takes over getting estimates on transport prep. 
  • Around the same time, the first lender backed out due to the boats survey. 
  • This was followed by the insurance company also backing out. 
  • What followed next was a mad frenzy of being turned down for insurance multiple times until finally finding a broker who knew something about boats. 
  • Craig arranged for PORT RISK ASHORE only insurance. 
  • This entire week had Tony in deep depression and it wasn't even the shortest day of the year yet. This is when it is good to have faith and a wonderful spouse to keep hope alive
  • We'll need to do some refit Tony initially estimates at 100 hours of DIY time. Later a local surveyor Pat reviews the survey and listed only the items that need attention to get in-the-water insurance dropping the DIY estimate to 20 hours. 
  • In the process of all of this we went back and forth between having Caspian put in a 100% DIY yard or Rocky Point, Scappoose. Rocky point allows DIY work while the boat is there for paid labor work but only, M-F 9-5. .



  • 12/14: Decide on Marina Shipyard and Rick Ross to prep boat in Long Beach, CA
  • 12/22: First leg of the journey home as the boat was relocated by the CA broker from the brokerage to Marina Shipyard. Thanks Jeff Larson, Yorath Yachts!
  • 12/22: Sale Closed! It's ours! There was a 1% owner who was in no hurry to get paperwork signed and notorazed. This person delayed us to the point we missed our truck appointment, the next truck available was two weeks out.
  • 12/27: Change the transport company to DRFT, thinking the boat would be picked up on 1/11 and Bernie will finally get to see Caspian on 1/14.
  • 1/10: Casey the driver/owner of DRFT Transport calls. He has become ill on the drive down to get the boat, turns back home.
  • 1/16: Receive word that Casey was on his way to pick up Caspian
  • 1/19: Pictures start coming in from Casey of the boat at the dock, on the crane and then on the trailer!




  • 1/19: Casey waits for evening when wide loads are allowed through LA and heads across town where he will park and wait to begin the first long leg back
  • 1/20: No word from Casey, phone lost?
  • 1/21: Expecting Caspian's arrival this evening

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