started long before I purchased this beautiful Bavaria 38 Match. She was built in 2003 at Bavaria’s shipyard in Giebelstadt Germany and after 20 years of sailing with various owners in Finland and Denmark I found her online for sale. So my story of BAIA begins at the end of December 2022:
I’ve had been looking at various yachts for the last months and travelled a lot to check them all out. BAIA ticked all the boxes on my list and I contacted the owner to go to Juelsminde for a viewing.
Upon arrival I was greeted by the owner. The pictures didn’t lie and it was nice to finally find a yacht with this age in this nice condition. I contacted a yacht surveyor back in Holland and to ask about the proces and if he was available for a survey on site. After getting the required information I proposed to get the survey done. The seller agreed and after spending some hours in Denmark I drove back to the Netherlands. It was a long but exciting day.
Confirming the survey the next day and getting everything in order. The date was set on January 18th for the survey to take place. I decided to head out a couple of days early so that I can help moving the yacht if needed. But the seller took care of that the weekend before. So I had some time to enjoy the seaside town of Juelsminde in winter. There is nothing much to do.
The winds were in our favor on Thursday the 18th, as the survey started the wind dies down and we could lift BAIA out of the water for the hull and keel inspection. It’s always exciting for a yacht to come out and it was impressive to see a 7 ton yacht stand on her 2.35 meter fin keel without any movement. After all the hull checks were completed she was lowered back into the water and the rest of the day was spent for the rest of the survey.
At the end we had a chat about the small findings that were found in the survey and we came to an agreement with the seller. So the surveyor went home and I stayed behind to sort out a purchase agreement and get all the things sorted. I’ve bought BAIA!
The next day I drove home and thought about all the next steps that I had to do now. From getting the yacht insured to making a plan to get her sailed home. But where is home? Ah yes I need a berth somewhere. So I made a long to-do list and started ticking off all the paperwork items.
The first step is to sail her back to IJmuiden, the Netherlands. Which will be her home port from now on. I’ve contacted some of the people I sailed with during my RYA Yachtmaster Offshore training. And they wanted to come aboard for the trip. So I set a departure date: February 15th 2023. Weather permitting.
I found an ad online for a set of 7 SOLAS immersion/survival suits and decided to buy them all since they can always come in handy in the future. Even though I have a total of 4 people to sail her back.
The yacht comes with a lot of stuff that does not need to be aboard for the return trip. So I decided to get in the car yet again (this time my truck) to haul all the stuff over that needs to be on and get off all the things that don’t have to be there.
I arrived in the evening of January 24th after another 700+ km drive. It was pretty exciting sleeping on BAIA for the very first time. I slept great! And next days I started to move all the stuff on and off. Then I basically decided to stay aboard for a couple of weeks to get everything sorted before the trip.
So this is how my story of BAIA starts. Keep following this weblog to read more updates in the future.