The story is beautiful. It is the story of Stéphane who has just bought his sailboat at auction at a quarter of its value.
It all began one morning in early 2017 when he discovered an ad on an auction site. It is offered a Kendo 46 (a sailboat of almost 13 m built in polyester by the CNSO shipyard in 1981). The boat is complete with sails, electronics, engine, ready to sail. The bidding price is 12 500 euroseuros
Stéphane, who could not go and see the boat before the auction, asked for a photo file and a description. He decides, without even having seen the boat, to take the risk of bidding higher: " I knew I was taking a risk, but commitment doesn't scare me. And then I read a little bit about this model on the internet. "
Sold!
On the day of the sale, Stéphane is on the phone with the auctioneer's assistant. She tells him that there are 12 people on the site who can bid. The tension rises. The auctioneer announces the sale of the sailboat: " Bet at 12 500 euros, once, twice euros if there are no bids I will have to withdraw it from the saleeuros "Stéphane calls "GO!" on the phone. The audience shouts " 12 500 "The auctioneer:" 12,500 once, 12,500 twice, 12,500 three times, sold! "At the other end of the phone, Stéphane, who heard everything, screams with joy. He is now the owner of a beautiful sailboat. The payment of 13,800 euros with expenses is made by credit card on the internet. He has not yet seen the boateuros
Discovering your purchase
It was only 15 days later that he discovered his boat in real life. It has been on the quay of Soubise for 3 years, very dirty aesthetically, but globally complete.
The first observations lead to a small disappointment. Indeed, the Kendo is all open, the panels of descent are not any more in place and a part of the electronics disappeared. Moreover the mast seems to be sleeved and a crack appears at the level of the sleeving. For the rest everything seems to be in order.
Ready to sail, or almost
Not wanting to take any risk, and with the advice of Soromap, Stéphane decided to change the mast (15 000 euros) for an identical one in order to reuse the sails which are still good. The 60 hp Perkins engine has 8800 hours and seems to be in good condition. All that remains is to put the boat back in the water and transport it to its home port of Gruissan.
A tour of Spain as a test
To sail around Spain, Stéphane takes 3 crew members that he finds on a crew exchange. The 17-day cruise went well despite a few engine problems (a broken belt, a recalcitrant starter) and too little wind to sail, the tour was completed in 17 days.
A stopover is decided in Barcelona to refuel. Once in port, the crew split up to meet obligations. Stéphane found himself alone and chose to finish the last miles alone. These will be learning miles, because as he passes Cape Creus, he will be faced with strong seas and force 8 winds. In the morning, after nearly 24 hours at sea, he entered Port Vendre. The boat is healthy, she can handle the sea well and her owner has adopted her.
The magic of the internet
When he bought his boat, Stéphane renamed it "The Sun Shine" (it was previously called "La Mezière") : " I am not superstitious, changing the name of a boat does not scare me. I wanted to rename it to give it a new life. It had been sold following a seizure, a financial bankruptcy that had left it on a dock for 3 years. It was time for her to take a new route, as if this name change could erase her old life. "
But where does this Kendo come from? " When you buy at auction, you lose the whole history of the boat. I had no contact with the former owner who was seized. I knew nothing about this boat, nothing about its history, which is 40 years old. "But the magic of the internet works. While he opens a page on Facebook to tell his story, Stéphane is contacted by a former owner of the Kendo who tells him part of his life. This sailboat was chartered in the West Indies and already had a round-the-world trip under its keel, and it was on the way back from a transatlantic race that it was going to dismast, hence the shackling of the mast.
A beautiful story that Stéphane wants to prolong since the project with this sailboat is a departure for a great cruise in the summer of 2020
