Pasargada in Poulsbo

Here is Pasargada as we first found her at the Poulsbo Yacht Club Marina in December, 2013.  I’ve been to Poulsbo too many times to count now and it’s been a great experience every time. This is the second boat I’ve purchased and the most complicated by far.

When we first found her, Rachel and I went out on a Saturday afternoon and did an initial inspection of the boat.  We both liked her right off the bat, while trying not to get emotionally attached.  Everything in the boat was in really nice condition.  Too nice in fact.  At this point we didn’t know anything about the history of this particular boat but it was clear that for a 13 or 14 year old boat it had been really loved.

At the end of the inspection we sat and chatted in the salon below and just enjoyed the simplicity of the layout and craftsmanship.

Pasargada Salon

In boat buying it’s really critical to not get emotionally attached.

We spent some weekends looking at other boats around Puget Sound and nothing really measured up.  Our goal is to cruise the Pacific NorthWest for the next ten years and to eventually go offshore for an extended cruise.  The options as we see it basically come down to a few:

1) Get an older, cheaper and less capable boat for in-land cruising. Use her to cruise around the PNW and get comfortable with cruising.  When we get close to leaving, sell that boat, get a newer offshore capable boat and prepare her for the cruise(s).

2) Get an older, well built and capable offshore boat and spend time upgrading and fixing her up.

3) Get the newest, best built offshore capable boat we can afford today, spend the next 10 years learning her and upgrading her and take her on our cruise.

It took a lot of research and thought (not to mention soul searching) but we finally came to the conclusion to go with the third option.  Option number one was also tempting, but getting an older boat meant possibly dealing with a lot of major boat projects. Also, when we get close to leaving, we have to go through a boat sale and then we have to find the boat we want, which could take any amount of time.  Option two was pretty much off the table, as we both work full-time and don’t live aboard, taking on a boat retrofit project is not realistic.  It was very tempting, because we would learn so many skills, but the soul searching told me that as much as I would enjoy gaining these skills, I’m not a carpenter and I will likely never do enough carpentry to get really good at it.

So Option 3 won out, and Pasargada was still on the market, so on a rainy Sunday afternoon in January I took another ferry ride to Poulsbo and spent some time with the boat and I knew right there that this would be boat we were going to go for.

I’ll post separately about the survey and purchase process itself.  I hope this blog will capture many of the experiences we have had and hopefully will have aboard this fine vessel.