Boat Purchase

In January 2008, we purchased our boat, a Baba35, in Savannah GA. Many people have asked how we came to choose a Baba. It actually was a very easy decision.  From our research and reading we knew we wanted a blue-water capable boat, at least 35 feet for comfort, but, no longer than 35 feet (so it can be easily handled by only two and be more economical to use and maintain), a very traditional design with a full keel/ cutter rig, a quality build and built in the early 1980's (before they started underbuilding production boats). It also had to have 'character'. With these characteristics, the list of suitable boats was actually was very short. We liked Bob Perry's designs and started looking at Hans Christians and Tayana 37s. This eventually led us to the Babas. The Babas were built in Taiwan in the early 80's by TaShing, who were considered the best yard there at the time. We planned to buy in the U.S. as that's where most of the boats ended up, the prices were better and the exchange rate was good at the time. So, we lined up five candidates to view on a boat-buying trip and luckily we found one that was in good condition and proved suitable. We were based in the U.K. at the time and toyed with the idea of shipping the boat over to use in the U.K. as we didn't have time then to sail it over. We quickly decided that the cost of shipping plus the cost of marinas in the U.K. was prohibitive and it would be cheaper to fly over 4-5 times to visit rather than ship. So, a number of visits ensued, none of which allowed us to do more than day-sail the boat and think about what we wanted to do with it (while we watched it deteriorate in the hot Savannah sun).

When we purchased the boat, we hadn't yet finalized our cruising plans and Europe was a far-away 'maybe'. However, over the two years, with a lot of sailing experience gained in the U.K. and a very capable offshore boat, we thought 'why not? We can do this...' and starting planning a transAtlantic
voyage. This decision dictated a lot of what we did next.