One Less Boat on Yachtworld

Well, we closed on our Defever 44 today! What a process! But all's well that ends that way and we can't wait to start cruising her. Unfortunately, we'll have to since she's in Florida and our first opportunity to move her north to the Chesapeake will be in late June.

I hope to get down to see her in a few weeks, but I'm already starting to wonder if I should hire somebody to check on her regularly. The marina manager sounds great and says they'll check on her a couple times a day. I'm sure that will be a walk-by to see if she's listing or leaking fuel, but I'd like to know if the bilge and tank tops are dry. What would y'all do?

Her new name is Stella Maris.

Nice looking boat.

Very nice looking boat, also a popular name. If you do a vessel search on the CG DB, there are 44 other Stella Maris', although only a 58 Krogen I know of may be as good looking!

Does the marina have WiFi? Hook up a couple of wireless cameras then you can be "near and dear" via your smartphone or tablet

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Trawler

Beautiful boat! I think Don Moon has a captain keep an eye on his boat in his absence for a small fee, perhaps he'll drop in with more details for you.

THD said:

Very nice looking boat, also a popular name. If you do a vessel search on the CG DB, there are 44 other Stella Maris', although only a 58 Krogen I know of may be as good looking!

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Very nice of you to say so!

We named our sailboat Stella Maris 20 years ago after a little church on Sullivan's Island, SC -- a place that has a lot of fond memories for us. (It was either that or Moultrie, which didn't sound as good to our ears.) Later, we learned about all the imitators. We sold her two years and found we missed the name.

mbevins said:

Does the marina have WiFi? Hook up a couple of wireless cameras then you can be "near and dear" via your smartphone or tablet

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Trawler

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CPseudonym said:

Beautiful boat! I think Don Moon has a captain keep an eye on his boat in his absence for a small fee, perhaps he'll drop in with more details for you.

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Thanks. Both good ideas. I've never bought anything like this that I couldn't start taking hands-on care of right away. I guess I'm wondering how many people feel OK with their boat some distance away with casual attention by folks at the marina. Or, since it's only for two months, am I obsessing?

Good going, Ian. I was hoping the deal would go through. That boat was searching for a good captain.

By the way, 40 years ago we named our boat Sundancer. Do you think I should suit SeaRay.

Craig, I have a great captain looking after Moonstruck. We are in adjoining slips, and he runs the most well known charter boat around---The Last Mango. He basically doesn't have much to do on Moonstruck. He will double the lines incase of storms, or move the the boat yard. He also checks battery voltages, and the bilge. He will call and let me know if anything seems unusual.

angus99 said:

Thanks. Both good ideas. I've never bought anything like this that I couldn't start taking hands-on care of right away. I guess I'm wondering how many people feel OK with their boat some distance away with casual attention by folks at the marina. Or, since it's only for two months, am I obsessing?

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Nope. It would drive me crazy.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Trawler

My biggest concern is that I have water entering the bilge undetected, which could overwhelm the pumps if there is a sustained power failure, or if the leak rate gets worse. When I leave my boat in another country, I shut all the through hulls. I also have bilge cycle counters, so if any water is coming in, I will know it, at least if I am on board. My other fear is power failure (which includes some dock guy unplugging my boat) and the freezers thawing with all the food lost into a stinky mess. Happened once. The suggestion above for an internet monitoring system is good, but at least in some foreign marinas internet comes and goes.

Congratulations! Defenders are great boats. Looking forward to hearing about your adventures. The wifi remote camera sounds like a great way to keep visual tabs on your boat. We live 4 1/2 hours from our boat and over a mountain pass in the winter. Makes getting there quite a challenge sometimes. The camera look would be great if our marina had wifi. :-(

Very nice looking boat! Good job finding just the right one to suit your cruising needs. For only two months, I'd hire the marina to keep an eye on her. Peace of mind is priceless.

I'd give them a key and ask them to check on the bilge once a day.

Angus....where will you be stationed on the Chesapeake? I am mid bay.

Great buy!

You should take her to down to Stella Maris on Long Island before you take her up to the Chesapeake.

Congrats and good luck

Very nice. I was surprised to see a piano on board.

Moonstruck said:

I have a great captain looking after Moonstruck. He will double the lines incase of storms, or move the the boat yard. He also checks battery voltages, and the bilge. He will call and let me know if anything seems unusual.

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Thanks, Don and all. Think that's the route I'm going to take.

(As for suing Sea Ray, let me know how that goes. One of my wife's ancestors in the 1800s was kicked out of the Quaker and Baptist churches for making whiskey--and a few other things. One of her family myths is that he sold the recipe . . . to some upstart named Jack Daniels. If you succeed with Sea Ray, I may take a run at JD )

dhmeissner said:

Very nice. I was surprised to see a piano on board.

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You have better eyes than I do. Or do you mean the guy on the sundeck who looks like he's at a keyboard?

Bill, I haven't finalized yet but she's going to be kept above Annapolis somewhere. And then wandering all around the bay.

We will miss you when we head to Maine in a few weeks. We'll look for you on our return in late Oct/Nov. We will be the one out in the Nov gales. Come join us, your girl can handle it

Congrats! Now the work begins to make her yours! You can't give her a new name until you do the proper naming ceremony!

http://boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/rename.htm

Alaskan Sea-Duction said:

Congrats! Now the work begins to make her yours! You can't give her a new name until you do the proper naming ceremony!

http://boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/rename.htm

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Geez, thanks for the reminder! Wonder if documenting her with her new name counts? If so, I'm screwed.

Congratulations! Very nice boat. Let me know if you make it over to the Eastern Shore (Crisfield) this summer. If my boat gets out of the paint shop before fall, she will be at Sommers Cove in Crisfield.

Ted

O C Diver said:

Congratulations! Very nice boat. Let me know if you make it over to the Eastern Shore (Crisfield) this summer. If my boat gets out of the paint shop before fall, she will be at Sommers Cove in Crisfield.

Ted

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I'll do it, Ted. Would love to see that Cherubini. Thnx!

Angus, I live up in that frozen wasteland called Canada & my boat is on the opposite end of the continent on the gulf side of FLA. Like you I stressed about being so far away, our boat sits for months unattended. I do the same as MV Traveler, I close every seacock on the boat and turn off every breaker except the battery chargers. Except for being robbed twice everything has been fine. I do now have an alarm & camera system that allows me to look in on it from time to time. Best of all, I also found a member of the forum here who only lives a few blocks away & keeps a close eye on it for me, god bless him. I still stress about it though as one of my recent post's regarding the current flooding in Fla will attest, but it's a manageable and mostly unwarranted stress now.

Do what you can and Relax, beautiful ship by the way!

Capt Kangeroo said:

Angus, I live up in that frozen wasteland called Canada & my boat is on the opposite end of the continent on the gulf side of FLA.

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Really helpful, Capt. But what else would I expect from someone from Canada? (I was born in Brantford, Ontario .) I know I'll calm down as soon as I've set up someone to watch her . . . and know what to tell them to watch.

Thanks!

Defever

She is good looking, where in FL is she?

And Bill, we see your boat every time we check on ours at Zimmerman's. We've been in the shed for about 3 months.

Bill Noftsinger

Was this boat in the Halifax Marina inDaytona a couple of weeks ago ?

It look likes the one that the owner told me had just been surveyed and he was taking it back to the Palm Shores.

You will like the DF44 well laid out and very useable with split staterooms makes entertaining overnight friends much easier.

gwkiwi said:

Was this boat in the Halifax Marina inDaytona a couple of weeks ago ?

It look likes the one that the owner told me had just been surveyed and he was taking it back to the Palm Shores.

You will like the DF44 well laid out and very useable with split staterooms makes entertaining overnight friends much easier.

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The very same! Had her hauled next door at Aquamarina. Wish I'd known you were there. Love to see your 49RPH.