We bought Yanula Blue in 2023 with a long distance trip in mind. We were looking for a robust bluewater boat, priorities being a skeg rudder and a master cabin with a bed that can be accessed from both sides.
Whilst looking, we reviewed Westerleys, Hallberg Rasseys, Island Packets and Oysters, looking at yachts up and down the South Coast of England but nothing ticked enough boxes! Our research led us toward Moody Yachts from the nineties and noughties, but with very little on the market in the UK we cast the net wider and eventually found a boat call Blue of Hamble out in Lanzarote in the Canaries.
As travelling to the Canaries from the UK wasn’t something we could do at the drop of a hat, we were reluctant to travel all that way to look at a boat and so we reached out via social media to see if we could find a similar boat to have a look at, so that we could get a feel for the layout.
Mike and Joan, the owners of a Moody 42 called Purrfurus, invited us onboard their yacht in Hythe and we spent a lovely day talking to them. We liked the layout and were inspired by the way she presented and the things Mike and Joan had done to Purrfurus as upgrades. They were very proud of her and have since become good friends and mentors to us.
So we booked a holiday stay in Lanzarote, near to Rubicon marina and set off to have a look at Blue of Hamble. She was great although needed some love, but as we knew we wanted to make a boat our own we were willing to get stuck in! Part of our planning process was for Chris to do a lot of the work on the boat himself and really get to know her, so when we got to more remote places in the world we were able to fix things ourselves more easily.
We arranged a survey in Lanzarote, agreed a deal which was to be concluded in the UK for tax purposes, and went home to wait for her to be delivered to Poole in the UK. The image below shows the track back to the UK, including a large storm off Brest which she handled admirably!
She finally arrived, a little bit bruised from the delivery and the storm, and we took ownership on 10th August 2023, which is when the real work commenced!
