S/V Fernweh

Purchasing a sailboat can be a daunting task. Where do you even begin to start when you live in a land locked state such as Idaho and you have very little sailing experience to even begin to know what you want? I have to give all the credit to Tye here. He has a knack for buying and selling pretty much anything, whether it’s a Felipe Castaneda statue, hospital beds, or a sailboat you better believe he’s done his research and will find the best deal and most likely make a profit. That’s why I trusted him completely in the purchasing of our sailboat.

He spent months on BoatTrader, Yachtworld, Sailboatlistings, HunterOwners, Craigslist, Google Maps (finding individual marina listings), and virtually any and every possible avenue. Our criteria for a boat included:

Quality: Our number one criteria for the boat was that it was a sound, well taken care of boat. It had to have good bones - we knew we could add the bells and whistles.
Budget: We wanted to stay under or around $50,000 knowing we’d put 10-20% more into upgrades ... and potential expenses on transportation.
Function: Our primary needs for the boat was island hopping and coastal cruising. We knew we weren’t going to be crossing the Atlantic.
Size: It might sound funny but the reason we landed on a 40’ boat was the head room. It was important for Tye to be able to stand upright in the cabin. That meant we probably needed a 35’ or larger boat.
Age & Engine Hours: The age of the boat and how many hours the engine had was important to us. We didn’t want to purchase an old, overused boat that needed too much TLC.
Layout: Knowing that we were going to be living in a small space for roughly a year or longer led us to search for boats with open concepts with lots of light. I’m obsessed with natural light and pay close attention to it in my living spaces.
Speed & Performance: We didn't want an overweight sloth, but something that you could actually get excited about when you sailed it.

We ended up finding an 85' Hunter 40 on Lake Texoma in Denison, TX! It checked most of the boxes on our criteria list and had an added bonus of being a fresh water boat that had never met the harsh salt water environment. Hunter was also known for making quality boats in the 80's and 90's. Tye flew down in June of 2017 to view the boat and take it for a sail and came back the proud new owner of a sailboat. I wouldn’t even see it until we moved aboard in September, and I have to give it to him, he did a pretty good job (see photos below).

Boat Specs (as of now):

1985 Hunter Legend 40 (fresh water boat until 2017)

Measurements:
Length - 40 feet
Beam - 13 feet 5 inches
Draft - 6 feet 6 inches
Bridge Clearance - 58.5 feet + wind vane & antennae
Ballast - Lead Keel 7,900 lbs
Displacement - 17,400 lbs
SA Disp - 18.82
Fuel Tank - 40 gallon
Fresh Water Tank - 100 gallons
Holding Tanks - 15 gallons (aft) 15 gallons (fwd)

GalleySalon:
Sun Pure 1hp AC 20-25gph watermaker
Double SS sink
Seawater foot pump
3 burner GSI gimbled stove
Two 20lbs propane tanks - lines w Y-splitter to fuel galley and Magma grill simultaneously
Deep countertop freezer/refrigerator powered by Frigoboat 200F cold plate (12v120v)
2nd dorm-sized refrigerator (12v120v)
Combustible gas (propane) carbon monoxide smoke detector
16,000 BTU 120v air conditioning/heater
Shurflo Aqua King II 3.0 gpm water pump (NEW 2017)
6 gallon hot water heater (120v or engine heated)
Microwave 1.1kw
Lots of storage, spice container, wine glass holder, etc
New PEX PVC main water line with easy access shut off valve

Heads (1 aft 1 fwd):
New sanitation and vent hosing to both heads
New Jabsco toilet aft head (NEW 2016)
New macerator to aft head (NEW 2017)
Aft holding tank re-sealed (2017)
New thru-hull and seacock for raw water intake (NEW 2016)
New y-valve to fwd head with T selector (can manually pump out fwd holding tank) (NEW 2017)
New thru-hull discharge line fwd head (NEW 2017)

Electronics Electrical:
12 volt DC 120 volt AC 30 amp shore
Xantrex 12v ProSine 1800w pure sine power inverter w/remote OnOff
House bank of 505 amp hours - 6v in series/parallel (NEW 2017)
Isolated starter battery
Standard Horizon GX2200 AIS GPS VHF
Shakespeare mast mounted antenna
Hecta Hornet 4 wind/speed/depth
Xantrex TrueCharge 40 amp shore power battery charger
Renogy (2) 150w solar panels with Rover MPPT charge controller
Sony AM/FM/CD player with 4 speakers (2 in salon, 2 in aft cabin)
32 TV with built-in DVD player
4 - 12 volt circulating fans
2 - solar vent fans
2 - DC outlets - 1 at Nav station 1 at the helm
Engine compartment heater for cold weather
Barometer
Clock
LED light conversion (ongoing - interior/exterior)

Engine:
44hp Yanmar 4JHE with 681 (now over 1100)
Spare oil filters, fuel filters, belts, alternator, starter, etc
55 amp alternator
40 gallon aluminum fuel tank
New shaft coupler (NEW 2017)
Access to engine compartment on ALL 4 sides

Sails Rigging:
BR rigging
Fully battened UK mainsail w2 reef points (NEW 2015)
Shaeffer 2100 roller furler
Mainsail cover
Dutchman mainsail system
135 Genoa (NEW 2015)
Whisker pole
Winches - (3) Maxwell #23 (1 mast mounted), (2) Maxwell #25, (2) Maxwell #29 - all serviced

Hull Deck:
Fin keel wspade rudder
Bimini and dodger covering large cockpit area with foldable teak table
8 ports, 6 hatches, 2 windows
2 stern mounted seats
Custom captains cushion portable seat
2 adjustable folding seats
Maxwell 800 windlass
20 lbs danforth anchor
Rocha #20 (44lbs) anchor
150 of 516 chain backup anchor w50 of chain and 100 3 strand braided rode
Stern mounted fender holder
Magma 15 Kettle propane grill
Outboard motor mount
(3) 6 gallon H2O jerry cans
(2) 5 gallon diesel jerry cans
(1) 5 gallon jerry fuel can
Stainless steel fold-down swim ladder

Now the boat didn't come with all of the above but it provided a great start and had a solid foundation which again, was most important to us. You can read about all the specific updates we made to make the boat blue water ready here.