We bought our sailboat!
When we started talking about buying a boat, it felt like buying a computer in 1995 -what in the World is all that stuff about??? We went through several phases and changed our minds (for the better) a few times. Our deal was, we were not gonna commit to anything before taking a serious sailing lesson, and try living on a boat for two week.
Phase 1: So... Where do we start?
It's July 2015, we're spending a few days on the lovely island of Re while in France, and we're going around all the marinas we can find to look at sailboats. We're sitting by the terrace of a restaurant where we drink a little wine and dream ourselves away. Should we get into sailing? Why not?!
- The plan: To somehow pull it off.
- Money we thought we'd spend on the sailboat: A lot, probably.
Phase 2: Let's buy a brand new boat at a boat show!
Coming home from our holidays, there was going to be a boat show in Stockhom, Allt på Sjön, which we were both really excited about. This was back in August 2015, and was our first contact with sailboat purchasing.We looked at all the sailboats there, willing to not let any alternative unexplored. My absolute favorite was the Beneteau Oceanis 40, but at 2,5 million SEK (270k€ / 300k$) we quickly moved on to (what we thought was) a more reasonable alternative: the Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 379. 
Coming home from the boat show, we were pretty convinced that buying a new boat was the option for us. We figured that by getting new boat, we would postpone the breakages and maintenance issues that scared us at that time (Hahaha! We know better now). We figured that we would get to choose the exact layout and features our boat would come with, have it the way we want. And, we thought it'd be cool to choose the name of our boat. (Yeah, we did eventually realize that this was a bad idea.)So we're at the show, going through different offers, price quotes and options, asking us all kind of questions that did not even make sense to us."Do we need a code 0 sail? A self tacking-jib? A furling mast? A bow-thruster? What kind of keel should we get?" These sounded like total made-up words to us. The only thing we could relate to was that the boat was going to be our home, and that we wanted it to be easy and comfortable to cook, navigate, sleep, and relax. We had a vague idea that boats were big money pits, but we were ready to commit.
- The plan: Buy a brand new boat
- Money we thought we'd spend on our sailboat by then: 2,2 million SEK / 235k€ /260k$ - BAM!
Phase 3: Jeeeez, it's expensive.
So... Big news! Boaty Mc Boat face is going to be expensive, and we'd better be sure what we're doing before signing the order. That's when we made the deal: we were not gonna buy our sailboat prior to getting some sailing experience and better knowledge as to what we actually needed. (That deal ended up saving us TONS of money.)It's now September 2015, and we were gonna wait until February 2016 to be back from our sailing course, to do anything.In the meanwhile, we explored our options. We gave other boat constructors a second chance, stayed in touch with Jakob, our favorite boat dealer, and thought through how we were gonna finance our project.We made a rough list of what we would need to buy, had a look at boat loans and even leasing with purchasing option (which never felt advantageous), and tried to have everything ready to press the trigger once we'd be back from our sailing trip.2 days before leaving for Gibraltar, Jakob, the Jeanneau rep in Sweden called us with a very tempting offer. A guy had dropped a brand new Sun Odyssey 379 he'd ordered to get a 389 (the new design of the line). The 379 had become substantially cheaper, but we were not the only one interested. We had to make a move quick.
- Our plan: Buy a new Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 379, but cheaper.
- Money we thought we'd spend on our sailboat: 1,7 million SEK / 180k€ /203k$
True to our deal, we waited for our sailing trip to gain practical experience before doing anything. The Jeanneau 379 sold during that time. 
Phase 4: GIMME A BOAT, NOW!
Indeed, our two weeks sailing course changed everything.We told Chris, our sailing instructor and experienced cruiser himself, about all the ideas we had, from buying a new boat to going 100% electric (the way Sailing Uma do), our fears of buying a used boat... And again, thanks Chris for all the valuable insights! (If you happen to need sailing tuition, we think you should check out his school, he's great...)A lot of people we had met had tried to talk us out of buying a brand new boat. Honestly, we did not get the point. Instead, Chris pointed everything we'd need to think about if we were gonna buy a new sailboat: the exact amount of spare pieces, tools, equipment, sails, and other random stuff that we would need to buy over the boat. And also... How much they break.Chris told us the story of a time he was gonna deliver a boat a the boat was brand new and unequipped. The boat did not even have fenders. "Fenders... yeah right. We would not have thought about it either..."That's when we started to realize that we had not make our homework on new VS used boat. We went around our school boat, Makora, and made a list of all the stuff that would need to buy on top of the boat.The price tag ended up at 250 000kr. Ie, 15% of the price of our brand new boat. 
A few days to the end of our sailing trip, Jakob called us and let us know that someone else had bought the Sun Odyssey 379. The news hit us a bit, but we knew that the right boat would come at the right time and that this one was just not meant to be. Today, we have no regrets. (Cause the right boat did come, it's awesome, bigger and half the price!!!)In the same run, our idea of buying a brand new boat died. But it didn't die because buying a brand new boat IS a bad idea, it died because we wanted our sailboat for the summer, and well, we no longer felt for spending the 2,45 million SEK for the boat it would have cost, to push a constructor to build a boat in 3 months.The same day, we went on Blocket (the Swedish Craiglist) screened all the sailboat adds and stumbled upon a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 409 from 2011, that featured some brilliant pieces of equipment and came for the price of 1,5 million SEK. That's when we realized how much more sailboat we would get, for less money, if we were to buy a used one. We could now get a 40 feet boat, what a difference!!!
- Our plan: Buy a 3-4 years old 2 cabins Jeanneau Sun Odyessey 409
- Money we thought we'd spend on our sailboat during the phase: 1,5 million SEK / 160k€ / 180k$
We came back to Stockholm and engaged discussions with who we thought to be the Swedish broker of the Jeanneau 409, to eventually find out that the boat was sold. And that was just the first one of a few deceptions...
Phase 4: Hey, let's get a broker...
This buying a sailboat thing feels so hard now, that we're starting to think about having a broker helping us buying it.At that time, we're very new to buying used boats, a little unsure about the whole thing and quite honestly, it feels good to have someone by our side who knows a good deal of boats. We're in touch with this Swedish broker who would have sold us the Jeanneau 409, and send him a few links to other boats that we had found.That's when Ruan and Christopher saved us. Christopher thought it looked like we were looking at the same kind of boat they had bought (a Beneteau Oceanis 40!!!) and took a Skype call with us to tell us everything about their experience of buying a used sailboat.In the process, Christopher had sent me the link to a Beneteau Oceanis 2 cabins 40 from 2008 called Sea Monkey, that felt like a big winner. Yes, it was a little older than what we looked at, but we had learnt in the process that it does not need to matter.
- The plan: buy a 7-8 years old 2 cabins, deep keel, Beneteau Oceanis 40
- Money we thought we'd spend on our sailboat: 900 000 SEK / 93 000€ / 108 000$ (yeah, now we're cheap.)
We had asked the Swedish broker to wait until we had come to an agreement to engage the negotiations with the seller of Sea Monkey, and did a little research on brokers. What we found? We'd be better off ourselves...Our call with Ruan and Christopher had given us a lot of confidence with our sailboat purchase. We eventually decided that we wanted to do the negotiations with the seller of Sea Monkey ourselves and contract a surveyor to make sure everything looked right.When we announced our decision to the Swedish broker, he tried to charge us for a few hours of work... For... taking calls with us?Conclusion:
- Broker = bad idea
- Sailing community = awesome
Again, thank you so much Ruan and Christopher, we're enormously grateful for your help in the process! You can take some creds in us buying a sailboat, and we cannot wait to come out with our boat and a bottle of champagne, and have a sail together! :) 
Phase 5 : We're buying a boat!!! No wait...
So we find ourselves making an offer on Sea Monkey at 71 000£ (for an asked price of 87 000£), and we are as excited as ever... Only to get to hear a week later that the seller isn't sure he wants to sell anymore. Gaaaaahh!!!!!! We upped our bid and offered 80 000£. Now this time, the seller was sure he did not want to sell anymore.In a last effort to put ourselves in the shoes of the owner, we offered 85 000£. And never heard of the broker again. At that point, we're hitting bottom rocks. Are we ever going to buy a boat? Is fate trying to tell us something?
- The plan: Do we even have a plan now?
- Money we thought we'd spend on our sailboat: We ain't gonna spend much if no one is willing to sell us their boat!
(Joking, we're just spending all our money on equipment instead...)
Phase 6: Are we.... Did we.... DID WE BUY A BOAT??????
We had screened the entire internet looking for our 2 cabins, deep keel, 8 years old Beneteau Oceanis 40 with heater. They were all too far away in the Med (such a pain to get it up to Stockholm!), or ridiculously expensive. I even had one broker recognizing that his clients were not reasonable with the price of their boat.But one day, by mistake, I looked at boats from 2007. From a boat perspective, one year does not make a big difference. For us, it made all the difference.That's when we found a Beneteau Oceanis docked in Southampton, 2 cabins, bought by their current owners in 2007, equipped for cruising, with a heater, all kind of fun electronics, and even a wind generator.When I sent the link to Ryan, we were still frustrated over what happened with Sea Monkey, and he did not pay attention at first. But the boat grew on us, and we quickly found her to be perfect. After a few discussions with the broker about the history of the boat, we decided not to push the price as low as we could and instead made an offer that was fair for both parts.On the 5th of March, as Ryan and I were celebrating our one year anniversary at the pub we closed on a beautiful Thursday night a year earlier, our offer was accepted and we placed a 5% deposit on a client account to reserve what might end up being our boat, a beautiful 2 cabins Beneteau Oceanis 40 from 2007. So technically, YES, WE BOUGHT A SAILBOAT!!! (but... we haven't seen her, and we can still back off if something is wrong...) 
- The plan: Fly to the UK, have the boat lifted and surveyed, finalize the transaction, and have our sailboat delivered in Stockholm by the end of April, beginning of May.
- Money we'll end up spending on our sailboat: between 75 000£/80 000£ (depending on the survey goes!) + survey + lifting + delivery + equipment + ..... (I'm already tired...)
We're flying to London and driving to Southampton on Thursday, and if everything goes well, we should come back from the UK as boat owners.Stay tuned peeps, it's getting real!!! :D