Successful Boat Swap Experience

Tom Keevil · Post by **Tom Keevil** » Nov 10th, '10, 01:34

We did a highly successful boat swap this summer with fellow Cape Dorians, and thought that the details might be of interest to board members. This is a wonderful way to see a different cruising area. Most of us are probably pretty skeptical about letting a stranger run our boat, but making an arrangement with a member of this board removes a lot of the uncertainty. First of all, anyone who owns a Cape Dory and contributes to this board has already passed a lot of hurdles. We have pretty similar ideas of what we want in a boat, how we want it equipped, how we sail it, and how we maintain it. Sure there are lots of disagreements about all of this on the board, but just imagine how you might disagree with the owner of a Halberg-Rassy 54 or a McGregor 25. We also do most of the work on our boats, so we have a good understanding of the systems, and are probably capable of dealing with small malfunctions as they occur.

We made initial conduct on this board, through a rather casual comment on a thread concerning a different topic. All of our communication was via e-mail. We exchanged the following information:
-A detailed list of how the boat was equipped, including honest appraisals of what worked well, and what didnâ€™t, what was new and what was old.
-A description of our sailing experience, including types of weather, types of seas, tidal currents, anchoring, etc. Again an honest appraisal of what skills we possessed.
-A reference to contact who was familiar with our sailing skills and our character.
-Suggestions of good places to visit and best times to visit.
We exchanged enough messages to get a good sense of the other couple, and whether it would be a good fit.

In our case we agreed to swap sequentially for one month. That is, we went to their place, spent the night and had dinner with them. We then sailed together to the first port so they could watch us handle the boat and we could see how they like things done. They returned home via public transportation, and we sailed off for a month. We called them from time to time to let them know where we were, and how it was going. At the end, we got together for dinner for a debriefing and flew home. Later in the summer, they flew to British Columbia, and we did the same routine in reverse. We were each available to provide help in case some major problem arose. They returned the boat to our home port, but we did a one-way voyage. They met us at the end and sailed the boat home, while we drove their car back to their house.

Our responsibility was to provide a clean, functional, reliable boat. We did remove a lot of junk from the boat, and did some small improvements, but were careful not to make it into a beauty contest. We also expected the boat to return with some minor wear and tear. We were all careful and conscientious, but none of us are perfect boaters. We informed our insurance companies of the plan, and they had no problem with it, as long as there was no money exchanged.

As it happened we both had CD 33â€™s, and it was very interesting to see how the two boats were outfitted differently. We came home with a number of good ideas we plan to implement on our boat.

The only real disadvantage of the experience was that we were without our boat for a month during the prime cruising season. We were a bit nervous about the idea at first, but it worked out very well. Our boat was returned in excellent condition, we had a wonderful cruise in an area completely new to us, and we made some new good friends. If you've ever considered doing this, we would encourage you to put up a post and see what happens. We can assure you that it can work.

Zeida · Post by **Zeida** » Nov 10th, '10, 08:55

WHAT A GREAT IDEA! Bandolera (*a CD-33) and I would love to participate.

Howell and James · Post by **Howell and James** » Jan 16th, '11, 07:23

We were the other half of Tom and Jean Keevil's boat swap. Having swapped once before, some years ago we were keen to do it again and had had no joy from any of the official boat swap organizations. It literally was just from a chance remark on the Cape Dory message board that resulted in a boat exchange with Tom and Jean Keevil.

We had a wonderful time on Jean and Tom's 'Rover' sailing in British Columbia and they assure us they enjoyed the more challenging sail on 'Ragtime' from Wales to Scotland! We made a couple of good friends - only problem is they are half a world away.

Tom is right when he says that it was easier not to do the swap concurrently so as to be around to greet, help and advise. It was also easier having the same boat with the same or similar systems.

It is a brave step to take but we can certainly recommend it.