Selling Pegu Club

It’s too bad that we couldn’t keep both boats, because we really love Pegu Club.  She’s been a fantastic boat, and we were sorry to have to put her on the market.  But it had to be done.

We put an ad on sailboatlistings.com (which is how we had originally found Pegu Club), and I also put ads on the Craigs List for Eastern Connecticut, New Haven County, Fairfield County, and Rhode Island.  We weren’t going to give her away, but we definitely priced her to sell.  As soon as the ads were up I called the guy in Clinton who I had spoken to the previous week (who had just sold his Bristol 29.9 and was looking for a Bristol 24).

He had saved my number in his phone and picked up right away.  We talked for a bit and I told him he could see her on sailboatlistings and to call me if he had any questions.  A few minutes later he called back, and he and his wife wanted to see her the next day!  Since we usually go down on Friday and we still needed to get her ready to sell, we agreed on Saturday morning, and I promised I wouldn’t sell her out from under him.  Now it was time to get to work.

Jeff and I drove down to Shenny on Thursday after work and started removing things.  The Nature’s Head came out and the portapotty went back in.  The Rocna was removed and the danforth took its place.  The topper for the mega bed had to go, along with liquor, food, clothes, books, etc.  We couldn’t believe how much we had put in that 24 foot boat.

Friday evening we gave Pegu Club her monthly bath (good timing) and refilled the water tank.  More stuff was removed, and we gave her a nice wipedown inside.  Fortunately we’ve always kept her in good shape (for example, the stainless had been polished just a few weeks ago), so it was really more a matter of removing things and putting her back to the way she used to be.

Saturday morning Todd and his wife arrived to see her.  They had retired and were looking to get a smaller boat for day sailing.  We really liked them a lot, and they really liked Pegu Club.  They offered us our asking price and just like that, she was sold!  I told Jeff that we will never be able to sell a boat that easily again in our lifetime.

In addition to Todd, between Wednesday and Saturday morning we had over seven people contact us, with a few saying they would buy her sight unseen. We had no idea she would be so popular, and it made us even more appreciative of the fact that we had been so lucky to find her and own her for the last 2 1/2 seasons.

Although I was excited about Big Pegu, I was really sad to sell Little Pegu (we’ve been calling the boats Big Pegu and Little Pegu to distinguish between the two in our conversations).  However, I was very happy to see that she was going to fellow Bristol owners who obviously would appreciate her.  As an added bonus, she is going to be staying at her old stomping grounds of Pine Island Marina, just a few hundred yards away from us.  So we’ll be able to wave hello to her (and her owners).  We’ve told Todd and his wife that they are more than welcome to call us with any questions, and they have likewise offered to share their knowledge of the 29.9 whenever we need it.

The whole thing was a great example of how fantastic the sailing community – and in particular the Bristol Sailboats community – is.  It really couldn’t have worked out any better.