Struana

It was not so easy choosing a name. Starting point was the brand X-Yachts which has led many an owner incorporating an X somewhere in the name, ideally kicking off with the X. So the immediate issue was that there are not that many words/names starting with an X. Previously names such as X-calibur or Exuberance have been rather good choices or my favourite, Xi Nix, the name of a Dutch yacht for which you have to understand Dutch and probably be Dutch to appreciate the humour... (Xi Nix comes from 'k zie niks or more correctly ik zie niks which translates into English as I don't see anything with an undertone of "I don't see j**k sh*t"). Xenophobia sprang to mind but that would have been a bit of a contradiction.

Then there is the Roxana, Roxette, Roxy, etc, collection. Problem here was that Part 1 registration in the UK required a unique name, or in any case a name which did not appear as yet in the registry. We did like Roxy a lot but it was not long after Maria came up with this name that an X-442 appeared for sale elsewhere, also named Roxy. So it was already taken effectively, regardless of Part 1 registration. Can't have two X-442s of the same colour with the same name. It would be a bit like matter and anti-matter, everything's fine until you meet and then....? Really unexpected things could happen after a night out.

I did consider Disco Inferno as a follow up on Disco 2000 which is the name of our 420, bought in 1996 in Scotland and borrowing from the song with the same name by Pulp. But, while Disco Inferno is cool under most circumstances, should things ever go wrong and you find yourself radioing for assistance, Disco Inferno comes across as silly at best.

So it was back in time, to the 90's, for the final burst of inspiration. Maria and I met halfway through the 1990's when we were both working in Aberdeen, Scotland. We led somewhat tough lives spending most of our time on oil rigs as our employer Schlumberger ensured it got maximum service out of its employees. So we met and did happily manage to spend a lot of happy moments together marching across the Scottish Highlands, notwithstanding the dreadful telephone calls on Sunday mornings with instructions to be at the heliport within 90 minutes to fly offshore and help get a drill pipe unstuck, etc. Such trips could mean anything between five days and three weeks offshore, and it was usually the latter (my particular role would be to lower some explosives down the drill pipe, sever the pipe just above the place where it was stuck, and then the drilling co could take some other actions to get the stuck bit free. Usually it meant an endless amount of effort to be able to resume drilling, with my contribution being to get the pipe loose every time it got stuck again...).

To return to the Highlands, our moments there allowed us to endlessly talk about, discuss, argue over and debate our future since the oil services life style, though tremendously exciting, did not really appeal that much to us for the longer term. Well, Singapore did play a central role in what happened next but really, our plans were born on those damp and grey days wearing down our hiking boots along the top of ridges and along the endless streams of the Highlands. "From the stream" as it were, for which there is a rather elegant word in Gaelic: "Struana". So Struana ends our search and her port of registry will be Aberdeen.

X-442 it is

There are some options which need to be considered, though most of these yachts I believe are dark blue (which I think looks amazing), some have teak decks, some don't and most have three cabins, one in the front and two towards the stern. Further, there are two main cabin lay-outs: traditional, which has the galley in the back opposite the chart table and a rectangular table which needs to be folded down to pass, and modern, which has the galley along one side of the ship with an oval table opposite. Maria and I wanted the modern version, looked more cosy (especially if we're going to spend a lot of time on board) and I in addition wanted the four-cabin version. This option reduces the size of the front cabin and adds two bunks as you make your way aft.

I thought those bunks would be good to have really for three reasons. Firstly, when I sailed with my parents back in the 70s, all of us kids slept in the front of the ship, in bunks. Super cosy and exciting. It's something I hoped Frederik and Sofia would also be able to experience (let's hope they like sailing....). Secondly, this is the charter version of the yacht, having 8 bunks, so just in case I want to rent out the yacht (with myself on it) in the future..... Finally, hopefully I'll do plenty of trips with many people so just more reason to have enough space.

Armed with these specs I emailed a large collection of brokers in Europe and voila! there was the reply (albeit after a few weeks) from X-Yachts Deutschland, they had one for sale. Location: Haderslev, Denmark, place of birth for all X-Yachts. The one I would be looking at was not new but refitted by the shipyard having been traded in by the previous owner. So I went, first to Hamburg and then onward in the Broker's car (his name was Sven, http://www.contact-yachts.de/). In his Range Rover we drove at high speed through Germany (well for Germany maybe it was not so bad) and not so high speed through Denmark to eventually reach the X-Yachts shipyard. It was deserted, it being a Saturday, and the X-442 was parked in isolation in a marquee where she was undergoing her refit.

I had never seen anything as beautiful before in my life (except maybe my two cute kids and wife). What an amazing, amazing, amazing yacht I was looking at.  S h e   w a s   p e r f e c t . She had everything I was looking for, 4 cabins, modern layout, teak deck, etc. And she was quite new and having had a major service, everything looked so good (I had the same list of things to check as I had had looking over the Sigma 36 6 months earlier, so was quite satisfied that all components were in good working order. To be honest, as good as new).

So that was it. On my way back I typed an email with a bunch of extras I would want to see and if those could be included (in particular I wanted AIS, which is a new system to identify other ships, and be identified) I would be willing to make a serious offer. All went well and the subsequent offer was accepted. Here are some pictures taken by the surveyor a couple of weeks later.