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.