It’s been a busy couple of weeks since our boat arrived in Fort Lauderdale! After unloading, it went to 1st Performance Marina to have the wrapping and wax spray cleaned off. The weather in Fort Lauderdale has been very rainy since our unload on St. Patrick’s Day, so the cleaning was delayed until the day before we brought the boat up to Fort Lauderdale. The crew from 1st Performance did a great job getting the boat ready!
Our move-in date for the Palm Beach Boat Show was Saturday, the 21st of March. On Friday, the 20th, Ben, our delivery captain, and I took the boat from Fort Lauderdale to Palm Beach, about 40 miles. There are many bridges and no-wake zones along the way, so it took us about 6 hours. We arrived, and after waiting a few minutes for some larger yachts to get situated ahead of us, we were able to dock in the slip that we would have for the show.
Brenda drove up to meet us and give Ben a ride home to Fort Lauderdale. The first run on the boat went very well. It was a bit disorienting, as we had no electronics and the VHF radio we brought died about halfway up, so we had to call the bridges by phone. Overall, it went very well.
On Saturday morning, Brenda and I drove home to Palm Coast to get another load of “Stuff”. Then on Tuesday, we went back to Palm Beach, to be at the show from Wednesday to Friday.
The Palm Beach Boat Show
The show was great! There were over 1,000 boats on display, and the estimate was that the combined value was over $1.2 BILLION (with a B). Seeing some of the yachts, with the helipads, 40′ glass swimming pools, and “Support Boats” filled with tenders as big as our boat, jet skis, cars, helicopters, etc. We didn’t doubt it!
Our boat was in an area with larger yachts. Beside us was a 75-foot Offshore Yachts, and beside that was a 120-foot Hargrave Yacht! All three are built by the same boatyard in Taiwan. Quite impressive!
During the show, we were honored to meet many people involved in the building of our boat. John Olson of Olson Yacht Group, who owns the dealership and builds the Outback. Andrew Cilla, founder of Outback Yachts and the inspiration behind the boat (also our salesperson). We were also able to meet Jeff McDowell, our build engineer, who we worked with during construction, and Brian Robbins, the service manager from Olson, who will be taking care of any issues we have with the boat. While we were there, Howard and John Kung, the owners from Ka Shing Shipyards, which built the boat, visited and spent a lot of time with us discussing the build process. We were impressed that they had as much interest in our 50-foot yacht as in the 120-foot Hargrave! We also met John from Michael Peters Design Group, who did much of the boat’s design work.
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Andrew, the founder of Outback and our salesperson, has been in the industry for many years and was the owner of Luke Brown Yachts, one of the largest brokers in South Florida. He knows just about everyone in the industry. We hear rumors that he sold Noah the Ark! As a result, we had a constant stream of industry notables stopping by the boat to visit and see the new Outback. During the show, we had two video companies stop by to do features on the boat. Victoria from Nauti Styles, the premier YouTube Yacht reviewer, did a feature, and Luke Brown Yachts also had a video made of the boat. You can see the Luke Brown video here!
The Famous Billy Black – Yacht Photographer!
One of the cast of characters that visited the boat was Billy Black. Billy is a famous photographer in the Yacht Industry. One can safely say that he is the most recognized Yacht Photographer in the US. Billy, a friend of Andrew’s, stopped by the boat to visit. He offered to come back in the evening, after the show closed, to take some photos of the boat. You can see his eye for style and detail in the photos below. Thank You, Billy! It was a pleasure to meet you! He even made US look good!
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On Thursday night, they had a reception on the boat from 5 to 7 pm. It was great to see that our desire to host a large group on the boat was easy to achieve! At one point, we had over 20 people aboard, and everyone fit in easily. We didn’t even overflow onto the flybridge!
Back to Fort Lauderdale for the Fitout
The show officially closed on Sunday, but we went home on Saturday morning. The weekends are very crowded, and we didn’t want to take up space. We had some things to do at home on Monday, and drove back down to Palm Beach on Monday evening. We had to have the boat out of the marina on Tuesday as soon as they moved the docks. We hired Ben Stanley again to help move the boat back to Fort Lauderdale. With no electronics and it being a new boat, I wanted a backup captain to help, just in case. The trip back went smoothly, as with our trip up, we took the inside route in the ICW. The wind has been blowing at 15-20 knots straight from the East for the past two weeks, and the seas offshore have been 5-6 feet. With a new boat and no electronics, we didn’t want to take a chance.
When we got back to Fort Lauderdale, we went to a dock that we rented to keep the boat at while the electronics were being installed. Our plan was to spend the weekend, go back to 1st Performance, and have the boat hauled out for a week to have the hull wrapped with a colored protective film, then return to the dock for the davit and electronics installation. We spent the weekend on the boat and had our first night on our new boat bed. It was great! Our dock is right at the Las Olas Bridge, which has to open to let all the Super Yachts through. We have a great view of the show from our back deck, and we got treated to some fireworks on Saturday night!
On Monday morning, Brenda and I drove the boat to the boat yard to have it hauled out for the wrap. The boat came with a white hull and was already painted when we ordered it. Rather than painting, we decided to get a special marine vinyl wrap, similar to what they do to buses. No graphics, just sapphire blue. It’s quicker, much less expensive, and protects the hull from scratches and stains.
The haulout went smoothly, and we were in our slot in the boatyard by 1:30. The weather was cloudy with occasional showers, so the wrap crew decided to wait until Tuesday to start. Tuesday, it rained pretty much the entire day, so no wrap. Wednesday was pretty much the same. On Thursday, they finally had a good day and wrapped the Port side. Friday, they got the starboard side covered, and then worked through the weekend on trimming and detail work.
While it was being wrapped, our line cutters were installed on the propeller shafts, and a davit (crane) was installed to lift the dinghy on and off the boat. They also took care of a couple of electrical modifications.
Color Blind!
We had been scheduled to go back in the water on Monday morning at 8:30 am. The electronics installers were scheduled to arrive at our rental dock at 9:00 am, so it was cutting it close. We arrived at the yard at 8:00 am. It was the first time we had seen the boat fully wrapped it looked beautiful! Almost…
One of the yard mechanics walked by and said, “The middle is different from the top and bottom.” We looked, and sure enough, the first piece of wrap that they had applied was just a SHADE darker than all of the other rolls. The lot numbers were the same, but it was definitely darker.
We pointed it out to Carlos from Kraken Wraps, and he agreed. Bobby, the owner of the boat yard, looked and agreed as well. He said he would rearrange schedules to make room for us to stay in the yard so we could have the wrap redone. He also graciously agreed to let the electronics installers work in the yard without incurring an override charge. 1st Performance has been one of the best-run, cleanest, and easiest-to-work-with yards we’ve ever encountered.
Carlos from Kraken called the manufacturer, who asked for a few photos and the lot numbers. They said they would overnight two rolls of replacement wrap to make sure we had a match and would cover any extra installation and yard charges. Stellar customer service! Thank you, Xpel Wraps!
While the wrap team from Kraken started peeling the wrap off the port side, the electronics team from Concord Electronics arrived and started installing the electronics. The boat was a beehive of activity for the whole week between the wrap and electronics teams. By the end of the day Thursday, everything had been completed as far as they could go. The wrap had been replaced, and it all matched! The electronics were installed, and just needed the boat back in the water for a sea trial.
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Back in the water with a BLUE boat!
So, on Friday morning at 8:30, they put our new Sapphire Blue boat back in the water, and we cruised it back to our rental dock. During all the work, we were not able to stay on the boat, so we stayed in a short-term rental apartment just down the street from the boatyard. It was very convenient, only about 2 minutes to get there. We had planned to go home on Saturday, so rather than moving back onto the boat for one night, we just stayed in the Apartment.
Friday, after we got back to the dock, we had a service call from the Air Conditioning company. We are getting occasional error messages from the system, and we are trying to figure out what is going on. The boat needs to be in the water to run the A/C, so this was the first time since the Palm Beach Show that they had a chance to look at it. Also, Dave came to finish installing the Dockmate electronics, and we had Chris from the Davit company over to look at fabricating a brace for our flybridge ladder. What a busy week!
We can’t thank everyone involved enough. Andrew, our salesperson, has been great. Coordinating with vendors, communicating with the factory, and just being a great guy and providing moral support!
On Saturday morning, we checked out of our rental apartment and headed back to Palm Coast by car. We are having windows installed in our Condo next week, before heading back to Fort Lauderdale to bring the boat home. We still have a few items to get taken care of. Our Bimini (canvas top) is being fabricated, and we expect it to be installed around May 1st. Also, we need to do a sea trial with the electronics to have those tuned in, and finish up a few other minor punch-list items.
Watch for the next installment on the blog, where we will begin our trip to bring the boat home!
Thanks For Visiting! – Tom & Brenda
