Searching for
the Holy Grail... a Musto Skiff
Webmasters Comment ... for anyone
who thinks it a pain to get a boat delivered from Newcastle
or that their local dealer is a bit of a hike away ...
read this tale by Canadian Andrew Mercer ...
Living in Canada, the second largest country in the
world, with over 32000 lakes and surrounded by oceans
on three sides, you would think one would be able to
find a single Musto skiff. Think again. The search started
two years ago. I began asking at marinas (no one was
familiar with the MPS, a Laser yes, but a MPS no!),
clubs, and mostly a lot of emails and internet searching.
Nothing – the grail was not to be found. I did look
at new boats, contacting Ron in the States, but, at
just under 20,000.000CDN after shipping , import tax,
9%, and provincial tax, 15%, ( yes, tax on taxes,)my
wife would never let me out of the dog house. I did
not want to have to sleep on a couch forever, so new
was out! After contacting the website and talking to
Paul and Chris at Ovington boats, they suggested shipping
from UK to Boston, the cost being approx 1300US dollars.
The search was on for a European boat. After a lot of
emails with photos being zapped back and forth through
the Netherlands of the internet, nobody was willing
to try the” separate mast procedure” ,deemed “ too risky”,
hey I understood! This meant I needed a large container
to ship the mast, nobody would ship it outside and insure
it, which almost tripled the price! The couch is bad
for my back, so back to square one. By the way everyone
was great on the forum and when I asked for a billion
and one photos of their boat, since I couldn’t fly over
to inspect, people responded rather nicely, thanks everyone.
I posted a request to buy on the forum “any in the north
east USA” and waited. I continued to search Canada and
the US, I knew there were some in Florida, and Seattle
WA . Then about three months later I got two, emails
on the SAME day, saying there was a MPS, for sale, in
Seattle WA., only 5800 km away.
Ever wanted to find the antique car hidden away in a
garage or barn, in great condition, that everyone else
always seems to find? Well, this was it. This MPS was
a first year production, MPS #077. It was bought by
a nice gentleman, for his nephew, (man I wish I had
family like that!). The nephew had sailed it 4 times
and gotten frustrated with it. It had been stored in
a heated basement for 8 years! Wow… So emails flew back
and forth and pictures looked good. So now what? I needed
a flight to the west coast, 2000.00, cost of the boat
5500USD, can’t forget the import and provincial taxes
a total of 1395.00. I managed to rent a truck for a
day and a half for 200$ to bring the boat across the
border into Vancouver. Arranged to purchase a rack,
for the truck, for 700$ with the intention of using
it very carefully and returning it for a refund . I
found a yard that would hold the boat until I could
arrange shipping from Vancouver to Halifax, cheap at
only 75.00, great! So off I went to the West coast.
Left my house in Nova Scotia at 0500 for the 2 hour
drive to the airport in Halifax, flew to Toronto switch
and onto Calgary, switch again and onto Vancouver and
land 9 hrs later, and found a place to sleep. Another
05:00AM wake up to pick up the rental truck, the rack
to carry the boat and then off to Seattle. Long wait
at the border crossing ,and its 3:30PM before I am heading
down the road into Seattle, hit rush hour traffic and
grind to a halt. Sit for another 2 hrs in traffic –
love the city! After finding some gum in my pocket,
I had not eaten all day; I arrived at the seller’s house
at 6:30PM. Wow the boat is beautiful – never seen one
in real life – it calls to me! Realize that there are
a couple of missing things – oh well the sails are new,
the bottom cover has never been opened and he’s giving
me a harness as well! Not like I was going to turn around
and dive back up to Canada and fly home without getting
it! So time to load – we had to assemble the rack system
– this actually took 1 ½ hrs – it was extremely
well made and tight fitting, and for $700 it should
be! The gentleman selling the boat was 81 years young
so we needed help getting the dolly up on the rack and
then the hull , so up and down the subdivision asking
for help – anybody?! After 4 hours it was loaded and
strapped down for the trip back to Canada. Oh yea, it’s
10:30PM, gum is old and I’m real hungry! Off up the
highway to find food , everything was closed on a Tuesday
night except Mc Donald’s drive through. The truck wouldn’t
fit through with the boat on top, so had to walk up
and bang on the window. Food in and truck gassed up.
Time to head across the border. Custom officers sent
me to the holding area. Its 2am, I am running on almost
no sleep and I had to make them believe that I really
only paid 5500$ for the boat, I gave them all my paper
work and the website and told them to look. I had been
going almost 24 hr straight, my eyes were sore and the
grumpy customs officer was not helping. So after 1 ½
hours at customs they finally let me through, I had
to hide my smile as they forgot to charge the importation
tax and only charged me the provincial, got the paper
work and scooted out of there. I guess crossing at 2am
does help! Started looking for a hotel , completely
exhausted to say the least, and promptly got lost in
Vancouver. Decided to go to the yard where it was going
to be stored – arrived there at 4am and told the security
guy I was delivering this boat and couldn’t let it out
of my sight and asked could I sleep in the cab? He took
pity on me, and agreed. After three hours of painful
sleep in the front seat of the pickup, the sun was up
and the place was hopping. The guys at the yard were
very kind and helped me get the boat and dolly off the
rack. Not wanting to tell them about my less than ethical
intentions of returning the used rack for a refund,
it got scuffed and dented. I was too tired to care and
packed the rack away with the hull. It was now 10am
and I had to return the truck by noon or pay for another
day. At 1145 the truck was returned, I ate and found
a hotel to crash, up at 4am for my flight back to Nova
Scotia.
The first bill from the yard where the boat is stored,
was emailed to me. I realized I should have clarified
whether the 75$ was a weekly or monthly charge. Hoping
it wouldn’t take long to find reasonably priced shipping
to Halifax, I started contacting shipping companies.
The quotes I was receiving ranged from $ 3000-4000.
Understandable, as the price of gas is insane and it’s
a long way, but I was hoping for something a little
cheaper. Patience won, a truck coming this way was able
to fit my boat in with his load, with a cost of 1500$
He was not able to pick the boat up until August, but
even with the extra 900$ storage fees, it was the best
deal.
The boat arrived around the third week of August in
great shape. The running rigging, blocks and various
other items were missing, lost in the 8 years it had
been stored, which, in total, cost me close to 1000$
to replace.
Was it worth it? – I sailed the MPS twice before we’ve
had to put it away – the Yacht club closed. First time
was amazing (I’d watched K16 at least 20 times – no
joke!) and in 7kts of wind had a blast – two turtles
and flew the kit twice! – it was fun. The yacht club
kids were told to stay away from the expensive European
race boat out in the lake as their insurance wouldn’t
cover any damage, so I had half the lake to myself!
The second time the boat won! 10kts gusting 25kts –
wasn’t ready and needed to do more dry land training
– next year I’ll be ready. And yes it was worth it –
every penny! Go get one.
Cheers,
Andrew Mercer 077
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