I’ve received quite a few emails (from all over the world!) from people who are interested in buying a Hanse 388. Some are in the “we’re thinking about it” stage, others are already committed, but have questions about their final selection of options. It’s really cool to get these emails! In this post I’ll share some of the questions I’ve received, as well as my (candid!) answers to them.
Buying vs Chartering a Sailboat
For over a year now, I’ve kept a detailed cost log for our yacht project. There are two questions I’ve tried to find answers to. Firstly, what does sailing a new Hanse 388 really cost? Secondly, if I compare this to chartering costs, would it have been less costly to rent a boat than to buy one— especially given our short sailing season in Finland!
Conventional wisdom says that it’s always cheaper to charter than to own, but I have my doubts.
Winter Storage
Where do Finnish sailing yachts go for winter? I’d love to say they (and we, the people on them!) migrate to warmer climates, but no. We all stay here, try to protect ourselves from oncoming winter as well as we can afford, and then put an optimistic spin on it: quite soon it will be spring again!
OMG, It’s Full of …
… barnacles! I just received some whatsapp pictures from the nice person at our winter storage place. They had lifted our dear Hanse yacht out of the water, and then looked at its bottom in disbelief. “No so great,” he texted me.
Will We Sail Again?
So, we got our lovely new Hanse yacht, and we did spend a good part of last summer family sailing together. But how did it go? Was this to be our first and last summer of sailing, or will the story continue?
The Last Day of Summer
After our July summer vacation, unfortunately we didn’t use our yacht that much. We had a big (and exhausting) moving project in August. September was filled with work. And after that, the weather started turning a bit against us. Cold to freezing temperatures, high winds and too much rain.
A Digital Logbook
Since I was about eight years old, one of my hobbies has been to code, to make computer programs. I love the creative process, and also the off chance of finding some new ways of piecing old puzzles together. This post is about my small sailing logbook coding project.
EDIT (18.3.2021): This version of the logbook is now deprecated! For the current version, check this post: Charlotte – Your Digital Crew Member.
Hanse 388 Interior: The Aft Cabins
In this post, I will take a look at the two aft cabins in our Hanse 388.
Hanse 388 Interior: The Master Cabin
In the third post of the “Every Nook and Cranny” series we’ll jump straight into the master cabin of our Hanse 388. Or “our bedroom”, as we like to call it.
Hanse 388: Deck Storage
Earlier on, I started a series of posts with the intention of describing our Hanse 388 in a bit more detail than what you get from the official marketing documentation. The first post was called Hanse 388 — Every Nook and Cranny, and here’s number two, continuing the deck storage theme.