Our first boat viewing was in Sidney in Vancouver Island, British Columbia. We took the Coho Ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria and hung out in downtown Victoria. What a fantastic city Victoria is! Beautiful, clean, well thought out and full of fun, happy Canadians.
We've now made it to the top of our trip!
After a night in Victoria, we drove the 50 odd kilometers north to Sidney. A gorgeous little town on the east coast of Vancouver Island with views to the San Juan Islands.
We met up with Simon Cox of Yacht Sales West, at Sidney Marina; who turned out to be a really solid guy. A very knowledgable and friendly chap who obviously examplified the best in his profession. He showed us his 2009 Allures 51 which has recently been put up for sale by her French owner. It had been a family boat and is fully equipped for cruising. Unfortunately, as we had suspected, it did feel a bit large for Dawn and I. We didn't really need all that space for the two of us. We didn't plan of having visitors stay with us for months at a time, so we feel that a 44~48ft boat is more our speed. A little less maintenance, a little bit more marina accessibility, a little less line and sail loading was our thinking. The Allures' hulls are made by the same Garcia Yachting company that we are considering at our choice #1. So the sizing is probably accurate for us to judge. Both Allures and Garcia yachts are designed using a 3" thick insulation layer on the inside of the hull which makes them more ideal as cruising boats in tropical or temperate climates. However, this 3" on the beam, on each side, certainly cuts down in the internal volume to some extent. This is one aspect of this boat's size, we wanted to judge.
We made some video of the various aspects of this boat.
