We Changed Our Mind About the Sailboat! (Ep.1)

After two seasons sailing our new Fountaine Pajot catamaran we decided to switch to an Outremer performance catamaran to continue our liveaboard cruising project on a sailboat. We didn't know how we wanted to cruise until we got out there and did it and realized we were on the wrong platform to sail the way we wanted to for a circumnavigation. In this video we share how we got here, the lessons we learned and why we made the change.
⚓ Join us as we learn what it takes to circumnavigate successfully and make the transition to liveaboard cruising.
🆓Our sailing channel is currently AD-FREE but there are other ways you can support our Outremer 52 project. 👍🏻 Like, subscribe, share our KZbin videos or check out our blog, podcast or social pages below
⭐️Check out our new catamaran sailing blog! sailingawen.com
🎧COVERTCASTAWAY PODCAST anywhere you listen or stream directly at sailingawen.com/podcast
INSTAGRAM: / sailingawen
FACEBOOK: / sailingawen
FACEBOOK GROUP: / sailingawen
📧EMAIL US: [e-mail]
🌎TRACK US at www.polarsteps.com/SailingAwen
⛵️AWEN will be featured at the MIAMI BOAT SHOW! Meet us there!! Learn more about the show dates: www.miamiboatshow.com/en/home...
OUTREMER 52 OWNER’S REVIEW: www.katamarans.com/owners-rev...
🎶 MUSIC by Epidemic Sound
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello! We are Holly and Stephane 🇺🇸🇫🇷
We have made the transition from full-time software professionals from the SF Bay Area to liveaboard sailing explorers who always keep one eye on the weather and our hearts in a song. Our goal is to complete a circumnavigation and we recently transitioned to a performance catamaran and are madly in love with our Outremer 52. We are working with Outremer in France (with the help of Google translate) to launch our boat project and start our journey as sailing vagabonds. While it’s not a race or speedtest, we are doing our first Bluewater crossing this year and we are excited to see AWEN stretch her legs and dance on the water. Join us as we share what we’re learning living without Amazon, (but with Starlink), and attempt this new life of travel and adventure on the ocean. Please be patient with us as we continue to improve our KZbin vlogging skills. Our goal isn’t to make our life a movie, it’s to give back to what others have shared with us, which is why we don’t monetize our channel.
More about us here: sailingawen.com/about-us
#outremer #boatlife #catamaran #travelvlog #digitalnomad #lifestyle #sailboats #stayhealthy #learning #vlog #podcast #live #motivation #travel #nomad #boattour #sailingadventure #bucketlist #adventure #mediterranean #nomad #retirement #adventureawaits #ocean #learning
© Sailing AWEN 2023
Special thanks to:
Nick Hathaway at 45 Degrees sailing for teaching us the 'ropes' on med mooring and so much more. www.45degreessailing.com/
Loic Kerbrat from Yacht Tech International for all your help in those early days.
Andy and Mia from #59North for demystifying blue water passages.
www.59-north.com/
Delos crew, The O'Kellys and The Wynns for inspiring us from the beginning!
And our kids, our family and our friends for supporting our crazy dreams.
-- Chapters --
00:00 Intro
01:06 Our story
01:54 A serious life moment
02:50 Serious planning
03:34 Checking the boat in La Rochelle, France
03:52 Downsizing
04:07 Start of Covert Castaway
04:14 Building our sailing experience
04:43 Meetup with Saona owners in Italy
05:06 Commissioning
05:17 Covid happened
05:28 Commissioning - part 2
06:08 Casting off - Cruising the Med
06:42 Season 1 summary
06:59 Start of Season 2
07:15 Croatia
08:22 Greece
09:03 Turkey
10:18 Lessons Learned
11:20 Outremer dreams
12:13 Outremer test sail
13:40 For Sale
15:14 Back home
15:23 What's next for us
17:24 Next episode
17:32 Virtual tour

[@initiummarketingllc8918]

"You never forget your first!" love it - congrats to you both for living your DREAM!

[@robbief1]

Just found the channel - looking forward to catching up on all the vids. Thanks for sharing :)

[@JK-zi1rg]

Just discovered you guys! I think we were neighbors on the penninsula until we moved up to tahoe full time in '17. Now we are looking at fulfilling the dream of taking a few years to sail when our last one leaves the nest in a few years. Watching everything we keen interest!

[@SailingAWEN]

Where in Tahoe? We moved to South Lake Tahoe in 2020. Since you’re early in your project you might also enjoy our podcast “Covert Castaway”, where Holly documented all the major milestones 2 years before casting off.

[@carlosvallejo4926]

Hello my dear friends, this was a great video. Thanks for sharing all your adventures. Can't wait for next one. Cheers from Canary Islands

[@SailingAWEN]

Thank you for watching!

[@Cheers_Warren]

Hi guy , I loved your 'covert castaway' podcasts I would eagerly await the next one to see have you were doing. I have suggested it to so anyone I could as it was such good experience to share about the new boat buying process. I've injoyed some of the already happened choice you have been shareing on podcast. A lot if you tube channels are 'up grading to performance' it's really interesting to compare. some are still saying 'we are going to have so much storage' they just don't get it like you. Boats are not for storage they are for sailing! ( could be a great video title!) Cheers Warren

[@chrismcclary108]

Ha! From Tahoe? Nice! I Live in South Lake Tahoe. Great channel, thanks for sharing.

[@SailingAWEN]

We live in Upper Kingsbury!! We will have to meet up this summer!

[@davidlevitz3119]

GREAT STORY ! GOOD WORK !

[@SailingAWEN]

Thank you David!

[@cameronwong5127]

Great Video Stephane and Holly!

[@NotMitch69]

Finally get to see your faces. How nice.

[@markgwilson]

Great video. You covered A LOT of ground. Looking forward to future episodes and seeing your new boat!

[@SailingAWEN]

Thanks Mark! Hope things are going well on your end. Let’s catch up soon!

[@seppok5433]

Wonderful video! Greetings from Finland! Looking forward to seeing you both soon again 😊

[@SailingAWEN]

Seppo! So great to hear from you. This will be an exciting journey. See you soon in LGM.

[@HeidiandFranny]

Super congrats on the new boat! We have chatted a bit before as the Saona is on our short list. We are finally ready to buy. I will be following along with your journey and am very interested how the new boat suits you. Best wishes and thanks! Franny

[@SailingAWEN]

Thanks Heidi and Franny. Curious what boat you'll end up selecting... Best of luck through this boat buying process.

[@kirkb3473]

Great video! We came to the same conclusion as you guys as well that if you are actually interested in sailing, it is better to pick a boat that sails well first. Then comes the compromises of comfort vs. price!

[@45DegreesSailing]

Exciting news guys!

[@SailingAWEN]

Thanks Nick! Ands thanks again with all your help! 🙏

[@45DegreesSailing]

@@SailingAWEN you are most welcome. Looking forward to seeing the next chapter!

[@Corey-pd3mi]

Expensive process. Would have to have dropped loads in that process with depreciation on the boat

[@SailingAWEN]

That wasn’t our experience. At the time we sold it, it turned out that a fully ready boat, with all the extra work we put into it, made it more valuable and there was more demand than boats (at that time). We had a great buyer and this didn’t end up being the case for us. The market changes of course and it may be different now, though there is a pretty high demand for certain kinds of used boats.

[@malgraham351]

aaah was wondering when you would return so wanted your FP when you put her up for sale was agreat boat and very well optioned but really looking forward to you Outremmer journey Mal

[@SailingAWEN]

Thank you Mal, but don’t wait for us to return with our Outremer as we plan to sail this one for many miles and many years around the planet 😉 So much more fun to sail !

[@tomasleal5011]

5:06 is it just me or was that a really close call?

[@jerualem1234]

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[@jumpleadsx2]

New sub here. I m interested to hear how you plan to reduce the weight of your stuff, since the new boat wants you to be light as possible. Are you going down to one change of clothes and a toothbrush?

[@SailingAWEN]

Lol! We will talk about capacity in an upcoming video. We also did a podcast about ‘Living Light’ you can listen to ‘Covert Castaway’ anywhere you listen to podcasts! We are shooting for 3T of capacity all in, so that’s the goal.

[@SailingAWEN]

covertcastaway.podbean.com/e/living-light-s5e10/

[@clarisd]

The Hobby horsing on the Utremer brought the vessel to a dead standstill! The Neel 45 or larger, seems to better cut the lateral waves you were into, in an head wind close-hauled upwind. The comfort was not much of a difference, the stall was minimal! Thank you for posting as it is so very hard to gather as much information, your video actually shows the capability in such conditions. Here's a link of an evaluation from a couple that have been on many vessels for years! kzbin.info/www/bejne/lYPFgZmkmaqdiJY

[@SailingAWEN]

We never sailed on a trimaran but when we were based in La Rochelle commissioning our Saona 47 we heard from a few technicians who had done deliveries of Neels that they hated the motion of the boat going upwind in waves, basically hitting the same wave twice as it goes across the 3 hulls. If you have tested one and like it then no problem but if you haven’t then I would definitely look into this. We picked this shot as it was spectacular but it is not representative how Outremer cats slice through waves upwind. That day we were sailing on an Outremer 51 that was fully loaded as they were leaving the next day for the GLYWO (rally around the world over 3 years). When the bows would hit a set of big waves the boat would slow down a bit but you could feel the boat re-accelerating right away. It was a totally different experience from our Saona 47: lots of slamming, lots of hobby horsing and there was no re-acceleration. We would have probably not sailed in those conditions or we would have had to put at least an engine on to help the Saona go through those steep and short waves.

[@chasx7062]

So whats the difference bw, the Big Boat and a Sailors boat?

[@SailingAWEN]

A sailor's boat is simply a boat that wants to sail (vs. motor) in my different conditions: light air, strong winds, big sea state... This boat is designed for those many different conditions and inspires confidence.

[@mathewmacpherson857]

Pretty sure they should put you on the payroll...or a discount.

[@SailingAWEN]

When you find a great product backed by a customer oriented company you are just happy to share your experience with others, especially in this industry 😁

[@billhanna8838]

Hope you didn't get jabbed /

[@SailingAWEN]

I’m not sure what that means but it sounds painful.

[@robbief1]

Just found the channel - looking forward to catching up on all the vids. Thanks for sharing :)

[@SailingAWEN]

Thank you! Happy you enjoy our content.