We've been considering a Yolande give away... to the best story from a family that feels the pull of vintage boating
without necessarily large financial resources, yet possessing of the willingness to add a little of their own elbow grease to the deal.
We've thought about donating the boat to a non profit that provides a tax deduction for appraised value and also helps the greater good in finding new homes for boats.
Our goal is to set up a smooth transition, which could and should include whatever training makes sense to the new owner. When we bought Yolande (appraised value was about $35,000, but we settled on $8,900, "where is as is"), the owner knew virtually NOTHING about Yolande's capability at sea, and what little info he did share was, through no fault of his own, unhelpful. We chose no sea trial, no inspection, no nothing. The seller was in a hurry and that gave us the best financial deal possible. He handed us the keys and walked away. We spent time carefully going over everything ourselves, including hiring a diver to clean and video the bottom, before shoving off and dealing with what came next. Guess what? We piloted Yolande 40 miles from Semiahmoo Marina near Blaine to a covered slip in Anacortes without a hickup. At that point, we got more serious about dotting i's and crossing t's. The ideal transition time for us is late-ish summer of 2026. That gives us the opportunity to get another bit of cruising in before passing the baton.But...everything is negotiable. Want to chat? My contact information via email is rex@yolande.info. Once we've connected and it doesn't feel like either of us is wasting precious time, we can switch to marine channel 73, haha, or, even, the telephone. Woo Hoo.