Greetings sailors and citizens of the world! Celine and Francis here and we are on the hunt for a new(to us) boat!
We are two sailors who found each other while anchored in the bay of Durgerdam, The Netherlands. We rescued a sailing boat that had been knocked off their anchor and got stuck in the reeds. We were successful in the rescue, but more importantly we formed a connection that has led us to this moment.
A bit about us:
Francis, after many years working as a wilderness therapist in Alaska and wilderness guide and instructor in many other places, decided to buy an old ruined house in Leicester, near Asheville North Carolina. He created a beautiful community where at this point seven artistic people found their home. After completing this project, Francis longed for a city where the bicycle is the mode of transport and so he traveled to Amsterdam where he discovered sailing, a sport uncommon in the mountains of North Carolina. He started living on Windfall, a 26ft Westerly Pembroke in the middle of winter and found his home in a special community on the waters of Amsterdam.
Two years ago Celine was planning on doing an internship in Sneek, Friesland. She bought her first sailing boat, a Fellowship 27 named Salsa and also started living on her in the middle of the winter. She taught herself how to sail and after graduating her studies in Cultural Heritage, she set her course on Amsterdam where she studied Humanistics and worked as a guide at Museum Het Schip.
Together we began sailing on the North-Sea and the waters of the Netherlands and enjoyed maintaining the boats while sailing. Sometimes quite literally, like the moment Salsa’s alternator fell off and Francis was busy fixing it while Celine sailed us into the harbor.
Currently we are both working at the property in North-Carolina, but every night our dreams take us to a life living together on a bigger boat. We are ready to write a new chapter in our lives by sailing the ocean, therefore we are searching for a proper bluewater boat to join us on our life's adventure.
We both individually own boats from the 70s so we are no strangers to boat maintenance and repair. A boat that is in need of love is not going to scare us off.
What really matters to us is knowing the boat's story and even more incredible would be being able to talk with the owner and sail with them to learn the nuances of their vessel. A connection with the boat is very important to us.
Here's a list of some qualities we're looking for, but of course we're always open to other possibilities:
A long keel
Canoe stern
Polyester(fiberglass)
An Oven (to satisfy Celine’s love of baking)
Lots of interior woodwork (to satisfy Francis’s obsession with craftsmanship)
Between 30-36 foot
Aluminum Mast
Navigation instruments
Autopilot and Windvane is a bonus!
Location: Europe or the Caribbean
We really love Hans Christians, Bob Perry boats, Westsails...double enders built in the 70s
If you may know of any boat that fits this bill or perhaps you have one yourself, please feel free to reach out :) zonneveldceline@gmail.com
