Finalizing our new Excess13 catamaran build

The last couple weeks have been a flurry of rushed decisions and paperwork filings and notaries and... trying our best to slow down enough to enjoy this caribbean paradise while we're still here.
Always the balance of working toward your goals while living in the present, right?

So, where do we start?
Paperwork. Buying a boat comes with a LOT of it:

- Insurance
I know we seem like risk-takers to most people but that's not how we typically view ourselves, and if you think were about to purchase a new home, boat, van, whatever type of "investment" (okay, large purchase) without having insurance to cover it... you don't know us very well yet.

This seems to get more difficult every year we're onboard regardless of where we are. The end of each year is a reoccurring battle to find new insurers willing to insure any boat, much less one in certain waters, near hurricanes or cyclones, planning to cross an ocean, etc.

Jen's been on point here and has secured 4 different quotes from different agents/companies etc and were feeling pretty solid about our needs as we learn what each WONT cover or allow (some require an annual haulout/survey, some require additional crew for crossings, some wont cover damage from nature, orcas, etc)... but at the end of the day the range is huge and we feel like we dont have the option of choosing based on personal connection and response time - even as much as we might want to.

We had also heard at one point that much of the difficulty (and extra cost) here was specifically for boats from the US (hard to blame them since americans are the most litigious and sue-happy people on the planet), which brings us to...

- Registration/Flagging
Because of the aforementioned issues with insulring a US boat - we have decided to not flag the boat in the US. To be fair, other than a fun layover en route to Europe we haven't been there for years and at this point have no plan on going back... so this was an easy decision.

Our research pointed to flagging the boat in the Marshall Islands, but when the time came to finalize it was actually far cheaper for us to flag the boat under Jamaica, which gives us a good reason to go there, to fly their flag and also means the boats home port is technically "Discovery Bay", which we find fitting. ;)

and obviously registration/flagging cannot happen without a mountain of paperwork...

- Bill of Sale, Titles, MMSI numbers, etc
There is simply no limit to the number of documents and registrations numbers that are needed for buying a boat. In our case, it also just happens to be true that we are trying to move the boat out of the bay of biscay (and the notoriously bad weather there) - meaning all these docs need to be prepped/signed/on hand before that can happen.

Luckily Jen has been crushing it in this department - only slowed down by the fact that all docs/forms require a notary (no, electronic/online notaries are not allowed), which here means "island time" and waiting a few days each time a new form/document/letter/signature comes along or is requested.

Knowing where we'll be flagged (and what we'll call the boat, though that was easy for us as our tribute to Karma the wonderdog will continue as long as we own or live aboard a boat) means labelling/stickering the boat accordingly - which at least in Europe is also a requirement before the boat can leave it's port.

Lucky for me, this part also means some fun albeit time-consuming design/imagining of what the boat will or should look like in terms of graphics etc.

- Graphics
We have been toying with the idea of much larger graphics rather than the standard small name on the front corner of the hull that we see everywhere and used as default last time... as well as what a bold pop of color on the roof might look like. We actually quite like the roof color, but since not everyone might, likely to do this with a wrap that a future owner could easily remove if their tastes differ from ours.

*To be clear - these are mockups only based on Excess website renderings.
Since there is only one Excess13 currently in the water that we know of... photos/videos are pretty tough to come by (but we plan on changing that very soon).

The Excess13 is a sexy boat, and we feel like it deserves some boldness to show it off... but we'll see if we have the guts to go through with it when the time comes. ;)

One of our photos from the boat show also allowed a more realistic photoshop/mockup - as well as a chance to help determine which color combination of fenders we might want. I know, I know... but details matter (and since Fendertex happens to allow the choice of something better than the standard dingy white fender) the designer in me can't help it.

For now however - the urgency was in simply getting "official", meaning getting the name and home port stickers on the back of the boat, so we did a quick mockup there, prepped the electronic files for the local signage expert, reviewed install location and a few color samples and signed off on the install.

- Final Specs
We also had to make some quick decisions on final specs and what was in vs out - as the boat was prepping to leave the factory. Truth be told - this is one of the places we didn't do a great job simply due to the timelines of not knowing when (or if) Karma1.0 was going to sell, not knowing we were even buying this boat, but also not wanting to slow down or risk getting kicked to "the back of the line" and wait a year or more for an available hull.

Sone of this may also just be because the Excess13 is a brand new model and some decisions were also still being built/decided/finalized by the factory around the same time we were making our decisions - but while our broker/dealer was absolutely awesome throughout the process this felt very much rushed and/or late throughout.

If you're planning a boat build/purchase (especially an Excess) let us know and we can probably help navigate all these decisions!

At the end of the day, while we wanted/dreamt of a lengthy list of factory and aftermarket upgrades... our budget simply didn't/doesn't allow and almost anything that was a "want" rather than a "need" got trimmed/cut pretty quickly.

The exception to that might be the "pulse line" package from Excess which includes taller mast, bigger sails, and black mast/boom/accents. At some point, we figure if you're buying the performance catamaran you should make sure it has the performance gear (for both us and for any potential future buyer), but we also LOVE the sleek modern look!

Unfortunately, even the Code0 sail that we were SO very impressed with (nay, in love with) from our Excess13 sea trial had to get "value-engineered" off our list of final specs.

That one hurt the most to cut I think... but maybe we'll run into someone from Elvstrom Sails and they'll realize what a valuable marketing asset Karma2.0 is and offer us a Code0 to show off their craftsmanship. ;)

We have also seen some other cool new sails on the market... so who knows - maybe this was removed for a reason the universe just hasn't alerted us to just yet.

Most of our other "wants" will simply have to wait (if they happen at all), but for now we had to cut:
- Cork flooring, which we were absolutely stoked to have
- Adding 12V Air Conditioners (since we wont have a generator onboard)
- Installing larger aftermarket alternators, for when solar won't suffice
- Freshwater head conversion - this is a must, but we'll do it ourselves
- Underwater lights - to draw in the nature/underwater life (okay.. this one hurt too)
- Having someone else install tons of solar on the roof and a lithium system. This will have to wait for us to do them ourselves.
- Boat/water toys (SUPs, foil boards, etc)

The electrical system is one we know we will still NEED but simply couldn't afford to have someone else install for us, as much as we tried to make it happen... so that's likely how we'll be spending our first few months onboard in a marina (while we wait on warmer weather and the real Med sailing season to begin).

In the meantime I'm working out system specs/layout and trying to estimate space requirements from afar - which can only go so far without real measurements once we're on the boat.

Thats about it for now (honestly seems like this list should be far longer than it is). If you have specific questions or if theres anything we left out, let us know... we do plan to dive deeper into all these systems/upgrade/options as we have the time (and are on the boat to have photos/videos to go with them), but proving a bit difficult from afar.

Yet another reason we are SO VERY excited to be onboard soon!