How to buy a boat and sail the world with ZERO sailing experience

‘Our Days’ yacht ownership journey: Part 1

The following guest blog was written by Dream Yacht boat owners, reflecting on their real-life experiences of how they came to purchase a 39-foot Lagoon catamaran in the Dream Yacht Seychelles fleet – all while never having sailed before.
By Franz & Nadine, Ourdays.de

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We, Franz, Nadine and little Lion are a German family of three and the owners of “SEBON”, a Lagoon 39 Catamaran based in Praslin, Seychelles and operating in the Dream Yacht Partnership program.

…and this is the story of how we ended up buying this vessel without any sailing experience at all, with only the dream to be full time liveaboards and sailing around the world in a timespan that was faaaar away from our retirement! 

Looking back, the Seychelles seemed to be the destination where faith met our real lives – the place where all our travel ambitions started. And now the place where our vessel for the circumnavigation is berthed. 

A serendipitous Seychelles meeting

Back in 2014, still just the two of us, no little Lion yet in sight, we made our first few long-haul holidays from our newly acquired jobs as a math/chemistry teacher (Nadine) and a material-engineer at Audi (Franz). It was that life-changing day in the Seychelles, where we bumped into another German couple, whilst both trying to find our way through the jungle, over steep rocks and through tidal zones to get to the beautiful rock pools at Anse Marron on the island of La Digue.

Turned out it happened to be our last days of a one-week vacation and their first days of a one-year sabbatical around the world. It didn’t take long until they had our full attention as we have never heard of this sabbatical concept before at that time, because in 2014 it was definitely not as common and popular as it is now. We had a wonderful, but short time together with drinks and stories on the beach.  Fast forward, just a few weeks later we signed a contract with our employers for a one year sabbatical in 2016/2017.

We had the time of our lives traveling to so many different and unique places, from the salt deserts in Bolivia to the Iguazu Falls in Brazil and the Peruvian amazon jungle. Road-tripped 4×4 through Uganda and Tanzania to see the last living mountain gorillas and the big-five in the vast plains of the Serengeti. After we had so much fun exploring the Japanese winter on skis, the endless coastline and wildlife of Australia and New Zealand we ended up in French Polynesia where the next chapter of our lives, unaware at that time, was about to be born.

The atolls of the Pacific were on our top wish list while creating our round the world itinerary but once we were there, we got fully immersed and it is just unbelievable how stunning these islands are, above and below the water. Luckily, we found ourselves a perfect AirBnB in the lagoon of Bora Bora with views of the iconic mountain peak and the whitest beaches with turquoise water all around us. And of course, afloat and anchored just in front – a sailboat!

New liveaboard friends in French Polynesia

The lovely French couple made their home ours for the next couple of days and we unknowingly got stung by the very poisonous “sailing-and-liveaboard” bug. The best thing about traveling is that you meet so many different people and experience things that may have been totally out of your imagination before. Baking chocolate brownies with local grated coconut, spearfishing our dinner, sundowners with the most unreal views – all that whilst having the greatest imaginable infinity bathtub around us, was just too good to be true. And ultimately we knew that somehow, we wanted life to look like this in the future.

Enter Dream Yacht

By the time we returned home to Germany, after another two months of land-based travel, this idea was still in the back of our minds. But how? How do you buy a boat? How does sailing even work? We both grew up in rural Germany, far away from the next ocean, where sailing just isn’t a thing, and there was no one in our networks to talk to. Fortunately, there is the internet and after a few weeks of research, with some very strange detours of building a boat on our own, we somehow ended up on the Dream Yacht website. And there it was, the perfect way to match our life plan of having a child in our mid-30s with the newly acquired idea of living on a vessel and sailing the world, all whilst having zero sailing experience – a charter management program!

With a program duration of about 6 years it would give us enough time to learn the ropes, sail a lot and reasonably cheap, own a boat in the long run and ultimately have enough time to match our family plans with all that. After a few calls, emails and a personal meeting with Dream Yacht sales consultants in Nice, France it didn’t take long until we were fully in. We signed a Partnership contract for a 4 cabins, 2 heads, 40-foot Lagoon Catamaran in the Seychelles. That vessel ticked all our requirement boxes and just 8 months after we returned from that trip around the world, we stumbled into what was about to become the next big adventure of our lives.

Learning to sail while on “owner week” charters

For the first couple of charters, we crewed up with friends and strangers who already knew how to handle a sailing vessel and had lots of experience to share. This way, on every owner week we spend, we learned the basics, step by step, in a more intensive way that any group sailing course could have ever given us. It took us about one year, 6 charters or 50 days at sea until we finally felt confident enough to skipper on our own with a mainly inexperienced crew of friends.

During that first year, we took advantage of still being “just the two of us” and chose some very remote and exotic locations for our owner weeks and we’d love to share a few of our best moments with you…

Our sailing charter world tour

Sailing with whales in Australia

Since our first time in Australia, we instantly loved this continent for its nature. We had tried to get close to humpbacks before on a whale watching tour but when we read that there is a Dream Yacht base in the Whitsundays we instantly figured that we had to go there during breeding season in August. Being on the water 24/7 with females and calves not in a hurry, would give us the best chances ever to encounter these gentle giants. Looking back this all became true, we spotted whales 2-3 times a day swimming by, hanging around and even managed to snorkel with a mum plus her newborn.

Returning to sail in the Seychelles

The following April we finally returned to the Seychelles, on a last-minute use and therefore due to availability, not on our own vessel. Besides being a mostly non-sailable month, we do love this time of the year so much for its calm conditions. All beaches are easily accessible, the weather is bluebird and the clarity below the waterline is the best for snorkeling. We happened to bump into our “SEBON” twice during that charter and after a short chat with the crew we found ourselves getting a tour of our boat with ice-cold Gin Tonics in our hands shortly after. Pro Tip: do not leave the privately owned islands like Fregate or North out of your charter itinerary, if the weather allows. Even though you are not allowed to walk around the island you are welcome to use their breathtaking beaches, as they are open to the public by Seychelles law. If you are mindful of your behavior and leave nothing but footprints there is not a thing the hotel staff will do about it, besides some friendly greetings.

Charters in Spain, Italy & Croatia before a pause

After several more Mediterranean Charters to the Balearics, Sardinia and Croatia our frequent travel circus came to a pause when the pandemic hit the world in early 2020. However, we were grounded by a second, way more positive happening. Little Lion was about to grow in Nadine’s belly and soon was born into a strange world of masked people, lockdowns and restrictions to freely roam around. Luckily for us, with Nadine being on a one year parental-leave and Franz having a very home-office friendly job, where we were able to sit out quarantine times and returned to travel mode as soon as we felt confident. Turns out: a fully equipped catamaran is about as good as it gets when it comes to taking care of your newborn while having a fun time with friends and great places around. As sailors we always need to have a solution to any problem and therefore little Lion, seen here only 7 weeks old, was taking his baths in a salad bowl on a stunning anchorage in Antipaxos, Greece.

A new Exumas tradition

In December 2021, we managed to get out again to the Bahamas. That charter was as close as it can possibly get to the live-aboard feeling we fell for during our world trip. We sailed almost one month on a vessel down in the Exumas, all during peak season with practically no one around and spend our days entertaining Lion, working on our freediving skills, spearfishing our meals, conching, lobstering or just looking from the back of the boat not being able to believe how unreal this place is. Ever since it has become our new family tradition to spend the days in between the years here in the Bahamas. We can only encourage every Dream Yacht charterer and owner to put this destination high up on your “bases-to-sail” list. It’s breathtaking!

Beyond the Bahamas – to St. Martin

Deeply stunned by the Bahamas, we concentrated all of our holidays around Easter and set off for another long-held dream – sailing the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean! Ultimately we were able to get a vessel for 3 weeks in St. Martin. Little Lion had grown up fast and was already all in for sun, sand and the ocean. St. Martin was different, way less “off-grid” and way more “French Riviera”. Good winds to sail all day long, great restaurants to eat and a lot of window shopping, especially on St. Barth, as most shops were way out of our price range, haha! We definitely enjoyed the trendy beach bars there, like the Rainbow Café! Having a cold drink and watching Lion play in the sand is sometimes all a day needs.

Sharing the ownership dream

The list of remarkable memories, collected throughout our owner use weeks, continued in the following year. But what makes owning a vessel in the Dream Yacht fleet so extra special is getting to make some of some of your family and friends dreams come true. Franz’s parents hadn’t been on vacation outside of Germany for well over 20 years, despite having such a globetrotter child and daughter-in-law. They have followed our adventures ambitiously from the start, however the opportunity to be around their grandson Lion for a longer period finally convinced them to hop aboard.

The week, end of July, in Montenegro was so hot and completely calm that we didn’t even once take the sails out of the bag. Nevertheless, the Bay of Kotor and the places along the Montenegrin coast, like Sveti Stefan, are exceptionally beautiful and since Lion had just learned to swim with his floaties we spend most of our days in the water. Bringing back their memories of the time when we were young and spending time as a “three generation vessel” was a very special way of giving back. With the efforts on this trip meant for our parents, they really enjoyed it, so much so that we had to plan another. And of course we hope that they will also get the chance to join us in more exotic locations once we set off for our circumnavigation following phase out from our Partnership program.

Monster fish in Sardinia

Another remarkable dream-come-true moment happened last year around the Golfo di Orosei, Sardinia. From the get-go and our first trip to the Whitsundays we were all-in for the fishing game, trolling every second when underway and wherever it was allowed. Sebastian, a good friend and passionate angler shared the same dream of catching something really big one day. He and his wife accompanied us to the Exumas, known to be very rich in fish, but all we got after two weeks were some barracudas on the hook. Good tackle, but still not the delicious monster we were hoping for. So when we sailed again together last year in Sardinia we had low expectations, as the Mediterranean is not the best for fishing anymore.

But suddenly, for some inexplicable reason, we were at the right spot just at the right time and the brake of our reel began to scream. In the past, “fish-on” was the moment when chaos was about to break down on us, but not this time! Hell, we did not want to risk losing it, so we were super careful and after 50 minutes of fight, our dream tuna was exhausted enough to bring him in. For sure, there’s bigger monsters out there – that by the way, we will catch one day – but it made us very proud and fed the crew for days with delicious sashimi and tuna steaks.

The ownership journey continues

By the time this article gets published SEBON will have been phased out from the charter fleet, as our charter contract days are counting down. Standby for “PART 2” of our blog series, and see how we fare with the refit in the Seychelles and beginning days of our circumnavigation!

If you wish you can follow all of our adventures on Instagram @ourdays.de or on our website www.ourdays.de (texts are in German though) and hopefully we will get the chance to share more about our 4-year circumnavigation plans. Thanks for reading, see you out on the water!

Franz, Nadine and little Lion

Some statistics:

Number of vessels we owned in the fleet: 1  Lagoon 39, Praslin, Seychelles
Months of the contract: 51 out of 63
Days on the water: 210 days – 119 pre-booking, 91 short-booking
Bases sailed: 13 bases in 10 countries, 5 within Europe and 5 Overseas
Vessels sailed: 22 catamarans from 39“ to 52“ foot
Damage caused to the fleet: 1 lounge cushion lost in a storm
Number of Crew made happy: 49