Thanks! Speaking from my own experience I'm pretty sure no one is ever "ready" to buy a boat. In my case it was a long term dream that just seemed like I needed to fulfill while I was fit enough to enjoy it. In addition I still have a couple of kids living at home that I hope I can teach them the beauty and challenge of sailing. The danger with any dream is that it's not realistic. I hope we've done enough homework and have enough experience thus far to overcome this. Time will tell.

In the end we have chosen CYOA to keep our boat because we believe they're small enough to take care of our needs but have enough experience to know what they're doing. While I like to think of myself as being easy to get along with I am sure it is a difficult task for a charter operation to appease the needs/desires/dreams of the owner while taking care of customers plus employees and then try to make money as a business. CYOA seems to have figured this out so my hat is off to them. Though it was suggested to me a few weeks ago that I was being "persnickety" over some subject or other. Which I took no offense at because (a) I appreciate that they feel like they can push back if I'm being unreasonable (how do I know I'm being unreasonable?) and (b) they're managing a very large asset for us - we're not the people with the deep pockets but rather the people with the big dreams. So seems like I ought to be able to be a little bit persnickety.

If I ever buy another boat maybe I'll name it "Persnickety". It's got a ring to it.