Meet sailing vessel Hope–our home, transportation, place to gather with friends, space to learn and grow, and great avenue for discovering and delighting in God’s amazing creation! Read our story of How It All Began!
We knew all along that we wanted a catamaran over a mono-hull, simply for livability reasons as this would be our permanent home! But even with this understanding of the type of sailboat we wanted, it took two years of contemplation, research, prayer, and investigation before we narrowed down our selection and were prepared to buy a boat. This is no overnight decision! We did due diligence by learning about the varieties of catamarans available, and we narrowed down our selection to two models–the Lagoon and the Leopard.
Having never stepped aboard a catamaran, we decided it would be wise to tour some for ourselves, since we had no idea what to expect. We met with two boat brokers, one in Florida and one in South Carolina, and we discovered a lot. This confirmed to us that, yes, we could live on a catamaran; and, it taught us what would work for us and what would not, what we liked and what we didn’t, what was essential and what was not. Touring varying sizes and models of catamarans was crucial to our decision-making process. It helped us narrow down the criteria that was important to us. We chose the Lagoon! It met our needs for livability, suitability, quality, reliability, and functionality.
The next step was chartering a Lagoon 46 to see what life on a Lagoon (or a catamaran, for that matter) would be like. Could we do this? Did we like it? Was this the right direction for our lives? After having ended our charter, It became clear to us that we could do this, and we were ready for the challenge!
It was time to look at boats for sale! This process can take a long time depending on the availability, so we reached out to brokers and began an active search for the right boat. These were our parameters when searching for a Lagoon:
- 45-46 foot
- Owner’s version (3 cabins and 3 heads)
- Less than five years old (I liked the newer cabinet color)
- Flybridge (to allow for more living space in the cockpit)
- Well-maintained and mostly move-in ready
- Bulkhead issues fixed
- Priced within our budget
- Hopefully located along the east coast of the US
- 110 volt since our US tools and appliances were made for that
There was one particular catamaran that Kory had his eye upon. I thought I wanted the Lagoon 46 since that’s what we chartered, but I knew it was beyond our price range. The Lagoon 450F seemed to suit our needs, and it really is a great boat! We flew to Hilton Head, South Carolina, to meet Will Miller with The Multihull Company to look at a 2018 Lagoon 450F named Freewill. It had one prior owner who purchased the boat new at the Annapolis boat show, and he had kept it impeccably serviced, and the hours on each engine were really low (500h each). The bulkhead was scheduled to be repaired, and it met all our other parameters. I won’t bore you with the rest of the details, but this boat was worth making an offer. Seller and buyer agreed on the terms and within a couple of months the deal was sealed and we took possession of this beautiful boat in January of 2023, for which we are most grateful. And now, here we are living full time and traveling aboard our boat, Hope!
Here is the original walkthrough video for the 2018 Lagoon 450F “Freewill” we purchased. We have since changed her name to “Hope!” Welcome aboard!
To learn more about the specifications of our Lagoon 450F, click here