The original seed that grew into this adventure was probably sown in 1998, when we chartered a yacht in the BVIs. It was a wonderful holiday, but the event that stuck in our minds was when a gorgeous yacht (a 48' Oyster) sailed into the marina where we were berthed. It was being sailed single-handed by a delivery skipper, who showed us around it. From then on John wanted to spend his retirement doing some long-distance cruising on a well-found yacht. It didn't take long to find out that a professor's salary would not run to an Oyster, or indeed any decent yacht of that size. It was Claudia that came up with the idea of buying a yacht to put in charter for a few years in order to subsidize the purchase and running costs, so that we could eventually take her over when we retired. She often claims to regret having made this suggestion, but that is exactly what we did. We purchased a new Beneteau 473 at the Chicago boat show in 2001 through TMM who were to manage her charter career. We chose a deep keel option as we appreciate a boat that sails well to windward Everything went according to plan until 9/11 happened, at which time the finance company pulled the loan and many of the advance bookings evaporated. However, we managed to find alternative funding, albeit with great difficulty and eventually some some bookings dribbled back.
We flew to South Carolina on Halloween where we met our new yacht, Rafiki. We had a guided tour of the Beneteau factory, which was very useful as we could see how Rafiki was made. We spent a delightful few days watching the final stages of fitting out and exploring the considerable culinary delights of Charleston. A professional skipper delivered Rafiki from Charleston to the BVIs. John was tempted to join him, but his vacation time was limited. The skipper was impressed with the performance of Rafiki and managed to make a speedy passage and also catch a sword fish along the way.
Our first outing on Rafiki took place in December 2001. She proved to be fast and weatherly and pointed well upwind.