Beneteau First 42s7.
Hull Type: Fin & spade rudder.
Rigging Type: Fractional Sloop
LOA: 42.50 ft. LWL: 35.75 ft.
Beam: 13.50 ft S.A. (reported): 771.00 ft2.
Draft: 5’ 8” Displacement: 18,220 lb.
Ballast: 6,283 lb S.A./Disp.: 17.88.
Bal./Disp.: 34.48 Disp./Len.: 178.02
Construction: FG First Built: 1994
We purchased our 1995 Beneteau First 42s7 in 2017. She was a single owner boat and had been located in Panama City, FL. for 15+ years. Immediately after purchasing the boat we began repairs as per our survey to satisfy both the mortgage lien holder and our insurance company. this is what the boat needed: Complete bottom job, 10
New thru-hull fittings, r
eplacement of the standing rigging, new prop shaft, new main grounding plate for electrical bonding and replacement of the house battery bank. At this time we also had the freeboard polished, replaced a lot of the running rigging, installed a new autopilot, installed a small temporary chart plotter and we had to repair one of the two heads. A few months in the yard and she was ready for service… we still had a big wish list but the boat was sea worthy.
Hurricane Michael
Fastforward to October 10 2019 and the first Cat 5 hurricane to strike the contiguous United States since Andrew in 1992 hits Panama City, FL. Basically our boat took a direct hit from a Cat 5 storm… 160mph sustained winds… Michael is the strongest hurricane on record to make landfall in the Florida Panhandle. Being from South Louisiana we know what a hurricane is, this was something different! It left a tornado path the size of a hurricane, words and pictures cannot explain the destruction this thing left in its wake.
The day before the storm hit Holly and I prepared the boat and evacuated Panama City, FL. we drove to Dauphin Island where my parents had a house. the very next morning we drove into PC and arrived at the St. Andrews marina where our boat was moored by 9:00am. We were clearly some of the first people to see the marina and all of the destruction. Our intention was to save our boat, after an inspection from our insurance company we moved her to Pensacola for repairs
Repairs
After moving the boat to Pensacola and scouring for the best workforce our insurance was willing to pay for we immediately began repairs. The boat was in the yard for repairs from October 24 2018 until May 31st 2019 a total of 7 months! Once it was finally over, total repair costs almost equalled total value of the boat… Our insurance company paid for 95% of the repairs… We were very lucky!
We’re now living aboard full time and loving every last minute. We’ve traveled more than 5000 NM and have no plans to stop any time soon!