Getting down to business

Readers of this blog know that Kukka is for sale, but the Rest of the World doesn’t yet. That’s about to change, we hope.

Alex has done all the hard work (it was ever thus). Having got the boat looking a million dollars, and shown it to a broker, he sat down yesterday to create a For Sale website which piggybacks on this blog. It’s listed under Links. Check it out - it covers everything you’ve ever wanted to see or read about our boat (probably too much for those of you who are only marginally interested in the marine hardware side of our life, but bear with us). We hope it will pop up in places where people like us are searching for the kinds of boats which we like. Beautiful Swedish models.

Kukka 's lovely lines on display at Coffs Harbour marina

Our Swedish buddies on Panacea, Agnes and Bertil, are heading back home for a few months. They've offered to help us advertise Kukka on the Swedish trading site Blocket. Knowing what they do about Malo’s reputation amongst Swedes as the most desirable of their bluewater cruising yachts, they advise we pitch our campaign at Swedes (and other Europeans, for that matter) who want a shortcut into the Pacific. The Pacific is the drawcard for northern hemisphere sailors,  they say, and if they can bypass the dull old Atlantic and the dramas of the Panama Canal and get straight into this beautiful backyard of ours in a well-equipped, classy Swedish boat, then why not?

Our biggest challenge ironically will be to attract the attention of local buyers. Malo is a small boatyard with no profile in Australia compared to Hallberg Rassy, the biggest and best known of the high-end Swedish boat manufacturers. In fact, we understand that Kukka is the only Malo in Australia. We were lucky to find her here, but now we’ll need luck as well as good management to sell her.

So, the campaign to find Kukka a new owner begins. How quickly she sells will depend on our broker doing his job well (more on that once we’ve signed on the dotted line), but internet search engines have their own mysterious ways too. Alex of all people knows that. Over the years, he’s spent hundreds of hours scouring on-line boat sites - doing boat porn, as he calls it. I gather he’s not alone, and that boat porn soaks up (or does it feed?) the frustrations and desires of many other shore-bound sailors. May they ogle long into the night, and discover the delights of Kukka sooner rather than later!