One day you will...

For those dreaming of the joys of owning a yacht, Nick Ridley offers encouragement as well as a look at the harsher reality of financing your dreams

- Nick Ridley

I wonder what proportion of Yachting Monthly readers are boat-owners? And what proportion are dreamers? And how many of the latter spend how many years wondering how to become the former?Do you remember those inspired Glenfiddich advertisements in YM with an alluring picture of a yacht under full sail, surging along beneath majestic Scottish coastal scenery? 'One day you will', read the caption.

But when would that day come?

And wherefrom the necessary capital? Camelot's 'It could be you' had proved forever vacuous, and Ernie only provided pocket money. A marine mortgage? Very high interest. A mortgage on the house? Lower interest, so, after only a moment's soul-searching, and perhaps minor marital friction, emphatically yea!

And now the yacht. The dream had always been of a high-quality one, and numerous boat shows had left me with high-quality hankerings.

There was something promising in Sardinia. So a visit followed. But no, this boat clearly needed an expensive refit. Hmm! Another possibility in Turkey. Oooh no! Tired decks were not encouraging, and the assorted grot in the bilges said it all.

The broker, undeterred, made a radical suggestion: 'How about a white-goods yacht?' What, some mass production, blindingly white, run-of-the-mill boat built down to a price, not up to a craftsman-crafted spec?

Yet ever so soon there I was aboard a Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 45. It was indeed quite white, but immaculate, spacious, very well-equipped, and recently returned from the ARC. So I began a sensible, realistic search for my very first yacht.