Unpacking our decision to sell our catamaran

And some big news about our future plans!

Hoo boy. Where to start.

Yesterday we announced that we’re selling Ruby Rose 2, our beautiful catamaran that we spent years waiting for and designing. From the (literally) hundreds of messages, discussions at boat shows and on forums, we know that we have been responsible for many prospective owners to choose Seawind as a brand. For this we are super proud. But that also means that we feel a strong sense of responsibility to explain why we’re now moving on from RR2.

We’ve owned our catamaran less than two years and have not spent nearly enough time with her. The prospect of selling her– before we’ve even really started fulfilling our cruising plans– was difficult to wrap our heads around, but this is a development that’s been on the cards for months. We’ve had time to process it, and we’ve been half dreading and half anticipating the moment that we could announce this decision. But now that we’ve finally listed RR2, we feel a huge sense of relief.

Firstly, a massive thank you to everyone’s messages of support. Our phones started pinging moments after we posted to socials with variations of “Holy shit, is everything okay!?” We’ve had so many comments, DMs and emails with messages of support. I don’t know why we were nervous about this announcement– you have all proven (for, probably, the billionth time) that you’re an amazing bunch of humans, and we’re so, so grateful that you’ve all been so lovely.

Now. The question you’re wondering: why? Why is RR2 up for sale? Why are you stepping back as Seawind brand ambassadors? Are we sick? Is there a problem with the boat?? Has some catastrophe befallen us!?? The answer to all of the above is a resounding “no”. We want to emphasise in particular, that the boat itself is not the issue. While it’s true that we’ve had quite the journey with her, learning to sail a powerful catamaran and then dealing with the warranty issues over the first 12 months of our ownership– all of which we’ve been very honest about on our YouTube channel– we can reassure you all that for the past year, we’ve been feeling so happy and confident onboard. I think that’s come across clearly in our videos. There’s been a distinct lack of drama– which is good for us, but perhaps less exciting for our viewers! It’s fair to say that last season in Greece was our best yet. We loved every minute of it.

We’re also not sick, nor are we dealing with some terrible personal event that has caused this situation.

The thing is, we have chosen to keep our reasons private for the moment, which I’m sure you can all understand. A lot of this still feels very raw and we need more time to process these events and decide what to share, and what to keep to ourselves. It’s hard to create this boundary– our strong instinct is to explain, because we’ve always been completely honest with you all. But in this, we need to ask for your understanding. We’re sorry we can’t be more open than that for the moment.

So what’s next? Let’s look to the future, because we have a big announcement, and we’re so excited to finally talk about it!

In the immediate term, we’re still publishing videos from our time sailing Ruby Rose 2. We have perhaps two or three more episodes before we round that up, so if you see a YouTube notification pop up with an episode of us sailing our boat, that’s why! The final episode is going to be a tough one to edit, but hopefully quite cathartic as well…

Once those final episodes are published, we’re taking a break from YouTube.

Something that we haven’t mentioned yet is how emotionally exhausted we both are. As we touched on, we’ve had a stressful first half of the year. I mean, let’s put this in perspective: look at world events– things could be so much worse. We’re not getting carpet bombed. We haven’t ingested a lethal dose of death cap mushrooms. We haven’t been in a plane crash or been deported from our home and separated from our family. We’re grateful that we’re safe and healthy and are privileged enough to have our freedom. We have a roof over our head; we have amazing family and friends; we have enough financial freedom to have a choice over what the next chapter of our lives look like. So, when I say that we’re burnt out and needing a break, we do so with that very clear acknowledgement.

But we’re also allowed to feel what we feel (even if we feel guilty about it!). And we need a timeout. We need space. We need a break. We’ve been doing YouTube for 8 years, which means that we haven’t taken time off in 8 years. Anyone who runs their own business, whatever it is, knows this: there is no such thing as time off, no matter how much you try and strike a work/life balance. And I think a social media business can be quite bruising, because our brand is, essentially, us. Our lives. Our lifestyle. Our personalities. Our expertise. And while we’re incredibly lucky that so many of you enjoy watching our videos and– hopefully– reading our Substack and listening to our podcasts, it can be a real rollercoaster even at the best of times. But those dips in the rollercoaster are perhaps felt more keenly when your business and brand are tied so inextricably with the whims of social media users, algorithms, and trends.

So, we need to take a break from YouTube. I don’t know how long that break will last. I don’t know what our YouTube future holds. We are unprepared to commit to anything right now, because the entire point of taking time off will be to reflect and process and let inspiration come naturally. We know that you loved our Catamaran review series, and to be honest, the market and what is available has changed dramatically since we started the reviews in 2019. Going back to reviewing monohulls and catamarans is something that we may do. There are some amazing new models now on the market (as well as some very new designs that already look super outdated that we will have no issue in discussing). As you may recall, we are more than happy to call out when we think a design is of poor quality, or outdated at its inception. We value our objective independence as we continue to monitor the new and used boat markets.

However, in amongst all this, there has been a truly exciting development…

We’ve written a book!

IT’S OUR BOOK!!! FOREWORD BY DEE CAFFARI MBE!!

And not just any old book. We’ve written what we believe is the most comprehensive manual available for turning your boat life dreams into reality. We have learnt so much over the past twenty years, starting with learning to sail, then learning to own a boat, then learning how to be liveaboards, that we just had to write a book on the subject! We came up with the idea in 2021 and immediately felt so excited about the project, but it took a couple more years to find the perfect publisher to partner with and get it all moving.

There’s so much good stuff in here

To say this book is comprehensive doesn’t even do it justice. It is absolutely packed with information, not just from our own experience, but also from so many other cruisers we interviewed who shared their own unique perspectives. I would love to quote Edmund Blackadder and say that it is a ‘giant rollercoaster of a novel with 400 sizzling chapters, with some hot gypsies thrown in.” Similarly, quoting Baldrick and calling it our “magnificent octopus” doesn’t do it justice. This is our magnum opus. It’s a 300 page guide to life on a boat. A genuine blueprint for how to achieve and thrive in this lifestyle. How to buy a new boat, how to buy a used boat. How to deal with brokers and builders. What to look for, what not to ignore. How to sail with each other, with crew, as well as chapters on life aboard with children and pets. With valuable insights from many other cruisers who have sailed with children, and have that wealth of experience to contribute. How to cross an ocean, what to keep in your toolkit, what equipment to install, various at-sea communications options, how to provision, how much does it all cost, etc etc– and so much more. But it’s also personal and weaves our own story throughout the chapters. It’s very much told in our own voice.

Budget’s a biggie! We’ve drawn on a lot of other cruisers’ experiences to provide the most accurate, detailed information possible.

We’ve been writing this beast of a book for two years (turns out writing a book is really time consuming, ha!). We absolutely loved the writing process, as we flexed our creative muscles in a different way compared to filming and video creation. Our publisher is Exploring Eden Media, and Brendan, the founder, has just been so incredible at keeping this project– and us– on track. We’ve got some of the layouts back and WOW. This book is not only packed with info and anecdotes (plus a fair few laugh-out-loud moments!), but it’s incredibly beautiful in its layout and formatting.

We are, in short, so proud of this book and we can’t wait to share it with you all.

In addition to this, the forward has been written by Dee Caffari, MBE, who is without doubt one of the most skilled and courageous sailors in the world. When Dee offered to write our foreword, we nearly fell of our chair.

Whatever you want to know about liveaboard life, it’s in this book.

Pre-orders are now open!

https://exploringedenbooks.co/product/the-boat-life-manual/

If you do plan to buy this book, firstly THANK YOU, and secondly, please consider pre-ordering– it genuinely benefits us, as the authors.

Stay tuned for updates. Subscribe to our Substack. We’ll also be sharing on Instagram as well.

We love you guys.

Nick & Terysa

Ps, genuine enquiries for RR2 can be made to rubyrose2forsale@gmail.com.