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SebastianSmith · 04-08-2020, 15:36

After a decade of adventures with our family of four on "Moon River," a 1988
(post blister) Valiant 40, we're moving on and putting her for sale. Berthed in Galesville, MD, where there's also a mooring paid and available until April. "Moon River" is fully equipped and in good shape. She could go long-distance cruising today. We just sailed up from the Chesapeake to New England for a final cruise, so every piece of gear is in place and maintenance is up to date.

olaf hart · 04-08-2020, 16:10

She is a very clean boat, and the Dabneys are enthusiastic brokers.

Best wishes from V40 no 101....

IslandInfedel · 04-08-2020, 16:14

She appears very well thought out.
Good luck in the sales nice to see a gold example like this

shadow · 06-08-2020, 07:51

do you have photos? Asking price? The more information the better.. Thanks

SebastianSmith · 06-08-2020, 08:54

So details on Moon River.
Listing price: $135,000.
She's a 1988 Valiant 40 (not the blister years). Yanmar 4JHE with 2,999 hours.
Located in Galesville, MD, a really nice little corner of the Chesapeake about one hour's drive from Washington, DC, and the mooring, paid through April, comes with the boat.
We've had her for just under 10 years and used her as I think her creator, Bob Perry, intended: long-distance blue water cruising. We crossed the Atlantic four times with her and throughout this period refitted and kept up things in a way that made her swift and safe throughout. She is truly ready to go now -- our last sail was in July up to New England and so every piece of equipment is functioning and maintained up to date.
She is listed with longtime Valiant brokers Stan and Sylvia Dabney and can be found on the usual brokerage site -- I hadn't realized that links to commercial sites are not allowed on cruisersforum, for which apologies!

Here is a fuller description that I wrote for the listing:

MOON RIVER:
Moon River is a 1988 Texas-built (non-blister) Valiant 40. We bought her in 2010, wanting a boat that could comfortably, safely and swiftly take our family of four long-range cruising.

Since then, we have lived aboard for 18 months, home-schooled our daughters at the fold-out saloon table, and covered a good 30,000 miles. In four Atlantic crossings, and twice going up and down the US eastern seaboard, we encountered all the usual types of weather but never once had real drama. Moon River was just fulfilling her potential. This summer we cruised to Cape Cod and, time allowing, would have happily kept going.

Moon River has been set up to avoid marinas and expensive repair services. The boat is stripped down, simplified, and seaworthy. She's also a Valiant, with all the standard features, so naturally that means comfort and tons of space.

We requipped pretty much everything in 2010-13. There was another big requip in 2015, focusing on the mast and rigging. We do annual maintenance and incidental replacements constantly to ensure that everything is protected and that we can remain independent.

A speck of rust appears on the engine and it gets sanded and painted. Filters get replaced well before maximum hours. Winches are stripped and greased yearly. Thruhulls are dismantled and re-greased every year. The two diesel tanks are emptied and cleaned manually every year. Same with the water tanks. The halyards are taken down for storage every winter. Etc. The emphasis is on making the boat reliable, easy to fix, and safe.

Two seasons bottom paint (Petit HRT Premium) applied June 2020. In addition to list below, all the usual cruising gear: fenders, many mooring lines, emergency and day-to-day spares, BBQ, windscoop, fishing tackle, etc.

Dinghy is a Dyer Dhow with oars that fit inside of the dinghy and mast and sail.

Dyer Dhows are much sought after, something of a legend in the sailing dinghy world, as much as Valliant’s are in the cruising boat world. The boat is 9' long and the oars can lay down inside the dinghy. It weighs only about 105 lbs, which is considerably less than a 9' RIB, let alone one with an engine on it. Two people can pick up this dinghy without a problem. We have a custom made cradle to lift her up on deck. The oars are pine, light, well balanced and work very well in bronze oarlocks. You can put on a small outboard if you wish. The mast and sail are in perfect condition and we used this rig to cross bays and from large anchorages into marinas. Also worth noting that a Dyer lasts almost for ever with only occasional maintenance. I painted the hull inside and out. The gunwale (white oak) is new this year and this will last a couple decades.

I have all the paper charts and all the cruising guides you need for an Atlantic circuit: US east coast, Atlantic islands, Atlantic Europe (UK, France in particular), west Africa, Caribbean west and east, Bahamas. All dating from around 2013/14.

We sailed twice around the Atlantic and have no chart plotter, so this is an "everything you need" collection. Charts are mix of grey-scale reproductions by Bellingham Chart Printers, OceanGrafix, Imray, and UK Admiralty. Condition: used but all decent.

Details: around 50 full size charts plus each of the Maptech chart books covering the US east coast and chart books covering the Bahamas. Also a dozen cruising guides/pilot books.

I wrote a personal blog during some of our Atlantic trips. There are numerous pictures and stories about traveling on the boat. Here is the link.
Voyage to the Sargasso Sea