Wow, Steve, welcome aboard. You don't do things by half then. That makes for quite a jump from your previous boat. I love those Cordova 45s myself.
You may have guessed, I know Steve from previously - (old PMM Forum days, in fact) - and as he is local, we have met several times on his boat, which he kept at Sanctuary Cove, a convenient stop-by while attending the Sanctuary Boat Cove Boat Show. He had an Evolution series Clipper 34 Europa style back then.
Sounds like business has been good Steve. Pleased to hear it.
Look forward to more posts from you. We Aussies are a bit outnumbered on here.
However, talking of Aussie members, if you're looking for some bedtime reading Steve, have a gander here at Matt Hendo's thread, which is his reconstruction from scratch over in WA of a 35 ft cray boat, here...it's setting some sort of thread record as we speak...
That would be a pretty good choice. If I nitpick I can find stuff I'd like to be different, but there is a lot to be said for buying a newer rather than older boat. Including that it will be cheaper in the long run!
My boat will be 37 this year. The Mk 1's were, and still are popular, but with any boat that age lots of renewal is needed, and lots of time as well. It isn't cheap, but if you have the time and enjoy the work then its worth it.
Your big advantage is that its your second largish boat. That will be a big help in navigating the multitude of compromise decisions. Good luck with it all!