“Well, RunHead, we all become a little gun-shy ovet the years.”

Rumhead, not Runhead (of course) and “over” not “ovet”.

Dislexia getsya

Sorry

Once upon a time I bought a throwaway Clipper 21 and made it mine; all paid for, oweing me nothing. For me, at the time it was the perfect boat. It sat on a trailer, I could park it behind my family’s home in Ocean City during the winter. All the maintenance was done by me, I launched it & rigged it myself, pulled it out and downrigged it, and if I’d have known then how to troubleshoot the crappy little Chrysler outboard I probably would have known that all it needed was a fuel pump, and fixed that too. My only big expense was the price of the mooring for the summer: $400.

I used to spend whole weekends on this boat and sailed the hell out of it. Probably the most use I’d gotten out of a boat since my teenaged years. But I became afflicted with the rose-colored glasses when my friend showed me a picture of his parents’ San Juan 24 that they were selling.

I had no real idea what I was getting into. I naively figured “what the hell, having the Clipper costs next to nothing, so what could three more feet cost?” So I dumped the Clipper and bought the San Juan. Now, because of the fin keel I entered into the wonderful world of being wet-nursed to the boat yard. A year later I was wishing I had kept the smaller boat. The SJ24 was nicer, faster, and definitely NOT worth the added expense, which in yard fees alone came to about $1600. Three years after I bought her my daughter was born. The boat suffered as a result and when I finally unloaded her a couple of years later it was for a fire-sale price.

On the other hand, the people that bought my old CM21 still have her and use it constantly. They love the boat and have done all of the things to her that I had wanted to do before I bought the bigger boat.

So, hindsight doesn’t wear rose-colored glasses. It can be brutally honest. And sometimes, that’s the biggest help when we turn back to look at the future.

-BB

All those boats you see disintegrating at the dock? They have pessimistic owners who have lost the lure of the sea (and become afraid of their boats). If you don’t get out and use the boat you forget why you have it, and all those maintnance and repair tasks get overwhelming.

For all you readers, I am a glass is half full kind of guy and I have also been accused of wearing “rose colored glasses”. In fact, sometimes I am a ready-fire-aim kind of guy.

I enlisted the assistance from my good friend Rumhead when we seriously considering a project boat. It was his input that I valued the most. He was detached from the boat, hadn’t formed any opinions or any desires for the boat. I, on the other hand, had visited the boat several times, conversed with the owner of the boat and met with the marinas lawyer.

I could see me in the boat. It is a bigger boat, 7 feet longer than Lola, better living space and a sturdy boat. But, there were significant issues with the boat, namely a questionable diesel engine. My boat is an outboard powered vessel, so I know very little about diesel inboards.

When Rumhead came to take a look at the boat with me, his unbiased eyes were exactly what I wanted. I did not want a “rah rah” cheerleader feeding into my budding obsession with this new boat.

In the end, we decided to pass on this boat. It is a great boat, and will make someone very happy. With a little reflection, my wife and I decided that we liked sailing, not working on a sailboat. So, we are keeping our eyes open for a larger boat, but, we are not in any sort of a rush to make it happen.