But for the sailors in the audience, I hear a collective "who cares!?" Indeed. He may have owned a sailboat, but "he were no sailor", as my dearly departed shipwright of a Norwegian Grandfather would say. I won't embarrass anyone with the details of the day sail except to say that (a) it is no surprise the owner wants to sell it, and (b) I have my work cut out for me in the area of repairing the furler. The picture below is me, pissed off, trying to manually roll the genoa up.
Note the number of turns on the winch and the tale they tell - they were slipping! I was surprised the whole boat didn't just fold in half once Hercules started winding. Not only that, but the forestay (part of the furler) was so loose that (a) I could (under sail) wobble it a good 2m chord at midpoint and (b) the mast never lost its rakish twist above the top spreaders. So ... work to do. But there is more. I had hoped to be aboard for my birthday. This is not going to happen due to an unharmonic convergence between the schedules of Capt. Pete, the surveyor, Jeff Leng, the seemingly treacherous marina manager, and our current owner. I won't buy it without a survey but, if the hull is reasonably sound, I will place it on the hard for a bottom scrub and coat of (non-toxic micro-structure, for you West Coast hippies,) anti-fouling. I just need to herd all the cats in the right direction. Next hoist window appears to be 26 June which would be fine since I would be in NYC during the entire time the boat was dry and being tended to gently with high-pressure water jets and smelly bumpaint.
There are other pluses and minuses in the equation: the VHF radio lights up but no one is home (subtract SGD200 if not fixable) but the owner leaves a set of Harken Lazy Jacks to be installed (add SGD1,000). Then again, the Autohelm ST4000 has broken its drive belt (and I know this vintage belt is no longer available anywhere, requiring an upgrade to the Mk V wheel drive that could be, how can I say, cost-prohibitive...) and the wildly inaccurate Raymarine ST60 Wind Indicator is completely hooped due to lightning. On the plus side, I could just pull out all of the Raytheon equipment and be at peace with myself, since they are a hated competitor. During the sail this weekend, I had to drop the bimini, much to the surprise of the owner and his wife, because, being a weirdo, I actually like to look up at the sails while I am sailing to see how they are responding to the wind. They thought I was nuts and restarted the Yanmar when I asked to go wing-on-wing downwind back to the Marina. Still, I persist...
And the boat is very clean, the gel-coat well cared for, the bilges only wet to the extent expected. We tacked upwind, as close I could bring her, and achieved 5 knots in a breeze that was barely perceptible onshore with so little heel that even the squirreliest guest would be hard pressed to complain, though I don't even notice heel until the lee rail was awash. And the SO33 has a very clever slanted top to the cockpit coming which, when on a 'comfortable' angle of heel, is level and makes a nice platform on the weather side to place girlfriends and small children. And, no, they are NOT the same thing!
Anyhow, stay tuned - this is not a done deal yet. But I was told by someone very close to me, and who had expressed, prior to casting off, a fear of drowning, sea monsters, pirates, and no TV reception, that she would, it seems, very much like to ... well, it is inappropriate to quote the language directly in a forum such as this, but I should say, she would like to be free of the encumbrances of civilized society and be able to be intimate under the stars alone. All I can say to that is, as the Venerable Lord Nelson himself would demand when the enemy offered battle: Never mind the maneuvers, go straight at her, firing until she strikes!
