Delivery of the Pearson Resolute -- On Sunday, February 8th (yes the middle of the winter) I will be part of a crew of four delivering a 19 foot Pearson Resolute from City Island (my childhood home port) to our yacht club in Raritan Bay.  This is my friend Mark's latest endeavour--he fell in love with the thing on eBay, and figured 9 boats wasn't enough. 

 

He got it for nothing, and we inspected it earlier this week--it is actually in very good shape for a 1960's era boat.  It is open boat, and reminds me of Humphrey Bogart's African Queen.  I expect it to be cold, wet, and probably a very long day, but life is at its best when it is an adventure! 

 

The trip is 40 miles and we have to go through Hell's Gate and the East River.  I am not taking any chances we are bringing my outboard as a backup in case the wind and the existing motor don't cooperate.

 

 

The Mast Debacle --  On Memorial Day 2007, Ethan and Ashlea, and Ethan's younger brother Glenn, were out for a day sail in about 12 knots of wind.  It was an absolutely perfect day, and everything was going along smoothly.  It was about the fourth time we had been out all season after a hiatus of about 4 seasons while Ethan was out building The Ultimate Workbench (do-it-yourself, public woodshop business).  Everything was perfect, the weather, the seas, and then . . . with a sharp pop, everything went berserk.  The rig literally blew over the leeward side of the boat.  Fortunately, nobody was injured.   

 

Over the previous winter I had some work done to the boat to bring it back from its dormant state on the trailer.  The friend of mine who had done the work found some rot in the port bulkhead.  In an effort to save me money, he cut out the bad section and built in a fiberglass and epoxy patch.  Unfortunately, this wasn't an effective repair, and the patch litterally disintegrated under load.  The chainplate was ejected through the deck, and the mast went over.  Believe it or not, the damage wasn't that bad, because the mast is deck stepped.  Obviously, the bulkeahd had to be rebuilt, there was fiberglass damage at the chainplate site, and where the deck step pulled its lag screws out, and a few fitting needed to be replaced.  

 

Kelly saw us floating about our new 30 foot mast anchor that day and called the launch to assist us.  Mark, Armando, and another guy dressed in his whites, came out to assist at the time of the accident.   

Mark ended up doing the repair work (which was a mistake for him because no amount of money will ever make up for how much I now bother him with every little boat thing that stresses me out about the boat)  and though we lost three months of the season, relaunching on labor day, everything worked out in the end.  I learned something very valuable that day-If you are ever short of cash and want to get a free beer, drop your mast at RYC, sympathy will get you a lot of free drinks!  But on a more serious note, don't let time or money dictate a repair decision--if anyone had been injured that day, this would have been a tragedy.        

 

The Name -- Since everyone asks.  Here is the lame story.  In 2000, I got a $5,000 bonus while working for Uproar.com as a project manager.  I could have invested it, I could have saved it, but all that seemed a lot less fun then buying a boat.  While looking for a Pearson Ensign (I grew up sailing on my grandfather's Pearson Vanguard), I saw a Capri 25 in a slip in Tom's River. 

 

I had sailed on one when I was about 12 years old in Newport Beach, CA and remember it being a fun boat, so I looked around and found "Satori" in a yard in Middle River, MD.  Apparently the last owner didn't pay his bills, and the marina put a lien on it.  Ashlea and I checked it out (which I had no business doing because I really didn't know what to look for), and I bought it for about $4800.  

 

I didn't really like the name Satori and i can't remember what it means, and Ashlea and I, and a bunch of our friends liked the song Nightswimming by R.E.M. so without a lot of thought we named the boat Nightswimmer.  So no, it is not a sexual reference!  Sorry.  And Once a year or so Nightswimming comes around on my iPod's shuffle and I listen to it.     

 

Our First Race in Raritan Bay -- On August 14th Nightswimmer made its racing debut.  Here is a link to a blog by Adam, one of our crewmen, about that day: