Nimble 20

Built in 1991, our Nimble 20 "Bide A Wee" was our family cruiser for over 20 years. It was our vessel for grand adventures. We are thankful for her designer, builder, and all those we encountered along the way. She was lost in year 2013 to an EF4 tornado that devastated our town.

Year 2007 was our third vacation to Florida Keys. We initiated the trip in November, Dad had worked long hours on a big project all year, and had not used any vacation time. Suddenly his work project passed a milestone and the pace lightened, with only a couple days notice we decided on another vacation in Florida Keys. This was a benefit of our growing experience, we had attained a level where we could make impromptu plans knowing tow vehicle, trailer and boat were ready. We trailered our Nimble 20 sailboat 1500 miles one way (3000 miles round trip).

We sailed round trip from Bahia Honda State Park near the 7 mile bridge, to Grand Marquises, located 35 miles west of Key West. In Key West, the man working at the coffee shop lived most of his life in Peoria, Il, we even work for the same company. He shared a simple yet profound life perspective that summed up our vacation; "Happiness is a choice". That is what made this vacation so successful; we had a small but capable boat, and we were committed to making the best of it, and having a good time.

Below: Photos from our Year 2007 vacation to Florida Keys.

Above Right: Destination at Grand Marquises 35 miles west of Key West. Local fishermen gave us Red Snapper for dinner that we cooked "foil meal" style with potatoes on the grill located on the stern sprit!

Above: Morning at Key West, notice the coffee and hot water made by the wise man from Peoria at the local brew shop. Folks were especially nice to us at Key West Westin Hotel and Marina. Even the charter fishing boat captains were amazingly friendly and respectful of our little boat and crew. We kept a schedule of waking with sunrise, and retiring at sunset. For a family in Key West, the daylight schedule was delightful hours to be out and about, and at other locations it was survival to avoid the "no see ums" bugs that had bitten us after sunset on previous vacations.

Above Left: A photo from our 2nd trip to Bahia Honda State Park. We couldn't resist adding this nautical photo of our cruiser. We notice this photo shows the 1st roller furler we had on the bow sprit, it gave us constant problems. Notice the ad hoc white line that routes the furler line approximately 90 degree angle to the drum. Later we replaced it with a Flexible Furler that was installed "exactly" according to the instructions, and we didn't have any more problems. We added a pulley to top of the sprit to route the furler line properly. There is a photo of the new furler below.

Above Right Top: Dad was so relaxed he took off on a passage to return from Key West to Bahia Honda without filling the gas cans! We had a stiff headwind, and the boat refused to tack, especially while pulling the 12' rowboat. Fortunately it was just Dad and Son, the rest opted for another day of swimming at the Westin and skipped the headwind passage. Unable to make our destination by sail or power, we used GPS to navigate a crazy winding channel through tidal flats and grass beds to find this marina, it was buried deeply within a maze of canals. When we arrived it was closed, and we were hungry. What a blessing to find a white tablecloth Italian restaurant just the other side of the blue wall! At morning the marina manager asked "how did you get here !?! We felt pretty accomplished and grateful for our shallow draft sailboat and GPS.

Above Right Bottom: Local fishermen gave us GPS coordinates for a nice dive spot.

Below, a photo returning to Grand Haven Michigan after a day out on the big lake. We often used Grand Haven as vacation home base when the kids grew bigger. We had a weekly rental house with lots of extended family for those vacations.

We made many voyages along the west coast of Lake Michigan. We normally arranged the travels so there was a day to play ashore, then a day to travel to the next harbor. Our longest passage was with my Aunt (no kids), we traveled 400 miles in 4 days. At the end, we were really tired. Small boats have more motion, and require more effort to make a passage than larger boats.

Another ironies in life; making a passage in a small boat requires lots of skill, strength, and resolve. However, among the land lubbers who are our friends at home on the prairie, they respect the big boat skippers. A wonderful thing I discovered during vacation stops in harbor, us small boat skippers can experience a new tune, because we often receive the reassuring smile and nod from the professional boat captains.

Upgrades:

Approximately year 2000 we added a bow sprit and an extra furled genoa of approximately 180 sq ft sail area. This nearly doubled our Nimble 20 sail area. We also added a backstay to balance the double forestay loads. We did not have any problems with stability. One thing that helped was Bide A Wee's displacement. On trailer, she weighed nearly as much as our Seaward 25, so in my opinion, the Nimble 20 needed that extra sail. We also upgraded her outboard motor from a 5 hp 4 stroke to a 15 hp 2 stroke with a big 4 blade prop. After that, the boat sailed and motored great. According to GPS, we had some sustained passages at 7 MPH. Once with all sail out, on a beam reach with 12 MPH wind, we hooked a lobster pot on the rudder. She had so much power we dragged it along, not noticing for quite a while. At the same time, we were towing the 12' rowboat. She took on some big seas, we were always safe and dry.

When going upwind, we could unfurl some genoa along with the jib, and if there was enough wind to achieve about 15 degrees heel, she occasionally made nice progress upwind. When I could get it to work, it was great. Wave height was a factor, it takes about 12 to 15 MPH wind speed to get the boat to heal over enough, and if we were on Lake Michigan, normally the choppy wave height associated with that wind speed was too much for upwind performance. We had frequent success on our Peoria Lake, and Green Bay. Consistent upwind performance was a tricky skill that I never did master.

We added a sturdy boarding ladder, and the Nimble 20 was our dive platform for many snorkeling adventures. The ladder stowed along one side of the V birth.

We had removable fixtures to form two 7' long double berths mid ship. We used the rowboat as storage + tender.

Below: The trailer was a continuous upgrade project. First the guides and bigger tires for the single axle trailer, then adding a telescoping tongue extension, and finally an upgrade to tandem axle with two spare tires.

Below: After many years of use, the rudder developed stress cracks, and the tiller linkage eventually cracked and failed also (fortunately at our home port of Peoria). We improved the foam core rudder with significant additional fiberglass skin, and found a means to reuse the loop that went around the mizzen mast. Our kids developed a lot of practical hands-on skills. Fortunately, they enjoyed the work and these life skills are serving us well. The past few years are great for Dad, who gets so much good help. The boating hobby is expensive, but in our case, the payback was even greater.

Our oldest two kids sailed boats at locations around the country. Our eldest daughter was a sailing instructor at the local yacht club, and both were in Sea Scouts. Our son is now an Eagle Scout. Both eldest son and daughter are studying Mechanical Engineering in college.

We hope to take another Florida Keys & Cuba trip with our youngest daughters in the future, if life can find a stable steady pace again. The tornado of year 2013 and another series of events the past 2 years have been a setback for adventure. Another Florida Keys passage would be a nice way to pass along the legacy.

Below: Another vacation at Grand Haven, MI. With consistent maintenance, Bide A Wee aged nicely, normally looking like new when launched at start of each season.

Below: Our family of 6 plus a young cousin on an afternoon sail in Peoria, Il.

Below: Spring rains and our local Peoria River/Lake flooding gives us a chance to explore creeks. This was the sort of adventure Bide A Wee specialized in. With her keel up the Nimble 20 has draft of 11 inches; she could go where even power boats feared to wander.

Bide A Wee Destinations:

• Peoria Illinois, Illinois River, nearly every year from 1992 to 2012.
• Lake Michigan Shoreline from Saugatuck to Mackinaw Island for many passages.
• Green Bay and western shore of Door County for many passages.
• Bailey's Harbor, Wi, across Lake Michigan, to South Manitou Island, Mi.
• Florida Keys from Key Largo to Key West for 2 passages.
• Florida State Park, Bahia Honda, to Key West, and on to Grand Marquises Florida.

After so many grand adventures over the formative years of our family, starting with my first date with my sweetheart, we expected to keep Bide A Wee our lifetime. We envisioned her as something for the next generation to enjoy also.

On November 11, year 2013 we were improving the mast raising system and some long-term winter storage projects, with Bide A Wee parked along the front yard. While we were at Sunday church, an EF4 tornado hit our town with winds of 180 MPH. The village office made a pencil line sketch of house locations and path of the tornado; showing the path went through the center of our house. We think Bide A Wee and the Suburban were sucked into the air because three feet of debris from houses across the street were under each.

Although the extremely tough hull looks fairly good, the cabin top had shredded the underside structure of the deck. Most pieces besides the hull and cabin were lost. Some of our home debris was identified and returned from locations 35 miles away. Much to our regret, there was no practical salvage, Bide A Wee was a total loss.

Fortunately our insurance claim went over half way toward our Seaward 25 purchase, so we can continue sailing.

We bought the wreckage back from the insurance company, retained the hardware and as much of the boat as possible. Fortunately the trailer was not attached to boat nor Suburban. We found it on the bottom to the debris pile of my neighbors front yard.

Below: We were able to reuse Bide A Wee's trailer for the Sunfish sailboat. The main frame took a pounding and is bent but not in a manner that affects usability. Our son and daughter cleared the wrecked hardware and added a front platform that holds 6 bicycles.

We had stored the rowboat and Sunfish sailboat under the back deck. The rowboat was lost also. However, some debris from our neighbors swing got under the Sunfish and wedged it securely against the deck frame, so it was not damaged. The sail was ripped in the garage, but the rest of the hardware was found. Our son and daughter restored the Sunfish sailboat summer 2016, it looks like new again, and resides on the trailer under this light weather cover