Tag Archives: Boat shopping

If It’s Spring, It Must Be Boating Season

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If it’s sunny and warm, then boating season must surely be upon us. What was that you said? It’s only the first week in April? Then we must be existing in some kind time/space/dimension vortex because not only were we out on a sailboat all day on Saturday, in beautiful, SUNNY 69 degree weather with light wind, but we’ve been doing boat-type activities of other kinds. Break out the sunscreen!

Beautiful Easter Sunday in Seattle.

Beautiful Easter Sunday in Seattle.

Surely summer is upon us. Experienced PNWers might be laughing into their Starbucks cups, but, hey, we are due some decent warm weather. The last two years spring has been late, cold, and nasty and summer has been almost non-existent. I keep track of these things.  We NEED this! This weekend we were about 10F degrees above the average temperature for this time of year. Keep it coming, weather gods.

Oh yes, many things are happening around the Cunning Plan household;  many boaty things. The only boaty thing that is NOT happening is that we still haven’t sold Moonrise. This is becoming almost comical as we wait for that ‘perfect’ buyer. Still, boat selling season is picking up so we keep our fingers crossed. We put in notice at our marina, (that was hard) and if she is still ours at the end of this month, we move her down to Olympia to sit in front of the broker’s office where they get a lot of traffic of boat buyers who, apparently, buy on impulse (?!). Who knew? The price is already a winner, so we don’t know what else we can do. She’s probably the cleanest boat of her kind available right now. And we really have to sell her before we can do much else.

Moonrise on her way to Barkley Sound. This boat will take you anywhere in the Pacific Northwest.

Moonrise on her way to Barkley Sound. This boat will take you anywhere in the Pacific Northwest.

But that hasn’t stopped us from thinking about our next move, including the possibilities of that beautiful Sparkman and Stephens sailboat, Flying Gull. We continue to think about that boat, have done some research on financing and on the marina she sits in, and have taken a peek into the future to see what it might be like to live aboard her some day. On Easter Sunday, a day when many people celebrate the renewal of life, Mike and I drove to Seattle and stopped by the marina to visit Flying Gull, hoping her cover had been removed. The symbolism of the day was not lost upon me, I can tell you.

There she is with her full cover. Have mercy, she's big! She probably sweeps through the water like an opera diva on steroids!

There she is with her full cover. Have mercy, she’s big! She probably sweeps through the water like an opera diva on steroids, her song a rich contralto. This picture does not do justice to her considerable size.

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Colorful houseboat on the pier adjacent to Flying Gull. How cute is this?

Our current ownership of Moonrise holds us back, and that might be a good thing because it’s best to be cautious when choosing a boat, especially one that is clearly outside almost all of our criteria. Sometimes that’s what those parameters are good for: drawing lines in the sand that will surely be crossed. I don’t like rules, and I tend to break them with impunity. So we are looking at her again on Saturday. I almost wish that someone else would buy her because it would put me out of my misery. And probably Mike’s, too. Put ME out of Mike’s misery, that is. To buy this sailboat is to have already made the decision to sell the house, and this is harder than it sounds on paper.

The view of Gasworks Park, across Lake Union from Flying Gull.

The view of Gasworks Park, across Lake Union from Flying Gull.

Meanwhile we get other kinds of boating experiences. Saturday we delivered a Hunter 31 down to Olympia. It was our first experience delivering a boat and we loved it. Do you see how the Universe is opening up in front of us? I will go on record here saying I was right proud of myself getting that boat out of her slip in Tacoma, with wicked tidal currents pushing her nose in all the wrong directions, without becoming overly friendly with any other boat, or any dock. Excellent. Sighs of relief all around.  Then I did the docking down in Olympia in a tight space at the very head of the pier, starboard side tie. Woot! If I had known how to turn off the engine, it would have been pretty impressive. Oy, the fool archetype always makes its presence known in times like these (link provided for educational purposes, you know). It’s always been clear a Captain’s License is in Mike’s future, but for the first time I began thinking maybe it’s in mine, too. What a concept. 20130330_46

Finally, our boat reviews are getting more traction. I am very excited to report that we will be writing boat reviews for Three Sheets Northwest, a comprehensive blog about all things boating in the Pacific Northwest. They’ve been on our blog roll for some time because if there is news about boating up here, they are going to be reporting about it. They also have a compendium of boat related blogs that they feature, Little Cunning Plan now among them. If you go to their front page you’ll see Mike’s recent post on Winchers featured. It makes me want to dance, so please close your eyes.

You will never get a photo of me dancing, so here is one of my man doing one of the things he does best on Moonrise.

You will never get a photo of me dancing, so here is one of my man doing one of the things he does best on Moonrise.

 

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Another Cheap Trick – A Pretty Cool Boat Seat

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I can’t take any credit for this cool trick. When Mike and I went to Vancouver a couple of weeks ago to look at boats, we looked at a 1971 Nautor Swan 40. I’ve added a boat review for that boat here. While that didn’t turn out to be the boat for us, I noticed the owner of this boat had a very cleverly done seat on the foredeck, close to the mast. I tucked this idea away for future reference and to share with readers.

It even has matching canvas, which totally makes sense considering how nicely kept this boat is.

He showed me that the seat could be placed on any winch, as the connector was basically the same as a winch handle.  I can totally see how useful this trick is! Sometimes you just want to sit on deck in a proper seat rather than on the deck itself. And this can be removed and stored away when you don’t need it. Wish I could have thought of it myself, but thanks, Swan owner, for this excellent trick. I hope you sell your beautiful boat soon.

Seems straight forward enough, which is how all the best ideas seem to work.

Falling in Love

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Mike and I went to Vancouver, British Columbia this weekend and while we were there we fell in love. At least we think it’s love. It could be lust. My dad always said there was a big difference, and sometimes it’s hard to tell what the difference is. It’s bad enough when you fall in love with another person. When you fall in love with a boat, it’s even more complicated!

There is an old, trite saying about how if you love someone, you have to let them go free and if they return to you then the love is real, and if they don’t, then you’ve saved yourself a ton of trouble. I’d like to make that case for boats as well as people.

We went to Vancouver to visit our newly married niece and her newly minted husband and since we can’t afford to be traipsing off to Vancouver all the time, paying for hotels, etc, we thought we’d look at a few boats while we were there. Our broker, Lee, set us up to look at a Swan 40, a Spencer 1330, and a Westerly Conway. (Reviews to follow)

Newlyweds. Their love seems like the real deal to me. Micah is a very talented musician and programmer whose professional goal is to put music to videos, video games, etc. He has his degree along with his talent, so if you know someone who knows someone in the Vancouver area, give me a shout. I like to help young people get off to a start in the career of their dreams.

Why are we looking at boats when Moonrise is still for sale, you might be asking yourself. And you would be wise to ask. Except that we are well and truly into the nasty rainy season here and going sailing is not much fun right now. We have to do something to keep the dream alive or it will die a watery death during the rainy season. If we look at boats, we not only keep the dream active in our lives, we also continue to educate ourselves about what we really want and need, and work toward making a final decision about whether we really want to sell Moonrise.

And that’s where the ‘let it go free’ concept comes in. We found a boat that made our hearts go pitty pat quite a lot. You know that feeling you get when you first spot the object of your affection from across the room, and your heart swells just a bit and dizziness overtakes you… that’s the feeling I’m talking about only this object is a boat, and we already own a boat. Technically, we own two boats if you count Danger Kitten, Andrew’s boat.  So you can see the quandary we find ourselves in.

The boat is the Westerly Conway. Long time readers may recall we also looked at a Westerly Sealord last spring, and we also liked that boat. We’ve reviewed that one, and also reviewed a Westerly Cirrus that we looked at for our son over the summer. The common thread is that we loved all three of those boats and wanted to own each one. I think we may have found our builder, if not our boat.

The Westerly Conway, which made our hearts beat a little faster.

The Westerly Sealord, S/V Spellbound. I love the name. I loved the boat.

So we are throwing this issue out to the Universe to solve the problem for us. Do we make an offer? Do we consider the Westerly Sealord again? I would love to have that boat. It’s perfect in just about every single way: layout, size, amenities. But the price is not right for us, especially right now. And it needs quite a bit of work and is just that much bigger than the Conway. The Conway, at 36 feet, is only slightly longer than Moonrise. It has good accommodations and is ready to sail. The really big compromise on that boat is the galley, which would have to be completely redesigned. Either one would take us where we want to go, but the Sealord would be more comfortable to live on, no two ways about it.

Is it love or is it lust? I maintain that because we’ve liked every Westerly we’ve seen, it’s love. So if it’s love, we have to let it go free and see if it works out; we have to do our part but not try to control the process. We have to realize that if it’s right for us, the boat, whichever one, will be ours and Moonrise will find a new owner who will love her and sail her, as she is built to sail, not sit at the dock. If this does not work out, we will continue looking at Westerlys. Perhaps not exclusively, but definitely.  Sometimes life is a little bit like a movie. You do your part by buying the ticket and taking a seat, and then you watch to see what happens next. I think that’s called making a leap of faith.

So, everyone who believes in fairies, or anything else good, clap your hands now and send all that believing our way!

After seeing the Conway, we stopped to watch this acrobatic fire juggler perform. He was pretty funny, and also very, very strong. We tried walking around the cool shops in the area, but we couldn’t focus so we got in the car and drove home, wishing we could stop in Blaine to see the Westerly Sealord on the way home.