I just thought some other fellow sailor, getting caught in winter's doldrums, might find some of this of some passing interest...so here's the rest of this continuing story:

Well, as some of you may recall, I wasn't paying enough attention and broke my mast while stepping it.

If one over-looks that misfortune, it was lucky that the top part of the mast missed me by only a few feet, when it came crashing down from being fully stepped.

Trying to find a suitable replacement was an adventure, but I was successful, thanks to Ron and Stiletto Catamarans.

They had an exact match, salvaged from a hurricane damaged boat.

(That was unlucky for the boat's owner, but fortunate for me.)

The problem for me was that it was located in Sarasota Florida.

We arranged to have them sand down and repaint the mast and they agreed to transport it as far as Bismarck, ND, while delivering a newly refurbished Stiletto 30 to a buyer in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Bismarck, was the closest intersecting point to Utah, on their route to their delivery in Canada.

(Do you know how unlikely it is to find someone that is doing a boat delivery to Canada, from Florida...little alone to find that the boat delivery is by someone who has a replacement Stiletto mast that would fit my boat?)

While I was using the internet, phone and other resources to arrange for a suitable place to off-load and temporarily store the mast, unitl I could drive there...I ran across a fellow sailor, in Minot, North Dakota. (Thanks Lee, Teamchums)

(Do you have any idea of how unlikely it is to find a sailor in North Dakota?)

I met him a few years earlier, while doing a goof off sail on beach cats going from San Pedro, CA to Catalina Island in a regatta kind of thing.

As luck would have it, he was temporarily assigned to the Minot, North Dakota area on a job.

(How unlikely is that?)

The next bit of luck is that his job assignment recently changed to a location in Arizona.

His travel route (and a girl friend's home) takes him through SLC, Utah on his way to Page, Arizona.

(More luck?)

He is also pulling a trailer, suitably long to easily carry the Stiletto's newly painted 36 foot mast.

(More luck?)

I have to say: Those are some pretty long odds, coming together, that is making this replacement mast thing, work out as well as it has.

This now gives me all winter to transfer the pieces and parts from the old mast to the replacement, so I'm ready for sailing again when the weather improves.

After taking all the hardware off the old mast, I'm thinking about cutting a couple of feet off it's base, or asking the Nichol brothers if they have a small mast section lying around....to be used as a sleeve to rejoin the broken mast.

It could make a dandy flag pole for the lake house...and a reminder that hurrying while planning, sailing or stepping a mast, can be costly and very inconvenient....if not down right dangerous.

So, what are the rest of you up to, now days...???

What adventutes are you having or planning?