So it's a beautiful day at the lake and the sun is starting to set. The light is beautiful and we're all throwing poses for the camera when the wind starts to freshen a bit. It continues to get sportier until a massive blast of sand and water comes sweeping across the lake at 90 to 110 m.p.h. I'm trying to shuffle the kids, who are terrified, into the car and look nonchalant about the whole thing. In the mean time, I'm looking over my shoulder at my 1-year-old Hobie 20, (also shown in the first picture) which is screwed down to the beach, but starting to lift off the ground.
Just as I'm getting my son into the car, the boat capsizes, then lifts off the sand like a giant hand has tossed it into the air. It tumbles down the beach - first hulls over mast, then bow over stern - bouncing off motorhomes, breaking into pieces as it goes. It finally comes to rest about 70 yards away after lodging against a fifth-wheel trailer. The attached picture tells the rest of that story.
And now the rest of the tragedy. The good news is, I have insurance. The bad news is, it only covers depreciated value at the time of loss which is several thousand dollars less than a new boat. So I go to the dealer where I bought the boat (he's in Iowa) and tell him my sad story. Being the really good guy that he is, he offers to sell me is last H20 at a discounted price that is very close to the insurance settlement. Then, a guy in our fleet who helps sell boats for our local dealer in exchange for a commission gets wind of my arrangement and calls the Iowa dealer to complain that he's cutting into his territory. This local guy then tries to buy the boat out from under me so I'd be forced to purchase it from him at a premium. What's worse is this person came up to me after the accident, put his hand on my shoulder and said, "anything I can do to help, just let me know."
Yea, right. For the record, I went to our local dealer first, but he was unable to come close to the Iowa dealer's price.
To his credit, the Iowa dealer stood by our arrangement and I'll pick up the boat from him next week. So far I've only missed one race and I hope to make that up before nationals.
