I sold my 4.3 - delivered it yesterday. I miss her terribly. I know, in my head, that a boat is a boat is a boat, and to become attached to a material object is just plain silly. I also know, in my head, that a new 4.3, ordered yesterday, will be shipped in two weeks and will arrive on my doorstep full of promise and unrealized potential... like a great grey stone perched atop a precipice... ready to bloom into the kenetic through a springtime of gravitational surrender...
ok, that was a bit much.
Help me cope with my loss! Tell your first-boat-sale story!
ps - thank you Catsailor classifieds!
John Williams
- The harder you practice, the luckier you get - Gary Player, pro golfer
After watching Lionel Messi play, I realize I need to sail harder.
John, I've grieved for each boat I sold. I had always put so much work and money into them it was hard to let them go. Tad and Trey, That was just wrong! And as pennance you must send me any serviceable parts at no cost!
Re: coping with grief...
[Re: zander]
#54499 08/04/0510:58 AM08/04/0510:58 AM
My first was a 1975 Prindle 16, probably among the first batch of Prindle to ever arrive in the Netherlands.
From the beginning I had always said that I would either sail her to the bottom of the north sea myself or hang here off the wall above my bed as an ornament (retirement). I never thought that she would stand up to 7 more years of abuse in the North sea waters, but she did. And boy did I really try to wreck here ! There I was not enough room in my high rise appartment to hang her over my bed and she still going strong while my bank account was drained in completing my new boat. I was just about 600 Euro's short of finishing my F16 in early 2004. So I sold my dearest for 600 Euro's to be able to finish my F16. I kept the bright yellow colour for the hulls though.
She is now sailing on an inland lake about 30 km from where I live and like that she probably survive for many more years. I just hope that the current owner appreciates her as much as I did.
I still regret having to sell her.
Wouter
Last edited by Wouter; 08/04/0511:00 AM.
Wouter Hijink Formula 16 NED 243 (one-off; homebuild) The Netherlands
Re: coping with grief...
[Re: Wouter]
#54502 08/04/0512:27 PM08/04/0512:27 PM
Good point, John. Technically my waterline length is 109 ft. But if I mounted the N5.8 hulls transom to transom and slapped an outrigger on there for a 38 ft proa.....
I just added up my total displacement. 6400 lbs. The 109 ft sounds more impressive.
John: If it makes you feel any better, a close friend of the guy to whom you sold your ex is very much looking forward to blooming some kinetics on her as well. On our local reservoir, the only thing better than sailing one's boat during a lake wind advisory is to sail someone else's boat during a lake wind advisory.
Jerome Vaughan Clinton, Mississippi
Jerome Vaughan Hobie 16 Clinton, Mississippi
Re: coping with grief...
[Re: rattlenhum]
#54511 08/05/0509:32 PM08/05/0509:32 PM
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.
H-20 #896
Re: coping with grief...
[Re: SteveT]
#54513 08/06/0501:13 PM08/06/0501:13 PM
Good form from the Iowa dealer; what was his name?
I can't hang with that story. My worst grief story was getting caught (somewhat purposely) in a thunderstorm squal in Louisiana. I was sailing an Apollo 16 singlehanded through stumps in the water kind of trying to dodge them and couldn't pick my line. I ended up capsizing and the mast got caught in the mud. When my wife came out to rescue me on a jetski, the mast broke off at the spreaders as I tried to right it. I was able to get a brand new mast from a (at the time) local dealer in Austin for a really good deal. So it all worked out. It made for a really crappy weekend though. I forget the name of the shop, but it was the only one around for hundreds of miles. I have to say... this was the beginning of the end of monohull sailing for me. It wasn't long until I experienced the stability of catamarans and sold the Apollo to buy a Nacra. Best decision I could have made.