We have a sailboat!
Once upon a time, I [Michael] owned a small sailboat. It was a 19' Cape Dory Typhoon, seaworthy and simple, and for several years I took it out in all kinds of weather, plying the waters around Juneau. I liked the boat for many reasons: a fixed keel (retractable keel hardware needs extra care in salt water and retractables aren't as suited to heavy-weather sailing), shallow draft (a 30" draft meant that I could see the bottom before the boat could touch it), low freeboard (the height of the deck above waterline, low freeboard means less wind resistance and an easier climb back on in case of falling off), and simple rigging (to make single-handed sailing practical).
I especially liked the CD (Cape Dory) for its seaworthiness and handling. The design was such that the only way to sink it would have been to puncture the hull, an unlikely event unless I piled into rocks, in which case the water would be shallow enough to jump ship. The handling was stellar, with sails easy to manipulate and balanced to allow for hands-free sailing (so I could lash the rudder in place and go work on the bow if need be while the sailboat proceeded on course, or if I just wanted to sit back and watch the scenery). It was a wonderful little boat, especially in rough weather when all the power boats (and other saiboats too) retreated to shore and I had the water all to myself.
But the old sailboat had its limitations. Mostly, it was small and could only sleep two. It also lacked a trailer, so the boat had to be based permanently in the water (sea plants had no trouble with this, which made the boat sail slower) and I couldn't take it to the other launching areas around town.
When I went into the MAT program a decade ago I thought I would probably leave Juneau afterward, so I reluctantly sold the Cape Dory. Even before I sold it, I already knew what I would be looking for in my next sailboat. For the last ten years I have been waiting.
It was with some surprise that I saw the ad in the newspaper on Wednesday last week. I called right away and was the first respondent, and that afternoon when Sheryl got home we all got in the car and drove downtown to look at it (I waited until Sheryl got home despite my eagerness to check it out). A cursory inspection was all I needed. This was the boat I had contemplated a decade before.
Ironically, the Alberg 22 was designed by the same man who designed the Cape Dory, Carl Alberg. I didn't know this when we bought it, but it made perfect sense in hindsight. The 22 and the CD are very close cousins, sharing many of the same design features (and it was partly this similarity that made the boat such an easy sell). The 22 is a better boat for us, with berths for four, a small galley and sink, a toilet (port-a-potty), and a trailer. The 22 is also a decade newer than the old CD, a fact reflected in updated rigging details and a few other niceties. The draft is a little deeper (37"), but still very shallow for a sailboat, and quite practical for our waters.
I was originally going to offer less than the $4000 asking price but didn't. Sheryl pointed out on the drive down that with the price as low as it was, if we offered less and the seller wanted to "think it over" somebody else was likely to offer more and we'd be out of luck. Her logic was pretty sound: six other people called on the boat that same day, and at least four the day after that.
So we bought the boat on Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday I towed it home. My weekend was mostly spent cleaning the inside (the boat belonged to a woman but was her ex-husband's idea, so it had been mostly unattended for the last seven years, taking up space in her yard while the biodegradeable portion of its contents slowly rotted). As luck would have it, the inside cleaned up very nicely and was stocked with [mostly salvageable] spare hardware and safety equipment.
And that may be about all we do with the sailboat for a while. While a sailboat has been on my "short list" for some time, I did not anticipate actually buying one for another couple of years. But of course, we had to buy it: in a small community like ours, finding the thing you want at a good price is very uncommon, and when such things present themselves it's best to buy them, ready or not. Failing that, the only other option would have been to buy a boat out of Seattle and sail or barge it here, which had been our plan until this boat came along.
This doesn't really change our plans. This summer the house is still the priority, getting the weatherization/insulation completed. We may put the sailboat in the water to check it out (a boat is an excellent platform for watching fireworks on July 4, for instance), but any real sailing will have to wait until next year.
And now that we have a sailboat,we can start thinking about all the real sailing we want to do!
