Thanks to Dad...

So one day at band camp... No, no, just kidding, but one Saturday morning, while I was supposed to be reviewing my dad's estate taxes (and do you blame me for getting sidetracked?) I said, quite out loud, "Heck with this, I'm going to look at boats". I had no intentions but to get lost in the YachtWorld rabbit hole looking and dreaming and maybe someday when I found the right boat... and well, so I proceeded.

I've been looking at boats since 2013 when I sold CALIX, a Beneteau 473 - in the picture she's anchored in the west fork of Langford Creek, one of my favorite spots.

I've yet to find a sailboat that I love, except for one back in 2015 out on the west coast in Seattle, SILVER APPLE, a 1985 Swan 44. She was perfect, so perfect that she sold right away and barely a week before we arrived for a wedding. A close friend of ours, who lives out near Seattle, (not related to the wedding visit) went and took a look at the boat and called and the exact words are still with me today, "Are you serious?"

He said it with incredulity in his voice like it was impossible this boat could exist. But yes, Berke, we're serious, and he proceeded to describe what you might call my dream sailboat. Anyway, we thought our trip out was going to be so conveniently timed to look at the boat in person. Nope. Nothing has lived up to that sailboat since.

A few years ago, we started looking at center consoles. Then we pivoted to Chesapeake Bay deadrises. Then back to sailboats and I pushed the idea of a day-sailer for a short while. I even went as far as let's get an Etchells and join the fleet at the club. Then after a run of other boats that I found that Brad poo-pooed (mind you, he asks around to other folks for valuable opinions), I stopped. Brad kept looking but nothing he found we loved either, not really.

So, that Saturday, I decided to look at powerboats again. Why? Because the reality is I don't have the time for sailing as I want to do it. Whether racing or cruising. If it was going to be powerboats, I decided to channel dad. Dad had Trojans and Chris Crafts.

The first Trojan I ever knew was Dad's 1968 Trojan Sea Skiff named TRIUMPH. That's me in 1970 sitting in a deck chair (safety first!) while Mom and Dad went through the locks on the way up or down between the Finger Lakes and somewhere, maybe Lake Ontario. Photographic gold.

I gave Chris Craft a moment's thought. Dad bought into the first or second year of the newly re-designed, overhauled, total re-imagination of what Chris Craft could do on the water. Glad he did, I enjoyed that boat quite a bit - he almost always stood at the end of the dock when I left or arrived.

While yes, beautiful boats that my dad spent oodles of time loving, I thought to myself, what would be the boat that if I were to have it, dad would maybe, just maybe, be pretty excited about? And it popped into my head - let's research Hunts. I cried a little and laughed a bit while memories streamed through my head of boating experiences because of dad, etc. It got a bit emotional... At this point back in May, Dad had been gone but a year and a few months so I like to think he would be happy for me and maybe even guiding my boat-buying thought process.

Armed with experience and knowledge from Dad and my own boating adventures, I typed in Hunt, and away I went. I figured it was folly to find one I liked and wouldn't break the bank, but then she scrolled into view. What?!? Who is this girl, this most beautiful powerboat, such classic lines, not utterly out of my financial reach, what? This all happened in about 20 minutes. I copied the web link to Brad and said, "Dig in". Here's how the boat looked in the listing with FINAL GOAL shown at her mooring in Scituate, MA.

They say the happiest two days of a boater's life are the day they buy a boat and the day they sell a boat. I knew this was the boat when I found the listing, there was no question. So that was the first happy day, but I'm still pretty darn happy, even with a bunch of I love yachting moments since the boat arrived in Maryland. Thinking about it, "I love yachting" could explain most of the days between the first and last day. But thanks to Dad, and I hope he likes it, I found a boat Brad and I love.