Sailing’s also sweating, swearing, swatting, and plain hard work
Issue 32 : Sept/Oct 2003
New dock neighbors have moved in next door. We share a finger pier, which means we’ll be seeing a lot of each other as we’re coming and going with dock carts, gear, and project supplies.
Newly retired, they’ve just bought their first cruising boat (a good old one) and are eager to learn everything they can about sailing and boat ownership. They arrived during the five-day weekend we’d selected as a work/sail weekend. The work came first. Our new neighbors already knew they were located next to the publishers of a magazine about good old boats — a blessing and a curse for both of us, no doubt, as there’s some baggage that goes with that.
The people they met when they arrived were hard at work. Jerry was sweating, swearing, and swatting at flies in the starboard cockpit locker (he calls it his aft stateroom when he disappears in there entirely). He was replumbing our diesel heater. The sun was oppressive, the flies were annoying, and the space was cramped. At that moment, he wasn’t exactly “publisher material.”
I was sewing leather chafe protection on the port handrail where our kayak rests and rubs. Leather resists needlework. I used a pair of pliers to pull the needle through for each stitch even though I had pre-punched the holes with a sewing machine. The piece of material is 100 inches long. I don’t know how many stitches there were in an inch. I do know it was a time-consuming chore.
Not the best light
All in all, the tableau was not what is portrayed by most sailing magazines: glamorous and fun. With Mystic tied to the dock, we were not presenting sailing in the best light for someone new to our favorite pastime. But in spite of ourselves (even in spite of Jerry’s sweating, and swatting, and swearing) we were having a good time doing a few things that needed to be done to maintain our boat. Maybe the reason that some older boats are in deplorable shape is that their owners had unrealistic expectations, perhaps fed by the sailing press, that sailing is always glamorous and fun. Maybe no one told them that boat ownership also demands some simple hard work. Often. Before things break. Not just at haulout time.
But our new dock neighbors seem to understand all this. They spent the weekend polishing their new old Bayfield 29 inside and out. In a year or two, this boat will be a gem, and our new neighbors will be cherished friends and experienced sailors. They won’t find a lot of glamour in the work, but they will have fun.
And just to show them that these boats are not all work and no play, we finished up the work part of our long weekend and went sailing. That is, after all, what these boats are meant to do. All the sailing publications agree on that.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
