Issue 15 : Nov/Dec 2000
I had heard it takes a year to get used to a boat, new or old. Until recently, I never really believed it. It’s been 17 months since we acquired our newest boat. We loved the old boat but had, I thought, outgrown it. We wanted an enclosed head, a diesel engine, full headroom, and a “real” galley with a saloon table. The old boat, a Pearson Ariel, was ours for more than 10 years and was well loved, but it just didn’t have what we wanted.
The old boat sold to the first person who saw it. The search was on for a successor. We found an Eastward Ho 31 in North Carolina. It met all of the criteria and had 6-foot 6-inch headroom in the main cabin and 6-foot 2-inch headroom between the V-berths. Great! We closed the deal and trucked the boat to a yard near home.
When she was launched, we discovered she sailed all right — but just all right. The mainsail was a pain to raise. It stuck in the track and wouldn’t come down easily. (The old boat’s mainsail rose and dropped in a whisper.) The diesel overheated on our second time out, and I’m no diesel mechanic. (I understood my old Atomic 4 — it talked to me.) Was the new boat a mistake? At first, it seemed so.
The old boat sailed like a dream. I could tack up the narrowest channel and had sailed in and out of my slip in any weather for several years when the engine didn’t work. There was a bond between me and the Ariel. I took care of her, and she certainly took care of me.
But I had mixed feelings from the time we launched the new boat. She was comfortable in the slip, but I wanted a boat to sail, not just to sit on. I spoke to many diesel mechanics who agreed that my engine had a problem — but they didn’t want to work on it. It was too small, too cramped, too expensive.
So I dug out the engine manual and dug into the engine (a bonding time if ever there was one). Six hours later, we had a smooth-running engine. Next, I cleaned the engine and painted it a bright red Westerbeke color.
One-and-a-half years later, I have solved most of the problems: I fixed the diesel; I fixed the mainsail track; and I’ve learned to sail her for what she is. She’s certainly no ballerina. She’s a sturdy bluewater sailboat with many virtues. She’s not quick to tack and carries her way for a long time, but I can sail her into her slip. She’s not as responsive with a wheel as the Ariel was with her tiller — but there’s a difference between 2.5 tons and 7 tons displacement.
Can we be as happy with the new as the old? In the time it has taken to fix her problems, she has forced me into a relationship I didn’t anticipate. She has proved her stuff at sea in 20-knot winds on the nose. She has accepted us as her new partners. I believe she is happy with us.
Is she as good as the old boat? Absolutely! As quick and responsive? No, but there are compensations. She has forced us to change our thinking and our habits, too. I don’t have any doubt now that we will be happy with this new boat. But it will be in a different way. It has taken 17 months, but it’s working out.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
