I’m going to disclaimer this (long) post right out of the gates… if you’re under 40 you’re going to miss lots of these references, but we’re going there anyway (use the links if you want to catch up) - so welcome to the time machine - buckle in.
It was last February that I got a wild hair and decided to expand Sail Vermont. After much discussion, it was decided that pontoon boat rentals would be the way to go… wait what!? I know - you’re thinking ‘about as useful as The Smokeless Ashtray for a sailor, but alas there I was...
How much would you expect to pay for that?
Probably piece of my soul… but fortunately after that very brief, aneurysm’esque, total lapse in judgment, I acquired a Swan 36 called Nora instead. She was a beautiful local boat. I was excited in February since it was done - the decision made and executed.
Set it and forget it.
In early March I began the process of creating advertising and the sales angle for that beautiful little boat, but something kept eating at me… it wasn’t a Swan 43. However, the reality was that there weren’t many, if any, Swan 43’s out there for sale. Previous searches had only revealed one other Swan 43 within 2000 miles of me. After all, they only made 67 of them and they haven’t been in production since the introduction of the Veg-O-Matic… “The greatest kitchen appliance ever made” almost 50 years ago.
March in Vermont being what it is… with lots of fidgety and depressing gray days leading to lots of click-bait inspired research (read shopping), the wonders of Google presented me with a Palmer Johnson 43 for sale on an obscure website. (Sidebar: some Swan 43s were sold in the US under the name Palmer Johnson 43). The ad was nearly 2 years old so I dismissed it as those ad’s never yield anything since they are never removed once put up there. And besides - I already had 2 boats…
Lunch with Dano
Some time later, as oft was the case that early spring, Dan (check out his bio here) and I were at the corporate headquarters (The Spot), and were brainstorming and dreaming about the upcoming season and next steps. We were covering all manner of topics with our typical optimism that would rival that of a GLH#9 user. Soon enough we danced across the debate of the merits of a Swan 36 vs a Swan 43. It was at this time he made mention of a blue Swan 43 for sale on some website he couldn’t remember the name of and the conversation trailed off from there.
Like a Mr Microphone…
My thoughts were feeding back to me as if being played out the radio on my drive home that day about the merits of the Swan 43 vs the Swan 36, and Dano’s reference to ‘the one he’d seen but couldn’t remember where’ were on repeat… See where this is going? (it’s all Dan’s fault) Dan texted me a short time after lunch the word ‘blue’ and a link to the website… that he had promptly gone home and found. It was at that moment I had to inform him that I was actually on the phone with the seller as his text pinged in (not joking),
The seller espoused the merits of the years of work he had put into the boat and the unfortunate story of having it being worked on for so long but never having sailed it. He shared about the dream and vision of restoring a classic Swan and sailing it with his wife but mentioned that he had been at the refit for so long he wasn’t sure single-handing a 43 footer was in the cards any more as the years had gone on. Add to it much of the stainless steel parts of the boat had been stolen out of the yard, COVID hit, and the primary worker for the boat died thus virtually shutting down the marina’s service area. These events led to the seller becoming rather disheartened by the project and he quipped something like: ‘just wanted to be sailing my Swan’ Well… I said - “I happen to have a really nice one that is ready to go… wanna swap?” After some back and forth… We worked it out to swap Swans - huh?
Yada yada
I just yada yada’d a substantial swath of the story and took some poetic license with the details to get to this little nugget that the seller emphatically shared with me; the original owner of the boat was the serial inventor and infomercial superstar… Ron Popeil. “It slices it dices…” and “Set and forget it…” were a few of his coined phrases still popular today. He had found this in historical coast guard docs and a reference or two to Ron’s yacht racing days in the Chicago area when the boat was named Aspenglow. I am not a name dropper per se so it was little more than an interesting tidbit to me.
“But wait there’s more…”
So we got going on shipping Nora to Cleveland and Blue (ex Free Spirit) to Vermont. Scanning, signing, and emailing documents and finally, details were all wrapped up, then I got a call… The seller called me with a ‘tone’ in his voice. And you know that heart in your throat feeling like don’t really know what’s coming next? My mind was there. I didn’t know the seller well but I knew the tone was not his usual tone. At this point he said to me that he had looked over the coast guard paperwork for Nora and asked me: “Did you see who the original owner of Nora was?” - Me: “No” …. Him: “Ron Popeil.” Well isn’t THAT something.
For me, it has very little to do with name-dropping and more to do with serendipity or as in The Alchemist: Omens. In the Alchemist omens offer the main character Santiago guidance on his journey and reassure him that the Soul of the World has endorsed his journey. He is told that ‘omens make up part of the Universal Language of the World’ as Paulo Coelho so aptly illustrated. In this case, if I needed a sign that the pontoon boat, turned Swan 36, turned Swan 43 was the right choice… this silly little connection was it. I believe the tone in the seller’s voice may well have been a certain satisfaction and peace that following this omen was the right path for him and thus eliminating any lingering lament at letting go of the renovation project of the 43 he had undertaken for all those years… and that thought made me happy.
There’s still more…
If you want to read all about Ron Popeil click here. He was/is most likely the most televised human being on the planet, producing countless infomercials and selling millions in crazy inventions and of course, owning at least 2 super cool sailboats! In the interest of channeling our own inner Ron Popeil - Sail Vermont will be launching it’s merch store in the next 2 weeks!!! Check back for that and here’s a preview page of some of the mockups!
