Winters in Vermont are a special kind of love/hate - heaven/hell thing for me. I am a languishing caribbean sailor that dreams of days lazing in the Caribbean sun with not a care in the world (ignoring the worklist on my boat of course). At the same time I relish the moments of not being able to do anything else but work on the boat and business of boating between plowing sessions and trips to Folinos or Farmhouse (seriously check them out).
said it once … and I’ll say it again
I am fortunate to be surrounded by a group of really amazing people that have a passion for sailing, this program, crazy projects, or just soaking up the sailing vibe. That being said, when I can cram it in, I like to pay it forward and help other people (especially the people helping me) with their projects. This past summer one of our dedicated staff acquired his first boat. I was thrilled to get asked to help him bring his passion to reality. Inspections, shakedowns, questions, purchase, learning, haul out, rebedding, troubleshooting leaks, and finally pulling the mast in preparation for late fall/early spring projects. All the norm for me, but for a new boat owner in the throws of managing school, work, and a brand new boat in the seasons of vermont - he simply quipped “I should have bought a dog”.
It still makes me laugh - “I should have bought a dog” uttered amidst the dance of fall breakdown. Picture the mast coming out of your first boat with a long, optimism inspired, owner adrenaline assured, to-do list … then that moment of overwhelm that makes you ponder the meaning of life in the split second of standing on your boat questioning every decision in your life leading to this moment as if you just peed on and electric fence but ostensibly refuse to stop because if you do it will sting. Welcome to the club Butterfingers! (meet him here).
Rewind four years and Sail Vermont’s first winter in Vermont. Our single boat Red made her way to Rouses Point NY for indoor heated winter storage. The commute to work on her proved too much for my delicate sensibilities (I’m very delicate… err stubborn) so the following year ‘we dug a pit’ (probably another blog post on that at some point). We built our own workshop for boats at my house. (Much to my wife’s chagrin) and with the help of my longest time supporter, my father aka Dad (check out his bio here).
Now it’s 2023 and bringing a boat (or boats) ‘home’ is the norm. Armed with a heated workshop outside my door, the annual discussion is: What is on the work list? My answer in November is akin an Ikea instruction manual: It’s in the trash if we need it. Then scope creep, imagination and the illusion of endless time takes over and monster projects get started. Suddenly it is the end of February and I am ankle deep standing on my head in a project that clearly we had time to do, and I find myself muttering ‘I should have bought a dog’.
To that end - here is part 1 of 3 of our Swan 43; Blue’s conversion to electric auxiliary propulsion. In this episode: The old engine comes out, LOTS of grinding, some fabrication, the old engine gets sold, packed, and shipped and a little bit of glassing in the new stringers. Oh and in case that wasn’t enough I took up video editing and blog posting too… because it’s winter and there’s lots of time … right? 71 days till opening day…
