To Buy or Not to Buy

by Bill Weinert

1989

Most people buy sailboats for one of three reasons: the price is right; the looks are right; the boat seems right.

I remember my first boat, RIO. I first saw her parked under some elderberry trees in an empty lot in Port Washington. The brokerage yard had gone out of business and the owner of this little Clipper 21 had moved to New Jersey. She was dirty, covered with berry stains, and had been out of the water for two years. A call to the New Jersey number and voila, the price was right. I was the owner of a sailboat .

Unfortunately, no one told me that she sailed more like a bathtub, and worse, no longer camouflaged by elderberry stain, looked like a bathtub, a yellow one.

Enter boat two. I saw her for the first time in her cradle in Coney's in Huntington. It was a sunny afternoon and shadows accentuated a fine bow and the slight reverse to her transom. She was as rakish as an F-15 and as fast looking as Secretariat. Somebody had told me that this make and model had won Block Island Race Week a few years before with the likes of Howie McMichael and Charlie Uhner on board. No wonder she looked so fast. After some discussion I wound up with PRAXIS, a Ranger 33.

Unfortunately, looking fast has nothing to do with going fast. Enter John Dickey and his shopping list. Trim groove head- stay, Genoa tracks, hydraulic backstay, Cunningham (I thought he built race cars in the Fifties) and a minimum sail inventory of Lt #1, Hy#l, #3, 3/4 oz, 1 1/2 oz. reaching chute. And oh, yes, by the way, Ranger 33's are not really that competitive anymore. So much for great looks.

Enter boat No. 3, a C&C 40 also named PRAXIS. She had everything and did everything. Unfortunately, it took ten other people to help you do it.

Which brings me to DASH, my J-35 and what I honestly believe is the real reason to buy a sailboat. Sure, I think the price was right (Please don't ask Marguerite about that though). And, yes, I think Dash looks good. And, yes, she does what I want or need or whatever. But most importantly, the reason I'm glad I bought her is that the first time I had to remove her mainsail for winter storage was in October in New Bedford I put on old clothes and rigged a pulley to lower the sail to the car roof. It was cold, it was damp, and I yelled at my wife. Then I tried to pull the sail off the boom. It moved. I moved it. All by myself On PRAXIS that was impossible. But here I was able to remove, fold, and literally put the main under my arm and climb down the ladder with it.

As far as I'm concerned, that is the real reason to buy a sailboat. The only thing better than that would be a sailboat without sails….?? What am I saying?