A fool and his rode are soon parted
Although all people a have done stupid things I think I set the bar. They say what doesn't’ kill you makes you stronger although I don’t know how nearly chopping my finger off with an tomahawk makes me any stronger. It may however make me smarter.
Like the last time I pulled into a dark crowded anchorage and carelessly set my bow anchor. When the wind shifted ninety degrees and started to freshen as it often does in these situations, my main anchor started to drag. Unfortunately I had done a stellar job of dropping my stern anchor into the only reef in the bay. Slowly we started to walk to starboard right into a neighboring boat. If I could have pulled my stern anchor I could have just powered out and reset both hooks, unfortunately it was now too late. I pulled the dingy to the starboard side to use as a giant fender and secured my boat to the neighboring boat to give me a few minutes to try and save my stern anchor but it was down for the count. The only other anchor I had at the time was a rock anchor as I had just lent my fourth anchor to a friend for the weekend after a long lecture on how you can never have enough ground tackle. Just then the harbor patrol happened by and even they couldn't’ get it raised, after a quick discussion on my predicament they offered to tow me over to a vacant mooring for the night I gladly accepted and in the end I learned a valuable lesson on patience and scored a prized mooring on one of the busiest weekends of the year. A quick recap would go like this, I spent a week preparing for the trip, 6 hours on the crossing a full hour scouting the perfect location in the anchorage and 3 minutes setting the hook. Hmm, where did I go wrong.
If you don’t have a good deal of patience and a sense of humor I would humbly suggest that you get out of boating now and save yourself a lifetime of pain and frustration. We have had our boat on the hard for 19 months and made quite a few good friends, one of our favorite parts of living in the boat yard is when someone announces that they are planning on launching by the end of the month, we all start to laugh hysterically. Our master plan was to be out by last November nearly five months ago.
After acquiring our dream boat we sat down to figure out how much time and money it would take to get her ready for some serious coastal cruising. The plan was a quick trip to Alaska then a mad dash down the coast to Mexico. From there our only plan was to eat lots of lobster and drink lots of beer.
Being newly weds I new about how much debt I carried and about how much debt Lizzie carried but it wasn’t until we really added it all up that we realized how deep we truly were. We paid cash for the boat our only real asset but now have nearly 80k in debt, if we sell the car which we have been trying to do for nearly a year that will bring us to about 50k manageable in a few years but we are getting itchy feet. In a half brained attempt to be free we decided to sell our dream boat which would render us broke and debt free. We figured we could save enough to buy a cheaper boat within the year once we are freed from our debts. The only problem is that our boat is truly one of a kind. Although there are quite a few Allegra’s out there this one was built under the watchful eye of Fred Bingham her designer. Every stage from her initial lay-up to her beautiful hand crafted interior was under his guidance. While Scandia marine took only a few months to complete her hull and deck, Bill Barton a master craftsman took nearly 3 years to complete her interior. Every stage of her construction from hull material choice to interior woods and design was scrutinized. The end result was a boat that is 70%stronger than fiberglass that is virtually impervious to osmosis and delamination. A boat with access to every inch or her interior. A boat with no thru hulls beneath her water line. The Roo is a simple strong beautiful boat built to sail anywhere her owners have the courage to point her. She was all ours, our absolute dream boat and we were considering selling her. Even though we paid cash for her she was too expensive for us. Having two dogs she was too nice for us.
She is at the perfect age for a refit, one we couldn't’ afford so we listed her for sale and continued to do the projects we could afford.
Since listing the Roo there hasn’t been a week day or even an hour That I haven’t thought about her or wondered if it was a huge mistake listing her. The short answer is that she is permanently off the market.
Fortunately for us nobody wanted to pay her price. We got lots of explanations of how much larger a boat could be purchased for the price. She didn’t come with a 30 year advertising campaign behind her or the cult status a boat gets once one or two successful passages have been made. Allegra's have made quite a few passages but without the huge advertising campaigns only the satisfied owners know about them. Everybody that contacted us wanted a boat built by Pacific Seacraft or Samuel Morris, or Nor’sea, yet the phone rang and rang. We were offered half our asking price by people who had never even seen her. One guy offer us 20k in cash as if somehow that’s better than 20k in jelly beans. Every stupid offer was like a stab in the back. We love every inch of her yet somehow out of desperation to be free put her on the market.
Why are we always in such a hurry to be somewhere else, always waiting for tomorrow when today is right under our noses. I have spent the Last twenty years looking for the right boat. I have sailed dozens of boats hundreds of times, thousands of miles all to get right where I am today. The hard part is over now all we have to do is finish our refit pay off our debt and live free. In the meantime we will we cruising locally in the San Juan's. Our refit is just the basics, no fancy upgrades or electronics. Our only goal is to have a safe comfortable coastal cruiser, if we choose to turn right somewhere down the way we will deal with that day when it comes. As always first we will make her a safe boat, then we make her a comfortable boat, then we make her a pretty boat.
