Today we went to City Island to look at something that we knew nothing about, other than Jay said we should look at it, that it was going to be short-money. A Brotherhood hook-up.
As followed Jay out on the dock, we would approach a boat and Belinda and I would love at each other. "Is it that one?" and Jay would walk past it. "This one?" As we got close to the end of the dock and we were running out of boats, we approached a large wooden ketch with not a lick of paint still stuck to it, sagging deeply in the water. "Oh, God, not that one!" You could tell it once had beautiful lines, but I think the only thing that kept it afloat today is the fact that it is wood. At what point do you stop calling it a boat and start calling it driftwood? And still Jay walked on.
At then near the very end of the dock was a center-cockpit, a ketch. As we approached, it was in surprising good looking shape. Sail covers were bright and new. A roller furler jib.
And then the label right there on the side: "O'Day 32". My enthusiasm sank. I don't know much about O'Days, but I think of them in the same class as Hunters and Catalinas. Coastal cruisers for weekend sailors. We wouldn't be sailing this sailboat across the Atlantic. Not even across the Gulf Stream.
We looked and poked. Soft decks in front of the stays, both port and starboard. Delamination is a problem. Had that problem on Daria, a lot of work. There was more, but basically it comes down to this: It is a center-cockpit, but it is small. There is only the V-berth, the central main cabin and galley, the exterior cockpit, and the walk-over aft cabin. Can three people live on a 32 foot sailboat? I mean without killing each other?
Is there enough storage? Large enough water and fuel tanks? All of our questions will have to wait until we can track down Otto, who is out of town.
This is not the boat that I want. But it may be the only boat that we can afford for now.
