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Selling Queenie

Bud H.

Member II
Well it happened. After two months in 48°North I received an offer on my 1971 Ericson 35 mk – II sailboat. But you know what? I couldn’t sell her. I had put the old girl up for sale because all of our best sailing buddies had retired and taken their boats to the coast for good. The gang who taught me how to sail was now in Anacortes and Bellingham and I was still at Charbonneau on the Snake River. Sure we had other friends here but it just didn’t seem the same.

So I decided in June to see if I could sell Queenie before my moorage fee came due in late August. And it happened. I was at work last Sunday and a fella called from Portland and had all sorts of good questions about the boat. He had looked at my web site that my nephew had created for me and examined the maintenance log that was there so he was familiar with all the routine maintenance we had done and also with the up grades we had performed. He mentioned that I didn’t have any interior photos of the boat and I said “no problem” I have some on my computer “what’s your e-mail address and I’ll send them right out”.

An hour later the phone rings again, “she looks good down below; I think I’d like her. Can you come off you price just a bit?”

I should be happy right? I’m getting what I wanted right? I can sell the boat, put a bunch of money in the bank and never have to worry about her again. Now I don’t have to drive out to the marina every Saturday during the winter to check up on her. No more washing her every Friday evening. No more wondering if this is the year I should take her to Portland to have her bottom painted, no more agonizing about whether or not she can get back past the current at the dams.

But wait a minute. If I sell her there won’t be any more Saturdays in the winter when it’s just me and her out at the marina on a cold Saturday morning watching a football game on the new flat screen T.V. I got for Christmas last year, with the heater eventually warming her up. And what am I going to do on Friday nights. Sit in front of the tube at home and watch Sit. Coms.? And ya know I’ve always kind of been looking forward to that trip to Portland; I’ve done it three times on other boats why not on my own? And the trip back against the currant at the dams, well, Queenie made that trip twice before I owned her so why wouldn’t she make it again? What about the sailing? Really I’ve only gotten any good at it this year. It would be a shame to finaly learn how to sail and then not have a sailboat. I still can’t get around the mark when racing with out making a dogs breakfast of it. I need to learn how to do that before I could ever sell her. My son and my son in law are always ready to go out sailing. My wife enjoys it. I love it. I’d be crazy to sell this boat.

Even when were not out on the river sailing we have always joked that Queenie is our cabin at the lake. We love sitting in the cockpit looking out over the marina, watching the show at the boat launch on a busy summer weekend, the camp fires with our friends up in the park, Saturday morning Bloody Mary’s and N.P.R. while I bake something in the oven. How many times have we motored out to one of the pins in the river and tied up and put out our floaties and whiled away a whole day just floating and swimming and sleeping. Back in our slip we fire up the Barbeque and grill up a couple of steaks and open a good bottle of wine and watch as the trees and shrubs along the edge of the marina display every shade of green there is. I just put in a new stereo this spring so that we could hook up our I-Pod and listen to our music, shouldn’t I enjoy that for awhile before selling? And what about the parties? Seems like there’s always something going on for some reason or another (usually for no reason what’s so ever). Heck, compared to what they pay over in the sound my moorage is cheap and hey, the Harbor Master just bought two new Jet Skies and he lets us use them.
Yeah I’d like to have the money in the bank and maybe a few less worries but isn’t that the path to a pretty boring life. It’s been said that life’s a banquet and most poor sods are starving to death. Queenie gets me out of my routine and makes me a sailor. “There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." As Ratty told Mole in the wonderful children’s book “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame. I like being on the dock around sailboats and power boats. I like the people, I like the sounds, I like the smell but most of all I like the vibe that comes off docks and marinas and boats.

So I guess I won’t be selling Queenie any time soon. Because deep in my bones I’m a sailor. And every sailor needs a ship, a dream and a star to sail her by and for me, Queenie is all three.
 

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Emerald

Moderator
I am REALLY happy you came to your senses before it was too late.

From what you have written, you're reasoning indicates you are completely sane and mentally healthy, and I bet Queenie is responsible for a bunch of that through stress relief, giving the gray matter something to think about other than when the next re-run of whatever is on, like how to get the timing perfect so the current is as minimal as possible by the dams, the off-shore trip you always wanted to take etc.

Congrats on your "new" boat!!

:egrin::cheers:
 
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rwthomas1

Sustaining Partner
Theres two sorts of people in the world. The watchers and the do-ers. All of my friends have very large televisions. Those fancy flat screen units with a million watts of surround sound speakers, DVD, DVR, etc, etc. I will admit they are nice to look at and watch movies on. But thats not really me. I have a 27" tube TV from 1990. Works fine for the few hours a week I "need" it. Before boats I had RC toys, cars to work on, hovercraft, crotch rockets, firearms to build/shoot/clean, drag cars, home projects to complete, etc, etc. I'll never forget being asked once on a Monday morning in my old "Corporate America" job, standing around the proverbial water fountain, If I had watched "the game" and what else I had done that weekend. My response was that I had removed the transmission from my truck to replace the clutch on Saturday and when I was done I put a few hundred rounds through the guns just for fun. Then on Sunday I cruised the river on my hovercraft. Blank stares from all.

Get up, get out and get moving. Use your hands and your brain. Sailors, by and large, are very much do-ers. You have to be to run a sailboat. Even more so if you maintain it too. You can guess what class most powerboaters are in. Congrats on keeping her. You did the right thing. RT
 

Sean Engle

Your Friendly Administrator
Administrator
Founder
Excellent!

Yeah - really - hoo ray! :clap:

You have no idea how many of us who are forced to sell our boats wish we could keep them - so your story is inspiring.... When I sold O Barquinho, I was so upset, I felt like I had just given my children away or something...

You should come to the Northwest Rendezvous next year - with or without your boat - we would all love to meet you!

Please post an image of Queenie when you can!

//sse
 
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