Some of you know and some of you do not know, a Catalina 30 Tall Rig was the first boat the Captain and I owned together, well, he would tell you he purchased it for me a gift. He really wanted me to love sailing. The boat was a 79' and it was in the early 2000' and the Captain thought it was time that we own our own boat. We had previously been partners with his brother on an Island Trader catch, but his brother purchased our half and we were without a boat, so the opportunity came our way and we purchased a boat.
You see the Captain was visiting his brother at Constitution Marina in Charlestown, MA, and on the dock, we heard that someone was going to donate their sailboat to a charity and we thought if we offer a couple hundred more they might just sell it to us, and that is exactly what happened. Now when the boat transaction happened, it was the winter time, so there was no sailing till spring came along.
I can remember like it was last spring but I know it was 15+ years ago, spring was unusually warm and we decided to see what this boat had, so four of us left the marina for an afternoon sail in Boston Harbor. Little did we know our sails had been in sail bags for 4+ years, and the lines had not been touched in that amount of time as well. But we didn't care, we hoisted the sails and set off. The sail out to the harbor was calm and the boat handled so well, we were so pleased. But when we came back into the harbor we pushed her as far as she would go. We put the rail in water, and sailed so hard, that all the sails tore in half before we made it back to the dock.
We knew we had work to do on this boat, and that is what did for that first summer. We purchased new to us sails, a new dodger, and tried to make her as comfortable as we could, but there was not much we could do with an old boat. But one thing we did do was get lots of sailing in, and lots of experience. This boat gave us more of a buzz to get a bigger boat, and keep sailing.
And that is exactly what we have been doing for the past 20+ years.
First Mate Steph on the bow of our First Boat "N-Stuff Like That ..." on a sail to Boston Harbor from Salem, MA