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The Free-Bee, Selling Sails and Size Matters

   Written by on March 8, 2018 at 12:41 pm
The stories in this column are true. Averett lives a dull life in rural Southside Virginia with his wife Management, two children and a rotating assortment of goats, dogs, cats, snakes and other local fauna.

The stories in this column are true. Averett lives a dull life in rural Southside Virginia with his wife Management, two children and a rotating assortment of goats, dogs, cats, snakes and other local fauna.

Four years ago I bought a little 21-foot sailboat for resale. I like selling stuff and playing with words and “sailboat for sale” sounded like fun.

Then my bride (Management) and my son decided they wanted to learn to sell-er-sale- er- I mean sail.

This sounded like a problem to me since I am often accused of going overboard and I had never been on a boat other than a canoe in my life.

Still, my number one rule is Management should be happy and that she should have anything she wants unless it would make me unhappy.  So we went to the lake.   Management was happy and no one was unhappy.

Next, I accidentally bought a Pearson 36 sailboat (big boat) at a salvage auction. Well, maybe I went a little overboard. It is too big (for right now) and needs a motor.  I named her Eighty-Seven Fifty ($87.50) since that is what I paid for her. We’re keeping her for later but I decided Pearson was the boat to have even if Eighty-Seven Fifty was out of our ability level.  We needed a smaller boat.

At the same time the daughter announced she was expecting our fourth Grand-brat as we were sailing our 21 (at full capacity) by stating, “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

You should understand that the proper procession for boat owners is to move up a size or so every few years until your boat is bigger than you can use.
Then you downsize.

As usual I neglected to follow the proper procedure and jumped way ahead to big boat which exceeded our ability and need.

Last year a friend gave me the hull of the perfect boat for us.  I named her the Free-Bee (again after the price) and got her ready to sail. After I got her finished I realized I had made a little mistake. Free-Bee didn’t have a title so I couldn’t use her.

After spending a month and $37.00 I finally tracked down the title and got her registered and ready to sail.  Remind me not to do that again. What good is a boat you can’t use?

In the process of finding the perfect boat for us I happened to acquire several (which means somewhere around two, twelve or twenty) others from the salvage yard. Now I have a couple of dozen extra sails for sale.

Sails are like a lot of other things. You have to know what you have to sell them.  You have to know loft, luff and leach and a bunch of other nautical terms.  Buyers want to know about reefing points and an ocean (or at least a large lake) of other information.

Selling sails isn’t easy, but if I am going to keep Free-Bee free I have to sell them.  Right now I am $37.00 in the hole or underwater if you like.

Of course, the boats are in addition to the other stuff I have for sale.  I never abandon a project. I sometimes postpone a project. I sometimes delay a project, I sometimes transfer a project and I sometimes sell an unfinished project but I never give up on one. That is, unless you count the one or two that were burned to a crisp during the project.

I’ll admit to having some projects that have been delayed for decades but that isn’t the same as giving up on them.

One day I am going to put a ceiling in the basement. One day I am going to finish that car shed. One day I am going to clean the yard. One day…I am going to do lots of things but today I am going to pick my bride Management an armload of daffodils.

I may delay lots of things but I do know what is really important.

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