Was feeling a bit melancholy today, despite a perfect sailing day. Thinking back on a love. Feels like it was just yesterday, not 44 years ago.

She found me in 1971. Created from a philosophy eons old. Some said she was a bit plain but I thought her a beauty. I remember day dreaming of her in class and work.  A real love affair.

Built in Germany of solid mahogany, dark reddish brown. Could have been Honduras mahogany, but likely an Asian transplant. She was sturdy, 17 foot and 500 pounds. Solid wood mast and boom. Hard chine. Broad of beam. Short mast. Sloop rigged. Main so small she exposed more mast then most. Fractional rig but unbending. No backstay, shrouds attached to two bronze hard points. I imagined the old-timers would say they liked the cut of her jib. I sure did.

Her prior owner didn’t treat her particularly well. Didn’t take the time to treat her right. For instance, he glassed over the lower part of the center board trunk. Sloppy and just everything looked as if done in a hurry. All about his needs not the boat’s I guess. I tried to do things right and imagined she smiled at my efforts.

Low free board, so probably designed for quiet lakes. But she seemed to want to explore the wild ocean. Whether it was me or her I can’t say but she was most excited on the sea. Wet in all but the calmest wind. Always a hand on her jib sheet and ready to hand her main sheet. She demanded attention, whether at sea, or with a caress of varnish. I was more than willing to oblige. Sweetest thing afloat.

I loved her motion in the sea. She’d mount a wave or shudder her way through it; like as not I’d pump like a mad man. Floor boards floating. Had to tie everything in place. Made one feel alive.

Always dreamed of long voyages, too naive to know what I wanted was far outside of her designed capabilities. I didn’t have the faintest idea about boats just loved her and wanted her to be the best boat around. Once tried to build a self-steering vane. Worked in my mind, but a complete failure in practice. No amount of desire will change a design; easier to spit into the wind.

Eventually lost her in the throes of a marriage and kids. I guess love is never enough. Guess I’ll always miss her.