The Beginning

So you want to own a sailboat?  I didn't.  The thought had never entered my mind.  Then--June 2, 2006, email from Warren: "I'm thinking about renting a sailboat, and it requires a two-man crew."  Although he has some actual experience, my background consists of being passenger in a sailboat once or twice, some 15 years previous. . .

So we rent a 22' Catalina and sail blithely from Atlantic Beach into the Morehead City turning basin and past the Beaufort Inlet, acquitting ourselves reasonably well and only running aground once, just off Shackleford Banks.  (Warren counts it as two groundings, I count it as one, with a brief intermission of  freedom.)

We discovered afterwards that the Beaufort area gives some sailors pause and even made one boat-owner blanch visibly: "You sailed WHERE?  My God, I won't go anywhere it!"  (Granted, he was not the most seasoned tar we've met.)  More immediately, however, I discovered something myself, as we tied up to the dock after our half-day outing and Warren exhaled, allowing as how he'd never sailed anything bigger than 14 feet. . .

I'm not very clear on how the transition  between "Let's rent boats!" to "Hey, let's just buy one!" occurred. . .except it happened easily.  I do remember we then looked at every possible boat on every possible website.  AND we became frequent yachtyard lurkers: some of our candidates are shown in "The Search" collection.  The first one we actually stepped foot on was the Compac23 (owned by the not-so-seasoned tar); as we left, I did a little dance, bounced up and down on the dock, and burbled "Oh, let's just buy it!"  Luckily, my enthusiasm soon became tempered by reality and experience.  Otherwise, we'd own half a dozen boats. . .Then again--perhaps some day we shall.

Several of our candidates were listed at McCotter's Marina, in "Little" Washington ('First US city named after George Washington'), North Carolina.  By this time, somehow or `nuther, we had been pulled into the Cape Dory zone.  At McCotter's, we looked at a Cape Dory 27 (very affordable, VERY in need of work: oh Lordy, do we really wanna do all that?), a Cape Dory 28 (not enough room, really--what about the boys?). . .And then TTB, Tom The Broker, said, "Here's a Cape Dory 270 I haven't even put on the website yet."  We entered the boat, stepped down into the cabin. . .and it was a Movie Moment.  I have the CLEAREST recollection of looking at Warren, him looking at me, our eyes locking, and--time stopped, violins swelled, and the thought overwhelmed us simultaneously "This is IT!"  It was a lovely boat.  Not too big, but still plenty of room, including head-room.  We could stand up; there was space for [relatively] untrammeled boy-activity; we could go into shallow waters, and we could sail into DEEP waters (thanks to the full keel + centerboard design: unique in Cape Dorys, limited to only the nineteen 270s produced).  We could, in short, do anything, go anywhere, with this boat.  AND we could afford it.  So. . .we bought it.