July 4, 2011
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Craigslist — the Great Enabler
So it’s summer again, and my sailing itch has yet to be scratched. I finally had time to go down to the lake to sail, so I prepared to get the boat ready for it’s first shakedown of the year, only to discover, I am missing the rudder to my Banshee.
What the hell?
I searched all over the house, the garage, the other garage. . . to no avail.
I even called up the city hall by the lake to see if anyone turned one in to Lost and Found.
Did someone hop over the fence and steal my rudder? If they did that, they could have easily just stolen the boat. So no, I must have left it on the dock the last time I sailed it. Sucks.
My poor little Wedge has been sitting out in the RV parking lot the last three years, because ever since starting my new job and then having the baby, I haven’t really had time to sail it. Plus, I broke the gooseneck the last time I sailed it, because I didn’t hoist the mainsail high enough before I tried to launch, which meant the first breeze just yanked my boom off the mast. Luckily, I’d found a car mechanic in town who was able to weld a new boom end onto it. I offered to take him sailing next season, and now I can’t make good on my offer, because I can’t find my rudder.
So, on to craigslist I went, looking for spare parts, when lo and behold, I find out there’s a Banshee for sail IN MY AREA!!!
I persuaded the husband to go out with me to look, and it’s in decent shape. Keep in mind, I was hoping to just cannibalize it for parts, but it’s actually not in bad shape. The sail is newer than mine. He had a better kind of fix for the notoriously weak Banshee gooseneck, which I will implement if my boom ever breaks off again. Unfortunately, his rudder and centerboard were in pretty bad shape. Cracked mahogany. Severely cracked.
I pointed that out to him.
His reply: “You can make a rudder easily.”
Says him, who doesn’t work full time (he’s retired, he said), and who doesn’t have a 1 1/2 year old toddler. I do not plan on using a circular saw while babysitting a toddler THAT’S FOR SURE.
And when I balked at his price because I knew it was gonna cost money for wood to make a new rudder and centerboard, he says, “You can buy it online for cheap.”
Um, yeah. I did a web-search on marine mahogany back when I was contemplating building a Rhodes Bantam. I don’t know where *he* was looking for mahogany, but it ain’t cheap, honey.
Still, there is nothing worse than having a sailing itch, and seeing a sailboat that one likes for sail, er sale. Trailer and all. And the trailer is in good shape. ‘Needs air in the tires, probably needs bearings checked, but otherwise fine. It’s a homebuilt trailer, like my current one, and he has the title.
Argh! It’s too much to have 3 sailboats, isn’t it? Some might consider that hoarding. Ah well!
“One day I shall have two boats exactly the same. I shall sail in one and look back at the other to extract the last ounce of pleasure from my labour. And if it happens that I cannot have two lovely boats and become bitter, I shall sail around in the ugliest of boats I can find, looking at everyone else’s nice boat, whilst they have to avert their gaze from mine.” - Colin Mudie, Naval Architect
