Evanston: stuck
Evanston: stuck
Instead of being focused, my life recently has been fragmented.
I’ve been undergoing some medical examinations and procedures that come with age, one of which disrupted my diet for a week and included my undergoing general anesthesia for the first time since I had my tonsils out in 1945. All were routine and all were negative.
I have always had a low heart beat at rest. Somewhere in STORM PASSAGE I noted that it was 40 something, and I recall the book editor checking that I had not mistyped. Now that I am old, every doctor I see comments on it, saying that either I am in very good health or very bad.
I’ve also been doing some other writing.
I’ve watched some football on television--both American and what Americans call soccer. And some movies.
I’ve done some reading, starting Mark Twain’s AUTOBIOGRAPHY, and moving from Emily Dickinson to William Blake before going to sleep.
And mostly I’ve been thinking about and researching the possible second boat.
One problem with being sequential is that you can get stuck with an unresolved problem that brings everything to a halt. The unresolved, and unresolvable except by time, problem with the second boat is winter.
The boat I am most interested in is a Moore 24, unfortunately in some ways located in Duluth, Minnesota. Those of you in foreign lands may not know that Duluth is at the western tip of Lake Superior and one of the coldest places in the United States. Duluth is so far north it is practically Canadian. To my Canadian readers that is meant as humor. Duluth is in fact farther north than Toronto and Montreal.
The boat, presently named GROWLER, perhaps ominously after small ice bergs, is in winter storage under a wood frame and tarpaulins.
Somewhat to my surprise there are several daily direct flights from Chicago to Duluth, and I thought of going up to take a look; but my second thought is that a few sub-zero minutes with a flashlight under a tarp is not going to be very useful.
Moore 24s have the reputation of being very well built, but they have balsa cored decks and hulls. As some of you may recall, THE HAWKE OF TUONELA has a cored deck into which water has made its way and which I have treated palliatively. GROWLER has had recent extensive work done to her deck. I am satisfied with it. But hulls are another thing. Being stored ashore for much of the year, this may not be a great risk. However, while I am reasonably knowledgeable about boats and did not have RESURGAM or THE HAWKE OF TUONELA surveyed before I bought them, I do not possess the expertise to determine if there is moisture in a cored hull.
So I contacted a local surveyor, who promptly responded that he couldn’t either in a frozen boat, and that the boat would have to be moved inside for several days to thaw out or wait until spring, which in Duluth means summer.
I’ve done my due diligence.
I’ve found a couple of places not too far away where I could dock her in the summer. Places where I could store her ashore in the winter. Even got a quote on insurance, which is necessary in marinas and litigious America.
These prices are interesting. A slip for six months will cost about $2000. Winter storage about $!000. Insurance only about $160, and that includes hull insurance, which I haven’t had since before EGREGIOUS.
By contrast, I bought my mooring in New Zealand for $2000; and my annual mooring license is $100. I have to have the mooring inspected every three years. Last time the inspection and necessary replacement line and chain came to $1000. Meaning that the 37’ THE HAWKE OF TUONELA costs me $400 a year, while a 24’ boat here will cost more than $3000 a year, or about ⅓ of the asking price for the boat.
Unless you live aboard no boat is a good investment, and decisions about boats are seldom made with sound economics--if that is not an oxymoron--in mind.
I said that the boat’s Duluth location was unfortunate “in some ways.” In others it is fortunate. She is on a trailer and could be driven here. But sailing her across Lake Superior and down Lake Michigan is enticing.
I even have a name, mercifully short and simple after EGREGIOUS, CHIDIOCK TICHBORNE, RESURGAM, and THE HAWKE OF TUONELA.
If I do buy a second boat she will be GANNET.
Regular readers will know that gannets are perhaps my favorite birds, viewed daily from THE HAWKE OF TUONELA’s mooring. And some may recognize the name from “Sailing to Africa.”
Wednesday, December 8, 2010