| One of the two happiest days...
Posted by Mike Turner  on 10/11/2009, 17:17:56
"Fiddlestix" Rob Roy 23 for sale After a lot of soul searching, we've decided to sell our Rob Roy 23 yawl, "Fiddlestix" (see the SCA on-line classifieds for our listing).
They say, of course, that the two happiest days in boat ownership are the day you buy, and the day you sell. That may ultimately prove true. But we've wound up putting a boat up for sale, that we thought would be the last boat we ever owned.
The reason? Nothing at all to do with the Rob Roy. Fiddlestix has been a terrific boat and did everything we asked of her. She's a joy to sail; the yawl rig gives us a lot of sail combinations for varying conditions. How many boats do we know that you could sail 37 miles without a rudder, as we did earlier this week (not to fear - the rudder will be repaired, to a strengthened design recommended by the builder, before she goes to her new home)? She handles light air and heavy weather and heaves to under full sail or mizzen alone when we want a break (many days we've sailed out into Mobile Bay and hove to to have lunch and enjoy the cooling breezes).
No, what changed were our cruising plans. When we bought Fiddlestix, we thought we'd be doing short-term, weekend cruising in local waters and daysailing. She's been a wonderful companion in those cruises for the past seven years. But as Fiddlestix has helped us grow our abilities, we now feel we want to stretch out - the Gulf, the Keys and Tortugas, Mexico, maybe even the Leewards and up the East Coast via the ICW and the Chesapeake.
Sadly, for our style of cruising, Fiddlestix isn't the boat for these plans. We want more cockpit and deck space, to allow us to host other couples in our adventures; more space down below, including the ability to stand up; wheel steering; diesel auxiliary power; refrigeration. The Rob Roy could give us some of that, but not all.
And so we've started a preliminary search for the boat to meet our new needs - something in the 32-35' range, suitable to the shallower waters of Mobile Bay but able to stand up to limited blue water passages, and still a schooner/ketch/yawl rig - the Rob Roy has sold us on the utility of these rigs, including the trade-offs in windward performance; and plus, I just feel that's what a boat should look like. Harkens back to my youth watching Gardner McKay in "Adventures in Paradise," I guess.
They say that the perfect boat for you is the one you see when you close your eyes. The Rob Roy is still that boat for me. When I look at the listing, I fall in love with her all over again. I only hope she finds a good home, and someone that comes to appreciate her as much as we have; and that we feel the emotional connection with our next boat, that we've felt with Fiddlestix.
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