I have been asked numerous times how I got into sailing, especially since my first love was flying. As a kid I would build many models and most of them were airplanes. I must have had 4 or 5 hanging from the ceiling in my bedroom at one time. When I went to high school I majored in aircraft maintenance. And when I enlisted in the service, I went to the United States Air Force. So how did I get into sailing?
Maybe it started when I was working for Western Electric in Winston Salem, NC. I had a Sunfish sailboat, and I would take it all over including the beach just to ride it in on the waves. I ended up breaking the rudder off and I had to build a new rudder. Or maybe it was before that when my friend bought a 30-foot Atlantic sailboat and he started rebuilding it, one rib at a time. This was on Long Island before I transferred to Winston Salem. The Atlantic didn’t have any engine, and we would take it out and race it against other sailboats. Of course, we would come in last, but it was so much fun. Or maybe it was when I went to Florida and took a course for three days about sailing. Or maybe it was when I transferred from Winston-Salem to AT&T General Departments in New Jersey and got active with the United States Power Squadron, which is commonly known as ABC today or America’s Boating Club. And maybe, it was when I decided to retire early.
Should I retire to powerboating or sailing? Marianne and I went to the Annapolis sailboat show and I fell in love with all the sailboats. I asked Marianne if she would like to retire early and sail to all those nice places. She was in. So that was our goal. I have had four sailboats. A Sunfish, a 25’ O’Day, a 34’ O’Day and our 42’ Tayana. We sailed the 25’ up the Hudson River. The 34’ O’Day to Bermuda and back while we were in Raritan Yacht Club in New Jersey. This was a 1300-mile round trip. It took us 6 ½ days to get there, a week in Bermuda, and 6 ½ days to return. Going back to work was hard. And we lived on the 42’ for four years and sailed her for nine years and 20,000 miles.
One of the nicest things about sailing is that you can spend as much or as little as you like. This was important if you were going to retire early. We didn’t know how much it would cost us. But God has a way. The condo we bought in New Jersey and lived in for a couple of years ended up selling and netting us a large amount of money. We then invested this in a Tayana 42’ sailboat. She would take about two years to build her in Taiwan. So, we got an apartment during that time.
The Tayana was delivered on time. We moved aboard and continued to hone our skills Now we had to learn how to live abroad and work. We worked for another year, and this was quite an experience. Living aboard in the winter is challenging. We had below freezing temperatures, and snow that winter. I had bet Marianne that she had had 50 pairs of shoes in the trunk of her car so she could be stylish at work. She had 49. We had to climb over the bow rail on the front of the hull, and we had hot diesel air heat to name a few of the challenges. It all worked out and we were on our great adventure.
We had one commitment that we had to honor. We were at the Connecticut Boat Show when we bought the 42’ Tayana, and the salesman said that he would give us teak decks if we would have the Tayana at the Boat Show next year. Wow, what a deal. We jumped all over it and agreed. We were living aboard in Matawan, NJ at the time. I did the calculations, and we would have to leave in the middle of the night to get to the boat show at first light the day before the show. The weatherman predicted snow for that night. We got underway as planned and motored out of our slip and through the inlet. The diesel hot air heaters were working great, then we raised our sails. The memory I have is sailing under the Verrazano Bridge at night in a snowstorm. It was a BEAUTIFUL sight.
In summary, like most things in life you get out of it what you put in, and we put a lot into sailing. It has been a fantastic life.
