This is what I've been towing--but not that often. I've only hauled it three times so far--about 45 miles total.
This picture was taken shortly after I bought this boat on March 1st for $500 from an estate sale. The owner couldn't bear to part with it, so it sat for 18 years until he died. Fortunately, fiberglass and teak can take this sort of exposure to the New England elements.
When I lived in San Francisco, I crewed on this type of boat for three years. Now is my chance to skipper one.
This is an Etchells class racing sloop. The list Etchells national champions of this class reads like a who's who of the best sailors in the world and includes my hero Dennis Connor. I hope to start racing competitively again in the next year or two.
It's one of most popular high performance keelboat racing classes. To give you an idea of what kind of boat this is;
if this boat was a car it would a sidecar racer--light fast, and it's very important to put your weight out to keep the boat flat.
I was so excited about the boat I was out there in 22 deg weather washing and cleaning the boat. I could not have done that without lots of hot water to melt the ice before I could get to the dirt.
The mahogony floorboards were about 75" long. When I got the boat all that wood had rotted away, as had the kelson (which attaches the keel to the boat). There was nothing left but dust. I had to rebuilt the supports and decking from scratch.
These are the new cockpit sole teak floorboards. I spent more on the teak, rebuilding the trailer, and on new running rigging (rope), than I did on the boat itself.
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