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Sailing Vessels
Around 1976-1977 my parents went
on a sailing adventure just off the Florida Keys. They spent two
weeks learning how to sail on their own rented boat along with several
other classmates who also had their own rental boat for learning.
They had so much fun eating, sleeping, partying, and learning to sail
that when they got back they purchased a 1977 Hunter 27 foot
sailboat. For the next several years I spent time with my parents
and my two brothers on the boat called "Artemis". I
specifically remember sponging out the
Ok, so several years go by and my first year at college I get lucky and get on the Dean's List. As a gift my father and I go out looking for used sailboats and we find this daysailer called a Starcraft Skylark... never heard of it but it look sleek.
I now had MY first sailboat... so I did what every good sailor does...
modified the heck This was a really cool boat with dual dagger/center boards and it helped increase my learning through hard experience. A prime example is sailing with the wind behind you.. yes you can go far in a short amount of time.... tacking back that same distance is much more time consuming.
I had sailed from the Maumee River in Perrysburg to the mouth of Lake
Erie in Toledo in just several hours.... however when I turned around
and started tacking back I had trouble getting under an overpass bridge
(hence After being hit by the boom in the head 3 times trying to get under the bridge (the wire modification was implemented soon after), when I finally did, I sailed over to the closest marina and called my father. Who picked me up so I could get the trailer and have the marina lift it onto it. The really interesting thing about the Skylark is the design... it is very reminiscent of a submarine... in that it tends to dive into wave at the bow... not that you would know it from the picture on the manual. Now I know what that diverter is for just at the front of the mast... not that is really helped. It was a good fair weather, hardly any waves sailboat. So like any good sailor... again... I looked for a bigger boat.
The first loan I ever got myself.. and didn't
need a co-signer... all two thousand dollars. I happen to see this
boat in someone's yard with a faded For Sale sign on it and a garden
growing in it. It's name was Barefoot Bev.. named for the daughter who
used to roam about it with bare feet. I had no idea how much work
a full restoration meant, but it was 19 feet and I wouldn't get wet
sailing it. Now I know my father would probably have another heart
attack if I brought this thing home to work on it, so I took it to a
marina and stored it there while I worked on it enough to make it
presentable.
I love to show off... what boat owner doesn't.. but I had something no one else had in Eastern North Carolina... I had something that made people say.. 'what is it?' I don't recall how I found out about this boat.. I just remember we bought it from just looking at the Sales Brochure. After we
sold the O'day ($1,700...
So here comes THE most embarrassing moment in my life as a sailor. This
is the first time I launch the boat... start the motor up... get 100
feet from the dock... the steering connection snaps and the motor dies.
Great... and the only powerboats nearby are Jet Ski's.... so I hook up
to one and they pull me back to the dock. Now as if that wasn't
bad Now I always test the motor on land before even going to the dock.
Take a 360o
Panoramic Tour of the Interior of my MacGregor
19 Powersailor
Yup.. we took some of the money from the sale of our Mac 19 and bought this used powerboat to get us out to the barrier islands. After bringing it home my daughter and I saw a video of a black boat in a movie (Thunder something) and that's when I decided to paint it black... the boat was cheap after all. Move your mouse over the picture to see my test of the black paint job.
Yes this is not a sailing vessel... but I learned a lot about how to keep a four cylinder inboard engine running, how much money it costs, and what happens when it stops running in the middle of the river. Hey and guess what... I got it all fixed and running reliably... so it is now for sale... especially since I went ahead and bought the Sailboat I had been salivating over for several years.
Yeee Haaa... here it is... Our Dream boat and probably last boat. We had been looking
at this boat ever since they started building it, back when we still had
the MacGregor 19. So then MacGregor stopped making the 26X in 2003
and started making the 26M a variation of the X. After looking at
the manufacturers website ( www.macgregor26.com
) we decided we didn't like the changes to the interior and the change
from a centerboard to a daggerboard. So I surfed the internet and looked
for the best deal on a 1999 or later model within the eastern side of
the country. Turns out there was one in Oriental just 30 minutes
from us. So like any good husband I went behind my wife's back and
started working on purchasing the boat without her suspected a
thing. After closing on it, I picked it up and took it over to the
sign shop to get it lettered and decals put on from my
To See ACTUAL VIDEO from the 26x
Sales Video
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bilge
a lot because the bilge pump never worked properly. The boat was a
keel sailboat that was kept at a dock in Toledo near Lake Erie. We
continued to learn things on this boat.. like sandbars do exist in a
lake.. and it is still embarrassing to ask a power boat for help, that
sitting on the front of the boat with 3-5 foot waves is really cool...
unless you are the captain, anchoring is always a test of the
crews patience, and never let your son touch the throttle during a
docking (ramming) procedure. I remember go to Turtle Island and staying
the night on the boat. The most memorable was the time my mother
and brothers and I had gone to the dock to clean the boat and my mother
dropped her car keys between the dock and the boat... we all looked at
each other as if to say "you dive in and get them". We
call my father to pick us up. So with such fond memories I had
unknowingly been bitten by the sailing bug... I found that I loved
to go to Boy Scouts summer camp because they had a sailboat there... and
of course it was always available because hardly anyone knew how to use
it.
out
it. I painted the trailer and the boat, added rollers to the wood
skids, attached a wire to the top of the mast to hold the boom up, added
a tiller extension, and added a mount for an electric trolling
motor. 
the
trolling motor modification). 
)
we found a dealer in Hilton Head, SC who had a demo model 
enough...
to add injury to insult... a jet ski has a stream of water it spits out
the back like an arch as it goes...yup you
guessed it... right on me as I sit at the front of the boat.
designs.
My wife came up with the name back when we had the Mac 19.. because of
all the people that asked us 'what is it'... and the answer is 'not
sure'... which she changed to "Knot Shore".... she's very
clever. Then 2 days later I pulled the boat into the backyard in
the afternoon while my wife was at a meeting with the kids and would not
be back until night fall. So Saturday morning I showed the kids the boat
and had them run into the bedroom and wake up mommy because there was
'something in the backyard'... she was pleasantly surprised.
