Letters

The Time We Almost Bought a Boat

It’s the lure and the smell of the salt sea air that set its hooks in me,

it’s a land of salty make believe where the land meets the open sea!

CGMW25bw 7/24/07 4:19 PM Page 1

CAPE GEORGE MARINE WORKS, INC.

Many years ago (when we were young and audacious), my wife and I came across a flushdeck pilothouse sailboat moored at a sales dock in North Vancouver. We instantly fell under it’s spell. Black hull, teak decks, cutter rigged – she was beautiful! The best part, it was a bank repo and would probably be sold for a bargain. A salesman who we knew quite well, had the listing. He submitted our offer and thought for sure we would get the boat, but being Friday afternoon, we’d have to wait until Monday for an answer. He gave us the keys around closing time to have another look around. We were to put the keys back through the brokerage door when we left in about an hour or so. While on board, we came across two bottles of Yukon Jack and enough charts to take us all the way down the Baja. Engulfed in the spirit of the moment, we opened the new bottle of liquor avoiding the already opened one (just in case the repo’d owner had poisoned it!) out of spite for having lost his boat. We ended up spending the evening literally pouring over the charts, visiting every port down the coast getting more hammered the further south we went.

On Monday morning, the broker phoned us saying that a burly Vancouver cop had come storming into his office railing on about how some ‘sonovabitch’ had been on ‘his’ boat and drank ‘his’ liquor! Unbeknownst to him (the broker), the cop had already done a backroom deal with the bank manager (who he apparently knew) on Friday afternoon, cutting the brokerage out of their commission. The boat had ALREADY been sold! The broker was pissed-off (no commission), the cop was pissed-off (no liquor) and we were pissed-off, having only gotten a hangover, and NO boat!

Cape George 38

Now also building the Lyle Hess

designed 28' Bristol Channel and 22' Falmouth Cutters

31' 34' 36' 38' 40.5' 45'

1924 Cape George Rd. Port Townsend, WA 98368 360.385.3412 www.capegeorgecutters.com

48° NORTH, APRIL 2010 PAGE 14

Thanks! John

Sounds like the lure of demon whiskey got you more than

“the lure and the smell of the salt sea air,”. Not many exemplary facets to that story, other than examples of Karma at work.

48° North’s Boaters’

Swap Meet April 10

See page 6 for details Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96