I wanted to sail most of my life, but growing up in the world of power boats
never had the chance. When I brought it up to the people I boated with they thought I have lost my mind. So I continued to put it in the back of my mind, but I continued to read, study and learn. I had the opportunity to go out on a large Cat and jumped at the chance, once the sails were up and full I knew I was hooked, even though I was just along for the ride.Some years passed, I began to look at and decide which size boat I wanted knowing not to big at first. Hey I might not like this as much as I thought I would. I decided a 22-23 foot boat would be the boat. So the search began, for those that know me that could last for years. I picked up the local paper one week early in the spring of 2003, looking through the paper getting to the ads, not really looking for a boat, but therein the ads. was a Catalina 22, hmm. I wondered about it but let it pass. At the time I was looking at several boats at Snug Harbor Marine, I had called a few times to inquire on a couple. The next week the Catalina was again in the paper, so I thought what the heck I'll call and ask about it, a very nice lady answered the phone, and explained the boat to me. I later talked to her Husband and we agreed to meet and look at the boat, it was in a slip at a local marina and was going to be loaded on a trailer, new boat is on the way.
I showed up a bit early to look the boat over, the boat looked very solid on the outside with no damage seen. After meeting the owners, getting a look inside the boat, it was in very good shape, very dry with no water found anywhere, The slip had to be cleared for the new boat so this boat was going to be loaded a trailer, I agreed to help. After all if I bought it I needed
to know how to load this boat since I planned to trailer sail it. This was going to be a bit foreign to me I had never seen a sailboat loaded on a trailer. I was told the ramp was to shallow, but there was another ramp just around the point.There was a Catalina 22 mast raising seminar being conducted in the parking lot attended by several C-22 owners. The owner told me about the mast raising seminar and thought I might find it interesting, they were going to remove a few personal items from the boat and were going to be a while. I walked up and watched these fellows putting up the mast then taking it down, asking if anyone on the ground wanted to take a turn one or two did, some hadn't dropped a mast before. I watched and I began to wonder if I could do this as I knew I would most likely doing this alone when the time came to raise it. I met a couple of the owners putting on the seminar they seemed very helpful and also told be that the boat I was looking at was in very good condition. ( Message to self! make a system to raise mast if I buy the boat!)
The present owner had owned the boat 22 years. He hadn't bought it new it was 6 months old when he bought it, the original owner had decided it was to small and had traded it back in on a C-25. I was impressed . The boat had been maintained. It had a new North main a 110,135 and 150 Genoa along with the original main.
We were ready to load the boat on the trailer, the owner had ask a fellow owner to help and he agreed. He would take the boat around while the boat
owner and me would ready the trailer. We arrived at the ramp and backed the trailer to the waters edge then stopped. This is where it began to get strange. I had only loaded power boats and it was pretty straight forward back the trailer in the water drive the boat on the trailer, secure it and drive up ramp put on the back straps, raise the motor, drive home ,cover the boat. How much different could it be? I was asked by the owner if I would find a rock the size of a football, I went out one side and he the other, he said just put it behind the tire and did the same on the other side. He then did something I had never seen anyone do at a ramp, uncoupled the hitch and pulled his SUV forward about fifteen feet. Then opened the back and pulled out a twenty foot strap and tied one end to the hitch, the other to the trailer and ask if I would move the rocks when he pulled forward. By this time two other people walked up and were taking this in. I moved the rocks and back went the trailer toward the water further and further until it disappeared, even the winch couldn't be seen at this point.I along with the two other people were stunned, Never in my life had I seen this done before, it went against everything I knew about loading a boat onto a trailer. I stood there thinking maybe he didn't have a trailer after all. To pull the boat out the reverse happened, the boat was sitting on the bunks with no forward support and not against a winch pad. When asked, if this was the way it had to be loaded every time the answer was yes... (Message to self! Find out what a C-22 trailer cost!)
The mast was lowered and secured and back to the marina to have the slime
power washed off the bottom. Once the slime was removed, I had a chance to look over the bottom see there were no blisters, the bottom was in very good condition Later the next week I called and we talked about the boat and the trailer, (still wondering if I should call it a trailer) it was more like a cradle with wheels. I knew if I bought the boat I would have two choices buy a trailer that fit the boat or cut everything off this one and rebuild it. I made an offer based on the that. We talked a while and when it was apparent to him that I wasn't going to budge from the offer, he said he just couldn't possible take it. That was ok, I wished him luck, told him I might look at it again later if he still had it, was about to end the call when he decided that we had a deal. I agreed to the payment method, agreed to meet him at the storage area and bought the boat with no name.Tammy and I had struggled trying to come up with a name for the boat, we settled on several only to discover one or two boats with the same name. We had all but given up on naming the boat. At a local boat store I picked up a few items to purchase and the total was nearly twenty dollars. I had one twenty dollar bill in my pocket, she looked at me and said you would spend you "Last Penny " on that boat. We both looked at each other and started to laugh. We knew we had found the catchy name for our boat.
And so begins the journey. ~~~_/~~~
Ken Palmer 2005