I knew this day would come, and that didn't make it any easier. Upon my weekly conversation with my elderly father, whom is saddled with caretaker of my mom's alzheimers, we spoke of inevitable plans of passing down the Wallace family treasure~ their beloved Bayfield 32C "Aries".
My father and mother's love of the water started a family legacy of spending the summers as camp counselor's and water safety instructors...so all of us 5 kids were ducklings. With a growing family, they knew a canoe would just not be big enough for their 'water dreams' and 5 swabs weighing the boat down. So they decided to utilize their own natural resources and bought their first small sailboat. Over the years, as most sailors do, the boats got bigger and the knowledge gained grew until Dad was using his skills for profit on other people's boats and reaping the financial benefit in support of a sailing addiction. As the wooden sailing vessels got bigger, the voyages got longer and the kids began moving on. Being the youngest of the 5, I witnessed a lifetime of sailing adventures before I was 18, so it only logical that I follow in my father's footsteps and began a professional sailing instructor career as well. As my own life began taking off, my parents knew their retirement from 37 years in the public school/university system as a teacher/professor/coach and 10 years as an LPN at Kaiser Hospital was eminent. They sold their John Alden, Malabar Jr. 32' marconi rig sloop built of oak, teak and mahogany, the 'VIKING' and had their first and only fiberglas boat built in Canada.