Theme of this summer is RESTORATION. Spent the beginning of sacred July in the Pacific NorthWest reuniting with my sister Beverly and her family all over the Olympic peninsula, on ferries, at the beach (brrrr) and on the docks siting seals and touring wooden beauties. A return to my roots of traditional boats, values and time well spent with family.
But this summer began with the purchase of a boat that to some would not be considered traditional at all, rather a rocket into the future. Last year when I raced in the Duck Distance Cup on my Hobie 14, considered by many, a classic plastic vessel...(started the multihull revolution)...a fellow long time competitor made the statement that I just needed to get a faster boat with a longer water-line length. So over the past year I scoured the internet checking out what was out there and what could I allow myself to dream on. And low and behold I found the next 'revolutionary' boat....the NACRA. Since this boat came into existence in the early 80's, every other competition multihull has taken it's design from it's original razor sharp hulls and low profile tramp....the NACRA 5.2 revolution had begun...of course I missed it being into Hobies. But I did get a chance to sail one off Miami Beach on a spring break in college....I knew then, this was a completely different animal and literally a bottle-rocket!
This past Memorial Day weekend, my pup and I were headed down to the water access to have our usual breakfast and dip in the sound when we were tranfixed on a catamaran coming into view sitting out in a yard. We slowed down and initiated a conversation with the fella there when we noticed it was FOR SALE and a reasonable price as well. Before I knew it, we were spreading the sails out on the front yard and I was convincing myself this was the boat I had been searching for and this one had miraculously fell into my hands. So with visions of yet another restoration of a revolutionary boat, she came home with me and this summer has been more restoration than sailing~ ...and that's okay!