Le Storee of Ye Olde Boate

Yesterday, my son Tom gave me a package that Holly dropped off that connects all the dots as regards the lineage of Ye Olde Boate.

Here it is.

And a story ...

A long time ago, I was tired of working for a company and started to look around. After an interview downtown with a small company from Lake City, they wanted me to come there and talk to some other folks. That was about Sept of 1974.

I went ...

I left early as Lake City from Winsted was the far side of the moon. Map in hand. Down past "The Refinery" with a burn off flame four stories tall and lighting everything for ten miles. Then east on #50 and after some rolling hills and country roads, I rounded the corner onto Lake Pepin.

Big it was. Sailboats all over the surface. A very real Genteel scene, it was. Pulled into town and stopped at the finest A/W in the state. Great food, well run, with real car hops - not an electronic zapper.

Across the highway was Lake Pepin and the sailboats.

After a really good interview and a generous offer, I took the job and we moved. The following spring we moved to Red Wing.

That summer, I took sailing lessons and after two of six lessons, I purchased a Balboa 20 from a really nice guy from LaCrosse.

Yellow. He made some very useful upgrades. Self tending jib. Inboard tank for the 6hp outboard. Self contained head w/pumpout. Lifelines. Stove. And generous woodwork below.

On Lesson Five, we used my boat.

Summer of '78, we got restless for something larger. Looked around. Settled on a new Catalina 27. Ordered the boat and took delivery in December of 1978. Had it delivered next to my house so I could work on it during the winter. I did, but that was cold.

Base Catalina 27. Dinette interior. Yellow. Main w/two reef points, 110, 140 170 plus Spinnaker. Diesel inboard engine. Midship traveller. Lewmar winches instead of Barlow. Six in all. Head/holding tank. Sail cover. The price at that time was $27,197 plus tax.

A really nice configuration.

That was the start of the story.

In the summer of '81, I left my family. I remarried in May of '82 and later that summer, The Judge instructed me to sell the boat and my bike. I did.

I called my banker and told him what was happening. He, was going to a Banking Workshop and as luck would have it, linked up with another banker who wanted to buy a sailboat.

If memory serves correct, Brad got the boat for about $13,000+. What I owed on the loan. Bankers ...

He added a VHF radio, knotmeter, depth sounder, compass, shorepower and another battery plus a ladder on the transom. He made the upgrades to sweeten his selling price. It was dry docked that summer. 1982

Then, it shows up at a dealer in Woodbury (yes, Quainte Lil Woodbury). It was brokered at 10% plus $60 an hour. A note states it was located at one dealer, yet the Sales Invoice lists an address of a different dealer. Again, the boat was brokered so it could have been located anywhere.

Dudley and Holly purchased it from the brokering dealer in May of 1984. Their family was young then and it was their summer cottage for 24 years. Except 1985 when it was On The Hard all summer while they lived in Virginia. He passsed away in 1996 and Holly kept it in the harbour and she and the children used it until this year.

And, during a trip around Lake Pepin on Palm Sunday, I thought what the heck, made a phone call to the harbormaster on Monday who called Holly and ...

That's the story ...