Today, I was working at my friend’s company and a strange thing happened. When she walked in, she asked me to take a look at some photos that were on her cell phone. On her way into the office, she had passed a sailboat for sale. She wanted to know what I thought of it.
I took a look at the photos, and the boat was an old O’Day Javelin. This is a sloop-rigged, 14′ daysailer that was built by O’Day in Fall River, Massachusetts, from 1962 to the mid-1980s, when the company went under. It was designed by Uffa Fox. I had sailed one of these back when I was a teenager, but hadn’t seen one since then.
She wanted to know if I thought this would be a good boat for her children to learn on, and whether it would be appropriate for the pond that is across the street from their summer home. I thought it would be an excellent choice, since it is sloop-rigged, unlike the Sunfish. Her two older children have crewed for me aboard my Pretty Gee.
She asked me to come with her to look at the boat, since she wanted my opinion on the price and condition of the boat. I agreed, so off we went. The sails were in fair shape from what I could see, and the hull, while needing some cosmetic repairs and a good paint job, was in fair shape. The trailer was a bit rusty, but otherwise sound. I thought the price was more than fair, especially, when the owner came down $100 on the price. She wrote a check and now she owns a nice little daysailer.
I’m hoping she can get the trailer registered and insured this week. Her son and I will be taking the boat down to the summer place as soon as it is street legal. I hope we can get it rigged and sailing by sometime next week.
I’ve given her son and older daughter a copy of Dave Seidman’s “The Complete Sailor,” which is one of the finest sailing primers that I’ve ever seen. I highly recommend it if you’re interested in learning how to sail. It is well written and has clear illustrations. Unlike many other “learn to sail” books, this book goes into a much broader area of sailing history, boat development, design, techniques and knowledge, while still being very understandable and a fairly compact book.
More on this later. It is going to be an interesting summer.