This is an update and continuation of Day with Melissa post that I made last week. When Melissa and I attempted to go sailing the first time… we realized the boat had some problems…
This week has been frustrating and expensive. Since we bought the boat from a charity in a auction… paying $305 for the yacht was an extremely good deal. It wasn’t like I didn’t come into this expecting to have to put more than that into it. What frustrated me the most is that the former owner was either actually clueless or played it up that everything was totally 100% fine. The short version of the story is that our motor needs a new carburetor, because of a small piece broke on it and we need a new mainsail, because some of the stitching is coming undone.
I took the motor to a Honda dealer in Essex, but the part is on back order from Honda. The dealer hasn’t got an update from Honda when it will be back in stock to ship. I’m hoping that this motor issue doesn’t stretch out too long, but the price to get it fixed was under what I was fearing I would have to pay.
The mainsail is one of the most important parts of a sailboat. Making sure it’s in the best condition possible is one of my priorities. Having a faulty mainsail could spell trouble. Safety is my number one concern when I have the kids and other people on the boat. Because of that reason I opted to get a new mainsail instead of repairing the old one. I had Quantum Sail Design Group go and take a look. These guys have done an amazing job so far. Extremely responsive and accommodating. Ultra professional invoices. They sent me an information packet, via email, about the sail before talking price with me. It was customized to my sail and felt extremely high quality. These guys really seem to have it together.
The new sail is going to take an estimated 4 – 6 weeks to get made. This puts a delay in getting it up to Maryland Marina, but overall it will be a safer trip. He told me truthfully that I can sail on the old one in lighter winds, and that’s what we intend to do until the sail is complete, but we are paying a lot for Harrington Harbor. This week has lead to a lot of stress on my part, but this week is over… almost.
Matthew Ward's Personal Life 
I wished alex told you that ive been looking and studying sail boats for the past year i would’ve been able to help with aome of tue surprise issues. Great that you oaid so little for the boat im gona have to pick your brain on where you got yours. For future though get a surveyer to go over the entire boat alot of times they wouldve caught issues like these. Also find out when was the last time the boat got a repaint on tue bottom? That gets alot of peaple and is a lengthy project
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I’ve been studying sailing as well for about 2 years. Gabe and took lessons, I’ve ready multiple books. I’ve seen numerous videos. I’m about as well equipped as I am going to be to own a sailboat. I had no idea you were looking into it at all. It’s only recently that I took Melissa sailing and she surprisingly enjoyed it.
In regards to the issues, they are not unexpected. I bought it though ebay from a charity that gave all the money to veterans. It was an “as-is” boat so even if I knew the issues, it was going to be on me to fix them. All-in-all I am multiple thousands of dollars cheaper doing it this way, than if I went though a dealer or some other means. The largest part of my frustration is the time it’s taking for me to get out on the water with it.
When you are back in town and I have the motor back I am taking it sailing. Getting the new and improved sail isn’t required, because the sail is in decent condition, just starting to unbind by the clew. It’s only unbound about 2-3 inches, so light wind sailing will be totally fine. However, to get it from Herrington Harbor to Maryland Marina is going to be a 6-8 hour sail. I don’t want to attempt that on a the old sail.
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