Douglas daily dispatch., 1927-10-25
"PUe GiUen Up Yachting
By James j. Montague

l was little dubious about buying
a sailboat I had an idea that they
were expensive. Moreover, l had been
told that you always had not enough
wind or TOO much, and that in either
C5e distress resulted. Then there was
the problem Of pulling out in the fall
and Launching again in the spring.
With grass to cut. and tomato vines
to protect from insect pests and a
little golf now and then, how was
going to get any work done if l had
a Sailboat.
But as always happens, the family
overruled me. They found man who
had a sailboat which he was willing
to part with for a song. When I
heard what the song was I decided
it must have been one Of Irving Ber-
Inns which are popular, but not cheap.
However, we bought the boat.
1 was charmed with my first view
of it. The paint was new, and had
no means of knowing that they COW
cred multitude of leaks. The sails
were white and beautiful. The lines
were new. And the day we took the
first sail the wind was exactly right.
I began to regret the hesitation which
had kept me out of sailboat for so
long, In fact for the first three or
four weeks I bored my friends by
telling them what they missed by fool
ing away on golf the time they could
just as well devote to sailing. pltled
them, then.
On the first morning of the fourth
week there was just enough wind TO
get out of the harbor, but not enough
to come back with. / rowed back, two
miles. Rowing sailboat is not light
and pleasant vtrk. 1t took the rest
of the week for the blisterS in the
palms of my hands to subside. When
the next Sunday there was wind,
there was quite a bit of it, so much
so, in fact that all the time we were
out we skated along on one rail, With
buckets OF water stopping in now and
then, and all hands, which consisted
of three of us, at the bailing can.
don't remember why it was that we
didn't capsize. Probably because after
the first few gusts we kept the nose
of the craft into the eye of the wind
until we blew back on shore and
stayed there till a fisherman came
along with a motorboat and pulled us
off. He charged us $40 for the job.
thought it was excessive, but don't
believe would have done it for that.
There is something about a rocky
coast which does not improve the
water tight qualities, of sailboats. After
our contact with the beach the craft
fell into the habit of sinking at her
moorings over night. supposed boats
were all buoyant, but I was told that
600 pounds of lead on the keel makes
a difference. The man at the boat
house was always willing to get the
boat up again, which thought very
kind of him. till got the bill, which
was $40 for each 1eVitation. After he
got her up she wPpld sail very well
if one of the crew kept working a.
galvanized iron pump all the time.
We beached her at night to prevent
her sinking.
Then autumn came, and forgot
all about her-for awhile. I had
vague idea that she ought to be pulled
out and painted or something, but l
was busy about other things, mainly
trying to make enough money to oper-
ate her through another season, so
forgot all about her.
Then one day high tide came up
and lifted her off the beach. II II
had carried her out to sea, and be-