Chris
and I started swapping e-mail about the Kingfishers. He is very
knowledgeable, and from what I can gather, he is an excellent sailor.
Chris is a skilled videographer and has done work for the major
networks; You tube, Public Broadcasting, etc. Anyway, the Kingfisher
that he has, actually belongs to his wife. Sailing has been her life's
passion since childhood. Chris is a fantastic resource for Kingfisher information. We discovered that our boats were built at about the same time according to the serial numbers on the builder's plate.
You will notice that I used the word OUR
boats. That's right. As a result of Chris's encouragement and tutelage,
I gave in to the Devil on my left shoulder and bought the boat. I
called Dan, at Berkley, who still hadn't found any sails for me. After
some serious whining on my part, we managed to negotiate a price of
$250.oo. I drove over to Berkley, paid Dan his due and the yardmen
loaded my new Kingfsher into my pickup. I took the swamp road, along
the back bay, home. I needed to do some zen thinking, before parading
my purchase in front of my neighbors. Folks who are skeptical of my
sanity as it is.
With an abrupt lurch, accompanied by the tune of squealing brakes, I
managed to prevent the end of the 17 foot mast from penetrating my
garage door (by a mere 4").
Home
at last Harriet! (Harriet is the name that I've chosen for my Kingfisher)
While I sipped a cup of Duncan Donuts coffee, I tried to figure how I
was going to get Harriet out of the truck bed and safely on the ground.
The hull still had water in it and that increased the weight by at
least 1/3 the normal empty weight. Reverting again to a motorcycle
analogous parity of thought process, I decided to slide Harriet down
the same ramp that I use to load my cycle into the truck. IT WORKED!
Once Harriet was safely on the ground, I began the tedious task of
dismantling. With the deftness of a pathologist performing an autopsy,
I drained the fluids and removed the parts for further analysis.
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