Two weeks ago, I reported that I bought a sailboat in Massachusetts. Now, after what seemed like forever and change, the boat has finally been moved out of the seller's backyard, and delivered to my marina's boatyard in Middle River, MD. It went mostly trouble-free. Mostly.

See, between when I bought the boat and now we had this thing called "snow", which when sandwiched between vulcanized rubber and soil tends to act like a grease and prevent traction. The transport company called ahead of time to ask that the area leading to the boat was cleared, but when they got there on Wednesday they found quite a bit of snow on the ground.

That's the driveway leading out to the road, BTW.

The guy who went there to collect the boat, who I found out is one of the owners of the company, called me with some concern about the truck's inability to stride the snow-covered surface. Yeah, nah, he was right pissed that the property's owner had not cleared it up after confirming that he'd have it ready. I see the guy's point, though; that's a smallish single-axle truck with an open differential, that would have definitely gotten stuck. He rescheduled for Thursday, giving the property owner time to remove the snow, and brought extra help the next morning to grit the path leading out.

Forward just under 24 hours to this morning, and the boat was being dropped off, where I made myself present to witness the offloading and perform the ceremonial handover of the check.

For larger boats, the marina has a 40-ton travelift, however mine tips in under four so they used a chonky forklift and a couple of nylon saddle straps instead.

And then, just like that, she was sitting at her new home. Volvo shown for size comparison.

I then did a quick walkaround, went on deck and down below to confirm that everything was OK, and then went on my merry way.

Bonus DOTS. Not a car, but a leftover of previous times. Do people in that town also "tap the MAC"?

And a kitty for your time.

With the COVID-19 pandemic rendering my employment status as "all remote all the time", I've wanted to have something that would occupy my time and simultaneously provide an escape from the house without much exposure to people (an introvert's dream, natch). So naturally, last November I started looking for a thing that would take the place of the other thing that I sold a year and a half prior, along with a place to put it, and make plans for what to do with it. Today, I finally closed on the deal.

In other words, I bought a boat. A sailboat, to be more precise.

I owned an Endeavour 32 between 2011 and 2019, which was a fine boat but required more of my time than I could dedicate, and I figured I'd sell it before nature took its course. Who woulda thunk that not a year later the world would be sent into extended home stay, and since my employer provides the sorts of tools that enable remote work, it was only natural that we'd end up eating our own dog food.

I was initially looking for something trailerable in the 18-to-25-foot range that I'd be able to tow with the XC90, but either only found less than agreeable examples or the sellers didn't reply to my requests for information. Then in December something came up that caught my eye: a 33-foot slip in the Chesapeake for sale, and the owner had dropped the asking price to $3,850. Some quick mental math and a couple of trips later and I had a place to keep a boat. But I had to find a boat.

I got to trade emails with a few people, including one who was selling his liveaboard Ericson 27 who eventually ghosted on me. I got to see a made-in-Japan Mariner 31 ketch (pic below), which looked fine from the outside but felt cramped inside. I would've made an offer, but it had a split main mast and a rotten cockpit, and I didn't feel like dealing with any of that.

Not finding anything nearby at a decent price that'd fit in the slip, I started looking further away. That lead me to a Craigslist ad posted by a seller in Mattapoiset, MA offering the subject of this post, a boat that the now previous owner bought from a donate-your-boat program and immediately mothballed and put into storage for seven years, not having touched the water in that time. It's kept at his mother's house, and since her passing the heirs have wanted to get rid of it.

It's a Watkins 27, 27 feet long (obvs.), 10-foot beam, 3.6-foot draft, and 7,500 lbs. It's wide and shallow, with smaller sail area than its size would dictate, so it's expected to be slow, but I'm fine with that. The hull and gelcoat are in great shape, as is the interior. It's got old instruments: Signet depth and speed, a Garmin chartplotter with Cape Cod charts, and a Furuno radar. The ice box is refrigerated, there's a water pressure pump and a water heater, and the head has a shower and a manual toilet. The engine, a 13-hrsprs Yanmar diesel, is raw-water cooled, but appeared to be properly prepared for storage. The sails feel almost new. There's no delamination or core rot on the deck, cabin top, or hull, although the rudder seems to have had a close encounter with solid underwater objects and a subsequent shoddy repair.

In all, it seemed that the hard-to-fix stuff is in good shape, and the easy-to-fix things will not take a lot of work, and the surveyor's report supported that impression. The seller accepted my offer of $5,000, and I left a $1,000 deposit with a plan to return once I had arranged for transport. This weekend I went to prepare the boat for the upcoming trip, pay the remaining balance, and get the title. Unfortunately, the dinghy wasn't part of the deal, but oh well.

Now I have to wait until the middle of February to bring the boat to its new home so I can start taking care of the major things before putting it in the water. Should be fun!

@chariotoflove I can't believe this hasn't been done yet.

@dr-zoidberg

Nay-bors: YOU CANT CUT DOWN TREES HERE

Tree guy: HAHA WOOD CHIPPER GO BBRRRRRRRRR

@boxer_4 Lest we forget the olden days.

@davesaddiction

@ttyymmnn Why? Because project managers never have an idea of how the product will be used, only how the product is intended to be used, and thus test cases only cover the intended usage scenarios.

@skyfire77 May she rest where she won't be bothered by ants.

I should be on the boat tuning the rig, but it's 88º outside, hotter on deck, and fluffsky can't deal. So we're sitting in the shade waiting for the Sun to go down a bit. He will step into the cabin and remain calm, but then he doesn't want to go back out onto the cockpit and dock. He's a good boi, just not a boat boi, or a warm weather boi for that matter.

@hfv Honda ain't giving up on the Accord Crosstour, I tell you what.

@highlander I thought it was Conveyances and Overtures?

@darkbrador Unfortunate? More like disappointing. I don't see any top ass there.

@urambo-tauro Exactly. Also, the other driver is a local, so he should be familiar with the roads around here, almost entirely consisting of blind crests and curves with double-yellow everywhere. One simply doesn't get to pass on the left around here without consequences.

@rallydarkstrike Yes, the dashcam caught the hit, and the turn signal clicker can be heard in the clip over the radio and the passengers' conversation.

Do Transit vans have poor forward visibility? Apparently that's the case, since a Transit driver couldn't see an XC90 braking and signalling to turn left on a two-lane road.

According to the driver, he didn't see that I was stopping nor that my left turn signal was on until late, and decided to dodge me by going on the opposing lane, only to encounter an all too likely oncoming vehicle which he then tried to dodge by returning to his lane.

The driver attempted to paint this as a no-fault incident, to which I replied that we do not live in New Jersey and an at-fault driver does bear responsibility for all damages. I don't know if he noticed the dashcam (which I just got this past weekend -- best $2 ever spent), but he certainly noticed the three witnesses inside, so he didn't insist and exchanged insurance information.

For those who don't get the reference:

@e90m3 There are lots of ways to enjoy tasty duck.

@carsoffortlangley RIP Mergio. Again.

@hillrat Thanks, I hate it. Specially that two-tone scheme.

@qaaaaa Battery gauge halfway up and only 35 miles of range left. Those old batteries really sucked. I wonder how hard it'd be to graft the motor into a Miata, though.

@essextee I just came here to say good luck, we're all counting on you.