Wanting it bad enough

[sailnaway]

As a young boy my family had a boat and lived in Ft Lauderdale on the New River, rich hardley,dad was a truck driver and worked very hard seven days a week but took time to take the old woodie out and I would sail her like she was the Yacht America. I wanted that life to be my life full time but Viet Nam kind of held the plan up and a bad marriage to a party girl right after that. I soon found myself squeezed into a Folk boat and eating tuna,no bread just tuna and living in Biscayne Bay. Worked for what ever boat yard I could and was lucky to have learned to be a rigger at North American Boat Co when I was still in high school so got my share of jobs.I met some neat people Tor Penny of Pacific Sea Craft was living much the same way as I was and made his mark and stayed with yachting.I am poor as a guy from the holler today.I suffered an aortic anurisum like the actor John Ritter died from but by a mirical I lived,but after three months in the hospital two months of which I was in a coma, I awoke near my Colorado home "Ya" Colorado, Remember Jeramia Johnson anyway I was alive 67 pounds lighter could not walk and was on oxygen full time and wanted to get out and head south and buy a boat. Everyone said well go where its warm but realize you will find you cant handle that sort of activity any more.My wife and I took off for New Orleans one of the southern city''s I had worked in several years ago rented an apartment and she went to work teaching. The words of the doctors were ringing in my ears as I walked the dock. Jim don''t expect to much if you can get around you will be doing good, you may never be able to do much other than very easy activities. I wanted this so bad I went to Florida bought the boat we now live on and single handed it back to New Orleans. Foolish maybe but as I made my way across the Gulf of Mexico alone I connected with myself and the sea once again and the Dolphins the only thing I saw the whole way made me smile and cry and stired my soul back to life. So two years after having died on the operating table and shocked back to life I spent this last summer in Florida cruising on a small budget and dodging hurricanes and I loved every bit of it just like sailing the Yacht America.If you want to be a cruiser you can find a way we gave up everything and did not have a bunch of money and still live on my wifes income as I have to take a break and rest but we are doing it. When the squals come rushing down on us I seem to gain strength from unknown forces. Any weekness I may have leaves me and the sailors heart beats strong because this is what I want.

[Jeff_H]

This is too wierd...My name is Jeff Halpern. I am the person who bought your folkboat, ''EasyOn'' as you called her (originally called ''Ballerina'') in mid- 1973. I ended up restoring her as far as I could go replacing the rig, rudder, keel bolts, sistering the broken frames, replaced a number of the floor timbers and a piece of the stem, repaired the worm damage and replacing that piece of plank with the large hole in it, rebuilt the mast support, Wooded her inside and out. I also prefabricated an interior and cockpit but never finished installing them. I also lived aboard before I had to sell the boat. I sold her when I moved to Sarasota and could not get her there after losing the new rig in a squall. She is still one of the favorite boats that I have owned.

This is way too small a world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The last time I saw you I paid you $400 cash for the old girl and drove you to the airport so that I thought you could return to college. I ran into your father a little while later when he came to pick up the outboard, which I thought went with the boat and he thought was his. (We worked something out) I ended up calling the Folkboat ''Diana'' and the next owner allowed her to go derelict. She was eventually moved to Tampa where I ran into her in the late 1070''s.

I always wondered what happened to you. I ended up going back to college and becoming an architect. Ten boats, a lot of sailing miles, and 31 years later, I now live in Annapolis and sail a Farr 38.

Best wishes,
Jeff

[Denr]

I just love stories with happy endings!

[Jeff_H]

I am still reeling over this strange coincidence. It seems imposible to run into you after all of these years. Do you have any idea what happened to Jack or Grace, both of whom owned converted wooden lifeboats. Please drop me an email if you have a chance.

Regards
Jeff

[msl]

...and if that isn''t enough of Jeff''s past boats ... a friend of mine went to a nearby inland lake this week, to sail a Laser 28 that used to belong to... yep, you guessed it
MSL

[Jeff_H]

This seems to be my week of boat''s past....
First ''Diana'', the folkboat, then maybe ''Midnight Express'', the Northstar 500, and now ''Rugosa'', the Laser 28. That is so funny. I am glad to hear that Rugosa is still in use this late in the season.

Jeff

[FalconEddie]

Good to hear your story, sailnaway. Makes me feel not so strange out here. I too am a Viet Nam Vet and seem to have that weird thing that leaves me out here like a satelite, not really connected. After ten years of trying to get a good job with a good company after coming home from Nam, a guy from GE called me into the hiring office and gave me my DD214 and told me never to show it to anyone again. I put it in my application because I spent my time in country in air rescue and thought the long list of medals and ribbons meant something good. He told me being a Viet Nam Vet meant something bad, then offered me the job, because I''d been applying for ten years. I took the job, then brought all my medals and uniforms to the beach and burned them in one of those 55 gallon trash drums, all the while staring at the sea and wondering where I belonged. I got a 22 O''Day and moved aboard, then traded up to a 28 Winthrop Warner Cambridge Cadet, wood, but fantastic, and with headroom. I then started building my own schooner, based on Slocums Spray. I finally walked out of GE and made my living however I could, working on the boat and dreaming of sailing away. Maybe cruising in the islands or going to Tahiti. Yeah, thats a new dream no one thought of before. Anyway, I started on the schooner in 1985 and I''m finally aboard here in Florida, still trying to finish her up. Made it through the hurricanes. The VA keeps trying to throw a net over me, don''t know why, they say I got the delayed stress thing but I see plenty of people out here more wacky than me, especially here in Regatta Point Marina management. I''m outa here this weekend to somewhere more peaceful where I can finally make my sails. Hope to head around the Keys in another three or four months. My boat is Falcon and my name is Ben but some call me Falcon Eddie. Something from some old movie I think. Hope to see you around. Ben

[traff]

Falcon Eddie,

It''s them "normal people" out there, that scare me the most.

Best to ya pard,

Traff