Although I have been posting here and there, and been a member for a few months, I have yet to introduce myself.
Name here is Tom - nice to meet you all.
The wife and I have been sailing for almost two years now, and have around 1200 miles under our belts. We started with a Columbia 26 that we bought to learn on, and traded up to a Harstad 31 Motorsailer, and then to the Columbia 36 that we now own. She is a great boat with a bit of history.
It seems that she has changed hands about four times. The previous owner bought her from his parents' boatyard after the boat was left there by someone who brought her in for a complete refit in 2000. The man that brought her in used her to run Cocaine between California and Hawaii. After bringing her into the boatyard to be redone, several weeks went by when the attorney for the then-owner called the boatyard to let them know that they could keep the boat for the cost of the refit. That the owner had been arrested and was going to jail for a very long time.
The last owner had her for about 10 years before selling her to us. She is well-kept with only a few details that needed to be attended to. I have logged a lot of the work on my site
Capt’n Tom’s Log.
We sail to Catalina Island as often as we can. The wife absolutely LOVES fishing, so we run in and out of the breakwater trolling for Bonito when they are in season, and whatever else that is out there. I love the mechanics of the sailboat and keeping her up, so we're a match.
We lucked out with our Columbia. She had a NEW engine (Yanmar 30) in her with only 50 hours on it. All we had to do to make her comfortable was install a new hot water heater element, and replace the galley faucet. She is a bit on the narrow side, at 10' 6" in the beam, but she is a faster sailer for it. Nice headroom throughout, and a LOT of places for storage and improvements. We actually live aboard some of the time.
Look forward to chatting with you all.
Tom
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