Blind Date

We're sitting on the Amtrak on our way to see the first really serious prospective for The Boat.  We've poured over pictures, and read all the details and assessed her to be worthy of meeting.  The 7-day course to get to this point began with the heart-tugging look on Tim's face as he stepped foot on three or four of the gleaming hulls last week at the Chicago boat show, his pilot and mechanic's eyes taking in the lines of each design and the view from the cockpit, even sans mast and sails.   Less enthusiastic, and having already determined the winner of the monohull/cat debate was the cat, I followed along, ever keeping watch on his hands as they absentmindedly traced the edge of the nav station and caressed one of the dual helms.  When we got to the Tartan 4400, though, I was unexpectedly swayed...just for a moment...the quality in this boat was noticeably better, the parts more durable looking, the interior construction of greater precision.  The layout was thoughtful, the galley safe.  As we walked around the boat show the rest of the afternoon I began to think to myself  "What would it take to convince me to go with the monohull instead of the cat?  After a little mulling over the issue and a few detours to the various vendor booths, I decided that the monohull would have to be half the price of the cat to get me to move that direction.  Clearly none of the boats at the show fit this bill.  On to the hotel, the laptop, and yachtworld.com, and after a few clicks I see a 1982 Tartan 42 for sale in none other than Chicago.  Price is, you guessed it, exactly half of the cat we had looked at just a few weeks before.  I spent an hour and a half perusing the internet reading things about this boat and looking for anything that would talk me out of it.  I couldn't find anything.  I put all the details into our points system spreadsheet that we had designed early on in our sailing career, and it fit nearly all of our requirements.  Modified fin, skeg hung rudder, U-shaped galley, good handholds, good toerail, seakindly rating, on and on it went.  I sheepishly looked up at Tim and told him about the boat.  Interesting to think about he said, and before long the idea that we could put the boat on the lake (although it would be ridiculously big for our lake), work on it until we were ready to retire, and get to know her sailing characteristics, began to take shape as a doable possibility.  So here we are, on our way to see her and see if she might indeed be "The One".   Stay tuned...