Chebacco Sailboat

Article By Shorty


Richard Spelling drove all the way down from Oklahoma to visit with us. He was brave enough to camp out at the island the night before. He was eaten alive by our Texas sized mosquitos, rocked around by the reflecting waves which bounce from shore to shore, and kept up till 1am by a noisy family that anchored just after dark.

Never mind that, checkout this picture he took first thing Saturday morning!





Richard was mumbling "I could run over and sink that tiny little.....".

So Richard, Christina and I went out for a sail. This is the first time I have been out in a boat with a pilot house of this configuration. The house is very high with lots of windows like the birdwatcher designs, but instead of being totally inside the aft 1/3 is open with a bulkhead seperating the cockpit from the cabin. It really is a great balance, sitting in the cockpit has plenty of shade, but has the open-ness of a regular cockpit. It also has tons of ventilation so it isn't as hot as a birdwatcher type. That bulkhead also turns the forward 2/3 of the cabin into emergency floatation incase of a knock down, same theory with the birdwatcher. I really, really like Richard's Chebacco!!

So Christina was admiring how much room was inside this boat, and we got on the subject of cruising around the world. The biggest hurdle seems to be breaking ties with everything holding you to the ground, and making a little bit of money at each port to stock up on food.

Now first off every red blooded american knows that Christina is living with Greg, BUT, she isn't married, so there is always that "steal Greg's girlfriend" fantasy going on in the background.

It turns out that Richard is recently divorced - the conspiracy is afoot! Ok, next hurdle is what to do for money on the trip so the bilges can get filled with canned goods. Richard is some kind of computer whiz fixit guy consultant, and they are always in demand so he doesn't think he would have trouble finding work. Christina is a teacher, perfect - she can teach english to all the kids in foriegn ports which don't have computers.

Then came out an obviously pre-thought plan, Richard said "Do you think MacGregor would give me a mac 26 if I sailed it around the world and chronicled the journey with regular updates and photos?". The plan is sound, satellite phones would provide world wide data links for email and web page updates, a couple of solar panels and he would be set.

"So Christina, would you like to cruise around the world with me?" She said "You know, that does sound fun". Notice how she didn't say "no".

Bogie at 6 o'clock!!!
It is Greg, he is moving in fast in that CLC kayak, and he has a 7' long stick he is going to beat Richard with.




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