Amazing personal coincidence

Oct 9, 2008
1,742
Bristol 29.9 Dana Point
I'm the annoyingly proud owner of the last Bristol 29.9 built. Possibly the last sailboat under 30ft ever built by the pioneers of fiberglass sailboats, Clint and Everette Pearson.

There were 216 boats made. So while not rare, it's probably not a common sight on a given waterway or ocean.

The circle of life intersects other circles in a random way, but they cross paths constantly and consistently, we just don't always see it.

My mom sent me a thumb drive with all their old pictures scanned to it. A large lot, covering several decades.

During my rapid peruse of the pictures, I stopped after skipping past a particular one. Then clicked back. What I then gaped at was an image of me and my mom on a small skiff, bouncing around on the Chesapeake near Annapolis, in 1981.

There were 3 pictures of that day. Only one of which had a boat in the background.

The sailboat in the background..... destiny.

This might bore some, but for me it was a fabulous coincidence.
 

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Oct 26, 2008
6,432
Catalina 320 Barnegat, NJ
That's pretty freaking amazing! And, you look like your mom. So, do you think it was just by chance that you decided to take the boat with you to California rather than selling her in Maryland? (I think something other than chance, perhaps)
 

Gunni

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Mar 16, 2010
5,937
Beneteau 411 Oceanis Annapolis
Kismet! These are the outcomes that indicate a life in balance.
 
Oct 9, 2008
1,742
Bristol 29.9 Dana Point
That's pretty freaking amazing! And, you look like your mom. So, do you think it was just by chance that you decided to take the boat with you to California rather than selling her in Maryland? (I think something other than chance, perhaps)
Fun to ponder.
There were no boats available in ca that I wanted. Although I spent little time looking. In the end, in Annapolis I'd always dreamt of sailing her on the pacific. So I just followed that.

Btw the picture was taken July 1981. We bought our boat in July 2011. Exactly 30 years later, and only about 10 miles from where the picture was taken.
 
Oct 2, 2008
3,811
Pearson/ 530 Strafford, NH
Deja vous, with a certain je ne sais quoi. Nice story to ponder indeed.

All U Get
 
Jul 13, 2010
1,100
Precision 23 Perry Hall,Baltimore County
Skipper are you saying it is your boat or just another Bristol? Either way ,pretty cool.
 
Aug 2, 2005
1,155
Pearson 33-2 & Typhoon 18 Seneca Lake
If the boat in the picture is YOUR boat.....:eek:......We now return the control of your television set to you!
 
Oct 9, 2008
1,742
Bristol 29.9 Dana Point
Skipper are you saying it is your boat or just another Bristol? Either way ,pretty cool.
Was just another one. Mine was built 3 years after the picture, in 1984.

But you have to consider the incredible odds. Of the millions of registered boats in the U.S., on all the VAST waterways and seas, in a 15 second encounter 34 years ago, one of (at the time) less than 200 of the model in existence, happens to pass exactly off our stern, at a moment when the only picture of a boat that day had been taken. Film camera, so pictures were not as numerous back then.

We were only on the bay that day, in a rented skiff. I was in N. VA for the summer, and we had gone to Annapolis for the day.

30 years later, I find my boat after a year of looking. And then, 4 years after purchase, her sistership turns up in an old rare photo, in a bizarre foreshadow.