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Brian Pickton
My name is Brian Pickton and I have been asked to moderate theBeneteauOwners.net web site. It's always nice to be able to put something back into an activity that I get so much out of. I don't consider myself an expert sailor, but I am a skilled enthusiast and keen student and have a small amount of experience. I have also found the Beneteau owners I've met to be a pretty friendly and helpful group, as are the dealers, so I look forward to moderating the site for you. The usual rules will apply: no flamers or rude language will be posted, but a frank exchange of views are always welcome. Oh yes, and no trade names.A little background. I was born in Nova Scotia, Canada. Like the character in the Jimmy (All You Can Eat For a $1.49) Buffet tune, I'm the son of the son of a sailor. My father was in the Canadian navy and his father had been a commercial fishermen. With all of that background you would think I had learned to sail early in life, but I didn't learn to sail until I was thirty - maybe because they were both power boaters. Like most forces brats, we traveled a lot.How did we get to be here living on our boat in the Caribbean? Life dealt us a lemon and we've used it to make lemonade. She Who Must Be Obeyed (at least that's what it says on her T-shirt) summarizes it this way: 'We went to school for 20 years, we worked for 20 years, and now were going to take 20 years off!' The reality was that we were both lawyers (don't go into cardiac arrest - we're actually recovering lawyers, there's a 12 step programme) and when I got sick with what ultimately were diagnosed as two different lung diseases. The options were dragging around an oxygen bottle leading to a double lung transplant or move to a cleaner environment, like an island in the Caribbean. The best choice according to my doctor would be to live on a boat in the middle of the ocean.Well here we are, living on a boat in the middle of the ocean next to a Caribbean island. You can't beat that with a stick. By the way, my health is fine, thank you. I really enjoyed practicing law, and at the time felt pretty hard done by. As a lifestyle though, living on a boat in the tropics is better than being a high powered lawyer any day. Way, way better. In fact, it‚s better than anything I can think of as a lifestyle.So how did we come to buy a Beneteau? After doing a lot of research on paper I had concluded that a catamaran was the perfect boat for us. That's right, a catamaran. The plan was to buy a Privilege 48 and go into the charter boat business while my health recovered. I had planned to buy the boat in France and sail it to the Caribbean. Then Privilege called and said they would be bringing one to the Annapolis boat show, so we decided to wait a few more months and do that instead. We went to Annapolis and liked the cat, but the price had gone up $75,000.00 while we waited, and that was enough to break the bank. We spent a day pouting and then waddled back to the boat show to see what else was on offer. That's when we found the Beneteau display and fell in love with the Clipper 51 model.Have you ever noticed that you can spend 20 minutes dithering over which wine to order with a meal, but will make a decision that changes your life in under a minute? See how long it takes you to read this sentence: 'The cost of the Clipper is within spitting distance of the cat, so we can't afford it either, but a used Beneteau might be within reach.' So we did a little more research. My personal requirement was that the boat had to be a good sailer, a good sea keeper. I was impressed by what I learned about Beneteaus, particularly the First series, often referred to as the cruiser-racer series. These boats had a reputation as good sailors and have the PHRF numbers to prove it. As a builder that put a lot of boats into charter fleets, Beneteau had learned to make their boats strong and durable and the systems accessible. And as for anesthetics, well there are no good, ugly, sailboats, are there? In 1993 we wound up with a First 456 model and I would buy it again in a heart beat. The boat has exceeded my every hope and expectation for it.We bought the boat in Florida and trucked it to the Pacific Northwest, to Point Roberts, Washington. This cut the commute down from a 7000 mile round trip to a paltry 1700 miles. We were driving that on long weekends getting the boat ready to leave. We sailed in the northwest and finally pulled the pin and sailed away four years ago. Since then we've cruised down the west coast of the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, through the canal to the San Blas Islands, along the coasts of Columbia and Venezuela, through the ABC islands to Trinidad and Tobago, and up the island chain past Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines to St. Lucia and Martinique. Right now we plan to base out of St. Lucia and when we finally swallow the hook may even settle here, but that won't be for many years to come. It's taken us four years to get here, we're not slow...just thorough! I look forward to trying to help you with your inquiries about Beneteau's and meeting all of the Beneteau owners who come through St. Lucia - see you on the water!Brian