As I promised several people on this web site I would keep them informed of our purchasing a new Hunter 27 sailboat. The background is that my wife and I are getting older, perhaps better in quality but still older and slower. I noticed a big change in me when I had to jump down from my Hunter 380 to the docks when coming into our slip. I could get the boat tied up but it was stressful and I found myself then not taking the boat out as much to go sailing. The Hunter 380 is a beautiful cruising boat perfect for long cruises up the coast but we weren't doing that anymore--staying closer to home. So a change in boats became obvious. As mentioned in my last post, we chose a Hunter 27 for several reasons. We had had four previous Hunters and had appreciated the quality. And as well, the previous boats had held their re-sale value for us. So the Hunter 27 was chosen. I wrote earlier about all the goodies and toys that we wanted on the new boat and several of you made suggestions and improvements. I thank you for your erudite comments. Buying a new boat always reminds me of a Strauss operetta. Comic to be sure. First the owner comes on stage and sings about what he wants, followed shortly by a salesman who agrees with the potential owner on everything. Perfect duet. The enters the salesman's boss (the heavy) and by singing low raises the price. Finally in the first scene, they all agree in a trio. Enter the trucker and the yard crew (chorus) and you pretty much get the scene. The wife or admiral gets to sing several songs something like "either it or me" and that is pretty much the picture. This time I saw the buying of a new boat somewhat like a TV series or a movie. This is what has happen so far to date. Our new Hunter 27 left Florida several Friday's ago amidst wild fires and the truck headed north to the mid-Atlantic states somewhere to pick up another and probably larger boat. Then it turned west and headed directly into Tornado alley. They don't write scripts like this anymore. Fade to California line where the truck is stopped because it doesn't have the proper permits. Enter a California Department of Transportation sweet young thing in a tight uniform who says, "You can't bring that friggen truck into California without the proper figgen permits!!!!" It has great love scene written all over it. You figure it out how the driver got the correct permits. Next scene is big boat is unloaded in San Diego and truck heads north toward Seattle amidst...............wild fires? What is with this director and writer and wild fires???? Can you picture it? Truck doing seventy with our hero boat bouncing along on the flat bed staying just ahead of the wild fires. This has action soap opera written all over it. New scene. Truck is driving on I-5 heading north south of Tacoma (do you like the north south stuff--great writing). Heavy Traffic. Situation all normal. Driver looks at his watch--it's a quarter to three. Friday afternoon on the freeway. Ohhhhhhboy! More looking at wrist watch. Close up of sweep second hand which melts into a different watch but still an extreme close up of a second hand and it is Nigel, head guy at the ship yard who is wondering where is the friggen truck that they are suppose to unload and it's getting close to four and the guys want to go home for the weekend or at least they want to go and have a beer. No truck. Truck is stuck in Seattle traffic. Truck finally gets to CSR shipyard and the gate is........closed and locked. He has to wait for the whole weekend--what crap. Driver parks truck and walks to a nearby cafe which is empty except for a gal (looks like the same actress at the California stop) in a tight waitress uniform behind the counter. "What would you like, Stud?" Big fade. End of episode. This is how new owners wait for their new boat. Our new Hunter 27 is now in Seattle--painted with the wrong bottom paint but that is coming off and new ablative paint is going on. We saw the boat last Tuesday afternoon. Well, we tried to see some of the boat. They have big two by sixes leaning up against the boat and those are covered with a gazillion yards of plastic wrap to keep paint from spreading. Nigel (there really is a guy in charge of the ship yard--very knowledgeable as well) got us a ladder and up Lynn, my wife and I went. I immediately checked and all the winches were the correct two speed self tailing and as I looked around I noticed stainless steel handrails on the cabin top. Those weren't in the brochure nor on the boat we looked at in Edmonds. New addition. Then we went below. Big surprise. Big, BIG surprise. The interior is mostly warm cherry. The few cabinets are cherry as well as the doors. The cherry is cheery! (Sorry I always wanted to write that line) The overhead is off white soft stuff that Hunter is using on all its boats now. The cushions are a very nice dark rough blue. Contrasts nicely with the wood. All in all, a very pleasant interior. I am already thinking of the time when I will sit below and listen to Tchikos...... Tcychoski.....Tchaiko.... Bach and have a cup of good coffee. Two to three weeks in the yard while they install most of the stuff, mast, electronics, etc. A young designer, Iverson, has to come from Olympia and design and build the dodger. We're going down Monday and look at her again. Costly with the gas but I want to get another feel of her for our planning. Now here is a puzzlement for you all to solve. I want to have a Garmin 478 GPS installed on this boat. List price at West Marine is $999. I know the guys at the local store and know they will meet most prices but this time they couldn't. I found prices ranging from the upper $600s and a number of sources in the mid $700s. All below what West Marine pays wholesale for the unit. Even Amazon.com was below West Marines price along with Defender. Why the big range of prices? I think it was Abb of Maine marine that had the best price but they charge an arm and leg for mailing costs. Interesting dilemma. Sorry to waste your time with some of this writing but did want to bring this list up to date. Obvious I've not had enough sailing time lately. My best to you all, Les Les Blackwell Waiting to sail out of Bellingham
. Keep up the good humor and look forward to the coffee and... Bach. Rick D.