WHAT??????

(TLDR? We rescued a dilapidated Sam L Morse finished boat for a price less than half of what we paid for Calypso almost 30 years ago. We’ll fix her up and she will be our “East Coast” boat while Calypso is the “go far” boat.)

I started writing the whole back story on our love affair with the Bristol Channel Cutter but decided that needed its own post, which I’ll link here when it’s done.

Long story slightly less long, though? We got word that a BCC in the Deltaville area was about to come on the market. It was a boat we’d actually seen a few years earlier, on a rare summer sail up the Piankatank; even then, it was rough and showing signs of neglect. I’m not sure she’s had any real love since then.

Bristol Channel Cutters, especially ones finished by the Sam L Morse yard, are a rare breed. The workmanship of the yard is legendary, including details like bronze vent plates in settee backs. Ferenc Mate, who also wrote “World’s Best Sailboats” (which also showcases the BCC), chose a photo of a BCC in the South Pacific as his cover shot for “Best Boats to Build or Buy”. They are small, yes, especially compared to the modern boats many people gravitate towards, but they’re exquisitely designed to take 2 people anywhere in the world.

Calypso was built when the yard was only offering hull and deck. Her finish is, at this point, a mix of stuff from Bill Clark Custom Yachts in San Diego, her second owner’s modifications, and a lot of our own ingenuity. It’s not awful (at least not the parts that are finished), but it’s definitely not the standard set by Sam Morse and company.

Never in our wildest dreams did we think we could afford a Sam Morse boat. They command a premium; there’s a 1986 boat for sale on YachtWorld for $150,000. We love these boats, but if we were going to spend $150,000 on a boat it would be a bit larger than 28’. There’s a budgetary reason we’re going on the boat we’re going on!

Another local BCC owner, someone we’re working with on a bow roller for our boats, called to let us know about a BCC in really rough shape coming on the market soon. “It’s Sadie,” Donna explained. “Looking on the internet it is a 1995 boat. The broker wants me to check it out because I know BCCs, but he thinks it can’t be worth more than $20,000 or so.”

We agreed that a BCC, even in rough shape, is worth more than that, and off we went to investigate BCC “Sadie.” A 1995 boat? 6’6” headroom? The listing photos we saw made us scratch our heads, wondering how on earth a boat could have gone to pieces so fast. Still, dreaming of head room for Jeremy (who at 6’2” can stand up straight only in the hatch openings on Calypso), we dropped by the brokerage on July 3 and asked if we could go see the boat. Jonathan showed us photos he’d taken, warning us of the condition of the exterior woodwork, the mast, and the bottom. Those photos made us realize that the listing was not of the same boat. What were we dealing with, exactly? Is there another Sadie? Who names a BCC the same as another one anyway? And why can’t we find ANY information at all, other than that listing which isn’t really of this boat, on this boat?

Sati, as near as we can tell from talking with Paul and Maureen, the owners, was the dream personified for them. They’d planned a Caribbean cruise, had provisioned her up and hired a captain to come with them, and then a hurricane blew through and put an end to the trip. Between worries about health and weather, and wondering if they really knew enough about sailing . . . Sati sat on the dock down a steep hill from their home, reminding them daily of what Paul considers one of his biggest failures.

Of course we bought her. No, we didn’t pay even the $20,000 that had initially been suggested. She’s been moved to the yard where Calypso was until a week ago, scraped of oysters and barnacles, and emptied out. She’s also been covered up with the full custom canvas cover that unfortunately had never been used - a lot of the damage done would have been avoided. Oh well.

We’ve decided on a name, too, in case you didn’t catch it in the first caption. She’s Mischief. The dinghy? Marauder. And yes, we’ll do the full on naming ceremony too.

Jonathan, the broker, told us that when Maureen came in to talk to him about listing the boat, she asked him to “Find someone to love the boat.” This, exactly, is our plan. We’ll fix her up, from mast to exterior wood and all points in and around, and then we’ll sail her. She’ll be based on the East Coast of the US, meaning items like a watermaker or the 20 lb propane tanks we’re fitting on Calypso aren’t critical at all. She already has a Monitor windvane, a newer model than the one we sold off of Calypso’s transom. We’ll probably focus on places like New England and Canada with her, basing her out of either the northern end of the Bay or in Deltaville when we’re sailing Calypso in places further afield.

We’re still planning on a Maine cruise on Calypso, leaving as soon as our “get her seaworthy” projects are done. Mischief is helping a bit with those, as weird as it sounds - one of the things we consider essential is a dodger, and ours crumbled to bits about a year ago. We’re borrowing Mischief’s for the trip north! When we get back in the fall, we’ll find a yard where we can have both boats out next to each other and work away; if Mischief, as we suspect, needs to have her hull dried out completely for a barrier coat job, we’ll head south on Calypso and play while Mischief is drying out. There’s a lot of planned flexibility in our future!

Are we a little crazy, taking on a boat that needs some significant work when we already have a boat which still needs a lot of love? Probably. You’re welcome to remind me that we jumped in with eyes wide open, when I complain about the amount of time we’re pouring in. But we’ve got a yard-finished BCC in the family. It’s a boat Jeremy can stand up in.

And it’s a boat, like her sister, that we can love on.