So always a sucker for a good deal, I happened upon a 1994  Catalina 18 on San Diego craigslist (which is now a banned site on my computer).

She is a popular boat that is still in production (at a list price of $22k).  The $596 asking price was kinda sketch, but I bit and offered all of $600 and I would take her sight unseen - except for the marginal pictures on CL.  I had visions of blisters having blisters, keel rotted to the core, and some hidden mischief I would not find until I hauled her out of the water.  Was I surprised when I got a call back within an hour a gent indicated the deal was done, and would I collect her asap, or - this being CL, she would be sold to the next responder.

So the next 3 hours were spent scouring CL for a suitable trailer.  Since I had all of an afternoon to get the trailer, setup for a wing/fin keel sailboat (still did not know which – and neither did the owner), I grabbed the closest $200 trailer and set about for the next 5 hours cutting, drilling, bleeding, bolting and wondering..  WTH are you doing…

Trailer kinda setup, all the rope and straps and blocks and wood chunks I could muster, I loaded the daughter, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,  and I in the Expedition and headed the 340 miles for SeaWorld Marina and a meeting at 7am.

The boat was at the bay end of the dock and unreachable when we arrived at 6am.  I was able to grab a 30 min nap while we waited for the owner.  The boat was in good condition as indicated in the ad.  There was no obvious clouds of marine growth hanging below the waterline, and she was clean and uncluttered – perfect for day sail and an overnight or so.

We chatted  a bit, traded paperwork, and I now had my 8^th sailboat (that is – how many I have in hand at the moment).

We sailed – slowly, we motored – slowly, we motor sailed – slowly.  Hmmmmm..  the “the bottom scrubber diver may have missed this month” comment was now  - maybe he meant “this year”?  We were only concerned with beam reaching all day due to the wind and tide conditions.  Daughter drove while I handled the green-with-moss WAY oversized sheets all the way to our berth at Mission Bay Yacht Club.  We were authorized to tie up and spend the night on the dinghy dock.  My plan to use the hoist there to fit it on the trailer was thwarted by no lifting eyes anywhere in the bay area for the keel bolt.  Looks like a float on and hope I have a good eye for specs.

After a night on the boat, a day of milling about in the bay sailing, it was time to pull the boat and see what was really down there.  A nice afternoon sail from MBYC to South Shore boat launch took WAY too long – even with the ebbing tide.  I was starting to get nervous about the bottom.  We finally made the dock, and after 40 minutes of wiggling the boat onto the trailer, we had our first look.. 

Yuck

Oh well, no blisters were evident after a few minutes of scraping the bottom with a random piece of metal.  The stuff came off easy, but what a mess it made – on us, the trailer, and the surrounding parking lot. 

Night was falling, mosquitoes were harassing, and we were both tired.  The mast and gear was readied for a 400 mile drive and we called it a job well done.  Back to Harry for the next 6 hours, arriving back home at 2:30am, safe and sound and tired – and smelling like a decaying reef..