“Gusty” – 1960 something Lido 14
Our first boat started with a pistol. I know that sounds like a line from a country song and we DID live in Montana….but it’s really true. It went something like this:
1) Mark saw an ad for a canoe on Craigslist that someone was willing to trade for a gaming computer.
2) Mark calls and offers the gentleman a pistol instead of the gaming computer in trade for the canoe. (Sounds logical, right?)
3) Gentleman accepts offer, we go to his house (with said pistol) and the deal goes down.
4) Larry mentions offhand that he also has a sailboat in the backyard. We offer him $500, he says he’ll only take $300. SOLD!
That’s Gusty’s story. We fixed her up and started sailing the following summer…..which made us want a bigger boat (of course!)
“La Brisa” – 1975 Balboa 20
After deciding to step up to a bigger boat, we came up with an extensive list of criteria for the next boat. These mostly revolved around being sturdy (we wanted the option to take her to Puget Sound), yet light (we were limited by our puny 4 cylinder Tacoma). Many of those well thought out criteria were thrown out the window when we saw photos of La Brisa. What can we say, the heart leads the mind in many things….love, passion and sailboats!
We drove to Kansas to get her (it was on our route) and sailed her practically every weekend that summer. Following in Gusty’s footsteps, she has encouraged the dream to step into the next sailing chapter of our lives together. She has now been passed on to a good home on the banks of Canyon Ferry Reservoir neat Helena, MT.
