Wind Swept Lady...and the search continues!

It's October and the weather remains beautiful.  Dave subscribes to Good Old Boat magazine and receives email links to their online magazine.  I let him know when they have arrived but, mostly, we delete them.  Dave, however, reads the hard copies cover to cover.

We are training for the Mt. Dessert Island Marathon to be held on October 16th in Bar Harbor, ME. We've been planning this run for over a year after not getting into the 2010 race. We are excited for this beautiful run through Acadia National Park.  I travel to CT to visit family the week before the race. Dave plans to meet me on Friday October 14 for the long drive North.  Dave calls me to say he has received an email from Good Old Boat with an offer of a free boat.  We decide to contact the owner.

At the finish
MDI Marathon  10/16/11

Good Old Boat sent Dave this email message indicating that a boat owner in Michigan City, IN has a Seafarer 34 he is interested in finding a new home for:

Seafarer 34 free to a good home

John Bougearel is offering his 1973 Seafarer 34 for free to a good home. He has been unable to sell Seaquest and would like to see her moved to a new home and stored there before winter sets in. Seaquest is located in Michigan City, Indiana, at the southern tip of Lake Michigan.

He says:
A 2003 survey appraised the boat at $27,000, when it still needed a fix on the rudder and a fix on the starboard deck. Both those repairs have been done, plus a new headsail and roller furling system indicates the boat is every bit of good condition it was in in 2003 if not better.

The boat is now rigged as a sloop, not as a yawl. The headsail is new, the main is not new and is sized for a yawl, so a bit small for a sloop rigging.

The cockpit needs a sanding and repainting and there is a small soft patch on the starboard deck that I repaired, but need to sand a smidge and paint. With the boat on the hard since 2009, the diesel fuel needs to be removed and the tank cleaned/scrubbed. Other than that, she is serviceable, in great shape, and just in need of its regular maintenance. 

For further information and more photos, John can be contacted at: jb2@structurallogic2.com, 312-618-2290.

Here's wishing everyone a beautiful fall season!

Karen, Jerry, and the Good Old Boat crew

I contact JB but my emails are written as though I am Dave.  I ask for more photos and details about the boat.  JB provides everything and tells me that he is considering giving the boat to one of only a few candidates.  He says he will be making a decision within the next two weeks and asks if we wish to be considered.  Dave and I decide to drive to Michigan City to view the boat.  It was a beautiful day for a drive.  We got to Michigan City after lunch and met JB in the marina.  Wind Swept Lady was once a beautiful boat.  JB had let her fall into disrepair and it quickly became apparent that he may not own this boat outright.  It appeared that he, at the very least, owed storage fees.  We spent a few hours with JB, including lunch at a brew pub in town.  We let him know that we would be great new owners of this project boat but as soon as we got in our car we both admitted that we wanted nothing to do with this man, his boat and/or whatever was really going on.  Dave thought I should email JB to let him know we were no longer interested but I decided to wait to see what JB would do.  We never heard from JB again.

Interesting note; Dave and I drove to FL in January 2012 to run the Ragnar Florida Keys Relay Race. On our drive home we are 99% sure that we saw Wind Swept Lady on the side of the highway at a MVD weigh station/check point.  It appeared that it was being held there, possibly for being transported without the correct permits.  Seems like a dodged bullet if you ask me...