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| As listed on Craigslist November/2011 |
Locating "Maverick"
While paging through yacht listings one morning in October of 2011, I stumbled across a boat in central Florida that had been posted just a few hours prior. It stated that a dutch built 42' steel sailboat was within hours of being cut-up for scrap and that the owner was making a last minute push to sell it and its contents "as-is where-is". The shape of the metal work appeared (to me anyways) to have been built by master metal workers in a full ship yard and it clearly had the potential to cruise any ocean on this planet. Possibly the boat I had been looking for for over 25 years.
Further online searches located a friendly sounding woman who was (sadly) in the midst of selling her recently deceased brothers estate. Among her challenges was that she was running out of time to find a new home for his old steel friend. After speaking with her directly a promise was made that the salvage team and marine scrappers would be put on hold for 48 hours if I made my way south for a visit. I quickly called into work to let them know I might be a bit late... I had a detour.
Arriving at the boat the following afternoon, I met the family of owners who handed me a dust mask and warned me about the molds inside. Then, looking around by flashlight it was disappointingly clear why nobody else had taken this project on. A full color spectrum of mold spores ran the length of the interior with textures ranging from dust-like particles that could be raised with the slightest passing draft, to leather-like growths that couldn't be budged with a putty knife. The hull had obviously been sitting unopened, wet inside and out, in the jungles of Florida for far too long.
After a whirlwind inspection inside and out the sunlight was gone and the mosquito population of the region dove down the hatchways for dinner. My return plane ticket was ticking away the few hours I had left - and it was becoming apparent that if this vessel was to transfer ownership it would have to be by noon the following day, leaving one afternoon to pack things up as secure as possible, catch a few hours rest and jump on the plane back to New England - and then explain the whole saga to my wife which would prove to be the biggest challenge of them all.
The next morning a flurry of phone calls was made in an attempt to understand the logistics and expenses of having 34,000 lbs of scrap iron picked up from crimeland central florida and delivered North to Vermont via overland carrier. It was far more complicated than I had imagined due to the sharply bending local roadways and the right angle driveway into the property.
It was clearly the largest gamble I had ever taken in my life and my stomach was churning over all of the unknowns. I was thoroughly exhausted from the combined effects of my gorilla style yacht inspection and the horrible gas station chicken. However, an offer was made and shortly thereafter, somehow, I managed to process the fact that I quickly became the owner of 16 tons of potential scrap -the entire lot sitting in a yard that had been robbed of many high value items within the past past 30 days. The boat had no locks, and in three days NOBODY would be around to oversee any of it. Hardly what I imagined as the first chapter in my book 'Boaterbliss'.
With LOTS of help from a family friend and the very kind sellers we beat back the mosquitoes, pulled the floorboards and packed a deep bilge with the highest valued hardware. Progressively junkier items piled on toward the top until at last the boat was nearly full to the overhead. We took extra effort to tangle large broken spars, old running rigging and lifelines on the top of the pile so that if/when anyone would look down the hatch with the intention of removing anything they would give up on the idea before they started. The final delivery down the unlockable hatch was a horribly stinky array of overflowing garbage bags from the homestead that was being emptied. It was an effective crime deterrent. A full month would pass before anyone came to move the boat, yet the entire boat and contents arrived in Vermont as hoped. Wow... if all of Maverick's adventures measure up like this it promises to be one wild ride!
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| Houston Boyd - Former owner. Imported Maverick to US waters. |
To Dierdra and Beverly Boyd: A heart felt thank you.
As Maverick makes her way around the globe I will remain hopeful that you will join us for a leg - perhaps you will gain a sense of the wonders of the ocean... as had your brother.
J-
