Castaway
A Coronado 27

The Castaway was purchased as a "total loss" from the insurance company. It was a brand new boat that had just been commissioned over at Lake Carslile in Illinois. During a severe storm, the boat broke away from its mooring and crashed into a steel dock and broke its nose and sank in about 20' of water. Being young and foolish, Karen and I saw the boat in a boatyard in Portage de Sioux and remarked that we were sure glad that we didn't own it. The yard owner who had been showing us some smaller boats more in our price range said that for a "handy person" this could be a great investment. He mentioned that he had ordered most everthing that was needed to repair the boat and offered free yard time to complete the project. Four hours later Karen and I were the proud owners of our first sailing yacht. We replaced about six feet of the bow, straightened the rudder, found and restored the Chrysler outboard, repaired millions of dings from resting on rocks, and bought a completely new interior. We kept and sailed the Castaway from October 73 until March 1990. We sold her for for twice what we had in her, but her real value was the people we met and the places we sailed. She served us well and taught us a lot about owning a boat. She is still sailing somewhere at the lake of the ozarks.

The Family Affair
A Catalina 34

With the birth of our son, Kris, Karen wanted to have a more comfortable boat. We had been going around to the various boat shows in St. Louis and Chicago looking for a boat with a certain combination of comfort and sailing ability. One evening a transient boat stopped at Palisades harbor and invited Karen and I in for some conversation and some local knowledge.

We were both immediately amazed by the amount of room below decks of the boat. I was impressed by the quality of fittings and the appearance of the boat. About a year later, we were looking at a Catalina 30 for sale locally when a frend said that a 34 was available because the new owner had suffered a severe back injury and had to give up the boat. In a matter of hours the boat was ours. This time all we had to do was paint the bottom and have her shipped out to the harbor. What a boat. Perhaps two sizes two big for the river, but what comfort and though not a racing boat, able to turn a good show of speed under the right conditions.

The "Affair" has most of the creature comforts of home though on a smaller scale. She is airconditioned, Karen has a two burner oven and a microwave in the galley. The Vberth has been converted into Boat Theatre with a 13" TV/VCR with Bose surround sond system. Outside there is an 8' sailing dink on davits for fun and stern anchor duty. It seems like we just bought her, but this is our 10th year of ownership, and she has served us well with a minimum of maintenance. Kris is now big enough to handle the sheets and winches and is enjoying learning about sailing. We're at Pallisades here in the little Sea Ray runabout after a day skiing with Kris.

When we first purchased the Castagway we took it to Harbor Point and stayed there for many happy years, but the harbor went to a condominium format and it didn't make sense to keep a boat in a slip that cost more than the boat, so we moved to Pallisades, a beautiful harbor in one of the most scenic parts of the Alton Pool.

This year we purchased a new slip in our old harbor to bring all of our toys nearer to home. Here's the 'Affair just after she pulled into her new slip for the first time.

Recently a friend dropped by and mentioned that a friend of his had moved to Florida and was interested in selling his slip, so we made contact with him and soon the arrangements were made to return to a much improved Harbor Point. We are glad to be back as the harbor is once again only a couple of minutes from the house. We truly believe that we are some lucky people to have all of our favorite things so close at hand.

Sometime in the mid 70s on a whim, Karen and I bought an old Sunfish from Jeopardy host Art Flemming while he was working for a local radio station.

Over the years, we put together the missing pieces and had some fun around the house with it. We sailed the "fish" in the backyard during the floods and when we were done, we just would just lean it against the shed and forget about it until the next flood.

Kris sailed in it during the flood of 93 and 95 and had a chance to play with one recently during a scout outing. He had so much fun he asked if we would help him get the old fish up to reasonable shape. I said ok, so we spend a week on gelcoat, found the brand new sail that we had never used, and bought some new pieces so it would look a little better.

In our travels, we got a SunFish trailer at St. Louis Sail that would work for getting it around, and bingo. Kris is in business. Here he is sailing in Creve Cour lake on a very quiet Friday afternoon. It is his first trip out with all the new stuff. The storage wrinkles are still on the old brand new sail. As any true sailor when there are two boats out they are both racing. He is having a great time with his "found" boat. This fall has been a lot of fun for both him and us. Pal the Golden also likes the trip to the lake and swims and plays in the water.