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SAILING AWAY Sailing came into my life in the late 1970's. Erik Smyth from the cottage next to the Steelman's cottage had a Sea Snark sailboat. This was a Styrofoam hull covered with plastic. The hull was dished out and the occupants sat in the hull. This boat was only 11½ feet long and had a single sail. Erik asked if I wanted to try it out and I said yes. From that moment on, I was hooked on sailing. I sailed and sailed the little Sea Snark that summer and several summers after that. I must confess that I that there were times that I went over to their cottage while they were not there and borrowed their boat. I couldn't get enough of it. In the early 1980's, I located a couple of Super Porpoise 14' sailboats for sale. These Sunfish clones had been daily rental boats at Huston Woods, an Ohio State Park in Southwestern Ohio. They had seen several years of abuse and needed much attention. I took them both to our house on Stonelick Road near Cincinnati and decided which one that I would fix first. I cannot remember the details on the sail, but somehow JoAnne and Phil helped me get a sail. I worked and worked on that boat and it ended up looking really nice. The sail was in OK shape but someone had painted a Playboy bunny logo on the sail cloth. Gloria was able to convert those bunny ears into the wings of a flying seagull. I located a used trailer and converted it into a sailboat trailer. One day in Cedarville I went out sailing with my sister Cherie. I gave her an assignment and these instructions &ldots; "If the boat starts to tip, let out this rope." &ldots; It did, she didn't, and we were in the water. My glasses came off and sank to the bottom. I dove down and was somehow able to locate them. This has been a fun story to review over the years. The Super Porpoise sailed fine and we learned much by sailing it. I never did get around to fixing up the second of the two boats. I sold them both to a person from New York State in approximately 1994. They had not been used for several years. In about 1982 I located a 16' Chrysler in Northern Kentucky. It was sitting on a farm near a pond. I stopped and talked to the lady. She told me that it had belonged to her husband, but he had gone down to the Bermuda Triangle several years before and had not returned. I think that I bought it for $500 including the trailer. It didn't need nearly as much fixing up as the Super Porpoise. I got some hull cleaner and it looked good. Robyn helped me fix this boat during one of her trips north to Cincinnati. This boat was much bigger than our previous boat and you could actually sit IN it rather than ON it. There is a sailing lake near Cincinnati named Cowan Lake. Gloria, myself, Paul and Robyn took "Rainbow" out for a fun-filled day. We had our lunch, drinks in a cooler and Gloria's purse. We did not know much about the boat and we certainly did not know just how unstable it was. Everything was going as planned until all of a sudden all four of us were in the water. I saw the cooler float by, the lunch was gone and Gloria's purse is still on the bottom of the lake. Luckily that lake had a specially designed boat with a rig on it to upright tipped sailboats and a big pump to remove the water from the hull. It wasn't long before we were all back in the boat minus picnic supplies, purse and pride. Another day after we had more experience with the boat, six of us sailed her at a different lake in Southern Ohio. The six people included Gloria, myself, Cherie, Stacy, Annie and Laura. All went well on that outing. The boat had a normal transom on it and I mounted a little outboard on there. I used the sailboat to troll for Northern Pike. Paul complained that this was not the proper type of boat for fishing. He quit complaining when he hooked into a big pike and was able to land it. When we moved to Northern Ohio in 1985, we towed the Chrysler sailboat up there but I never sailed it in the Cleveland area. Lake Erie seemed just too big for a 16' boat. I sold it in approximately 1989. I was supposed to get $1500 but I only got $1000 of that. The guy did not keep his word and I was too trusting. I could never relax and enjoy sailing this boat because it was just too tippy. Next came the Phantom 14' boat in approximately 1990. I located this boat right here in Avon Lake. It was mostly in good shape, had super rigging and sail, but had fallen off the roof of a car and had several (continued ... next page)
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