Things happen...

I was working a job I didn't like, and needed something to do on the weekends, something to get me out of the house, out of town.

Yachtworld had daysailers, lots of them. But it seemed people wanted a lot for them, particularly with a (California licensed) trailer. That's what happens when you boat shop in early summer, I suppose.

So I started surfing, looking at pictures of Roberts steel boats (ugly, with a capital 'Ugh') and ended up looking at the picture of a cute double ender.

And the price was low. Well, low for 27', not for a daysailer. But so low that it was clearly a mistake and it was OK for me to email the broker, because it was clearly a mistake and the boat was really out of my reach. I could indulge in a fantasy of a pocket blue water cruiser without the danger of having to actually buy one.

Clearly.

The Marie Virginia is an aft-cabin model, hull #106. She was the Marlow Gambler when I bought her - there is probably a story there, but I never met the seller, just the agent, so the backstory remains a mystery.

My intention, two years ago, was to pick up a daysailer on a trailer. After ten years of half ownership in a Coronado 25, up in a Frisco bay slip, the costs & hassle of a big boat were wearing me down. Nineteen feet or under, with a 5hp outboard, on a trailer that I could park in my side yard - for free. That was the idea.

So, off to Yachtworld I went.