The search is over. Yesterday, we bought a 1964 O'Day Mariner in Connecticut. I'm hoping to bring her home this week.
The boat has a white hull, light blue deck and dark blue cabintop. We actually paid a couple of hundred dollars less than our goal when we started the search. But we know that soon, we will have to give her a new centerboard. So in the end, we came close to hitting our mark.
On the way to Vermont on Friday, we stopped in Westport to inspect the boat. Leaving the Merritt Parkway, we wound along tree-shaded country roads until we found ourselves in hills where exquisite stone walls bordered many properties and, curiously, every building seemed to have a cupola!
At the end of one such lane, we found the Mariner, sitting prettily atop a sturdy-looking trailer. The owner was washing her down, a trick that a photographer friend of mine used last year to sell my 25-year-old motorcycle. The hosing gives the object you're peddling a wet-T-shirt look, you might say.
We went inside the owner's home -- removing our shoes -- and into the basement, where he showed me the mast, rudder, tiller and an engine that might -- or might not -- go with the boat.
Then he laid the sails out on the carpeted basement floor. That's something I could never do. Our basement is much too cluttered.
Everything seemed to be in order, and the price was so low that I was torn.
We were planning on stopping in Massachusetts on the way home yesterday to look at another Mariner, a newer one with more sails and some other upgrades. The price for that one was much, much more. I informed this owner that we would be doing that but that I liked his boat.
Then on Saturay I got an email from Massachusetts saying that boat had been sold.
When we got to Westport yesterday, I asked how recently the wheel bearings on the trailer had been greased. The owner wasn't sure. And the trailer did not have a legitimate license plate. So I decided to come back when I had my own plate and to grease the wheels myself.
The next step will be trailering the boat to New Jersey. And then there will be the launching. Each should provide blog material on its own.
I think we're both happy with the outcome. She's a pretty little boat, and we can visualize grandchildren aboard, along with their parents.