re: the story about the "was a sailboat"

Bill Zeitler (WZeitler@compuserve.com)
Sat, 5 Dec 1998 08:10:00 -0500


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West Wight Potter Website at URL
http://www.lesbois.com/wwpotter/
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>To: Bill Zeitler

>Like Ted, I would like to hear the story about the "was a
>sailboat". Sounds like it has some interesting background.

>Rye Gewalt
>Springfield, VA

Rye...and the rest of the pottering gang,

I don't know about you-all....but when somebody starts a story by
saying..." to make a long story short "...I start thinking...." yea....this
will take about 15 minutes and/or ten pages of text " ! ;-D>

But....I _ really _ will keep it short as I had not intended on "
publishing " to the entire group this story.!

Nimble Boat Company in Florida has been making a variety of boats [ both
sail and some mini-trawlers ] for quite some time. Around last October [
1997 ] they added and starting manufacturing the Hen line of sailboats
which had been designed many years ago and built by a variety of builders.
[ the Mud Hen, Marsh Hen and the largest of the series....the 21 foot Bay
Hen catboat ].

I'm told many of the Nimble boats are excellent...some even award winning!

However, as to my _ particular- Bay Hen boat....ordered __factory - new__
last spring [ Hull # 6 by Nimble ] I was severely disappointed in a
consideralble (!) number of aspects of design, materials, workmanship.
and factory/dealer attitude to the problems.

As to my _ particular boat _ and my _ particular transaction__ with the
Nimble factory and the Nimble dealer _ [ note, I'm not generalizing !!!
]....I had a terrible, terrible [ and well documented ] time I want to
forget....so I finally said " the hell with it / them all ", took off
and mothballed the mast, boom, gaff, and sail.....locked up the twin bildge
boards, did all the needed repairs myself [ on this _ new_ boat to make
it safe, dry and usable IMHO ] and now have a extremely unique and really
good-time shoal draft, sharpie hull, mini-cruising boat in which although
now a 7 knot stinkpotter [ with my 5 HP / 4 cycle Honda ]...I'm having a
ball !

I do miss sailing a bit and may perhaps one day convert it back to a
catboat but for the time being it is serving me very well in its present
configeration. It's an easy conversion [ 1/2 day at most ].

The main lesson I learned [ at least for me ] is that if I ever buy another
brand new - ship - from - the factory - boat....I will actually visit
the factory BEFORE placing an order to see exactly how the boat of
interest is actually built, to see details of construction one cannot see
after the boat is built , not to rely very much on brochures, dealer's
sales pitches...and even demos of already-built boats ! I will also
contact [ and listen to ] more existing owners of the boat I have an
interest in ! Live and learn!

Bill Zeitler
A potterer at heart [ in the general sense of the phrase " to potter "
...ah, um ]
Previous 1994 P -15 # 2060 " Just Wight "
Now in a converted was-a-Bay-Hen 21 " Shyacht-Z "
Wilmington, Delaware

PS: Both the U. S. Coast Guard @ Washington, DC HQ and the Legal /
Customer Protection Department of Boat/U.S. found many of the deails "
quite interesting ! " ;-(...but for now...I'm happy ;-D>