Me the Sea and Thee.

[Roebear]

Greetings!!
In 2003 I decided that I wanted to once again return to the sea having stepped away from it for about 25 years. This current adventure started with me falling in love with a 1932 motorsailer named Seaweed. The effort to buy her was confounded by its owner's unique personality, my own variation on that theme, plus timing, distance, and the slippery nature of cash. The deal fell through. About six months latter i found a nice little Choy Lee H-28 ketch. She was a perfect fit for a single sailor. I enjoyed sailing San Francisco Bay immensely. In a nearby marina I saw a large Colin Archer style vessel covered with several raggedy tarps and looking to be long in the tooth and rather needy. Still it had a quality to it that was rather charming. Mostly that it was heavily built and obviously made to endure the severe weather of the North Atlantic. Three years later she was for sale as a bare hull. By that time my life had taken a few good turns so I acquired the bare hull with the idea of converting it to my office/art studio below and a character pirate ship on deck. What fun. More changes found me getting married and buying a home with its own deep water dock. But the big game changer was getting Cancer. We beat it! So I decided to restore that Colin Archer to cruising condition and sail away! Her name is La Creole and is 120 years old. Heavily built of teak on iron frames riveted iron floors and bulkheads. She started life as a German coastal freighter on the Baltic and part of her life includes as a yacht in Casa Blanca, sailed by Bernard Motessier, and being a Turkish pirate ship, before docking in SF Bay in 1974. As of right now La Creole is ready for sea trials and many fresh air inspections. Next year starts our offshore cruising. Oh, and that motorsailer I first fell in love with? Ten years after that buying fiasco, I found her on the hook in Washington. For sale. My wife bought her for a Christmas present to me. What a gal!! I'll tell you a story about Seaweed one day, She has important history locally and nationally too.
All the best,
Roebear

[maxingout]

Good looking character yachts.

Glad to hear that you beat the cancer!

[Steadman Uhlich]

Ahoy and Howdy and welcome to CF!

I enjoyed reading your introduction post.

I encourage you to copy the text you posted to your CF Profile page "About" tab for future visitors to see. Also put up some photos of your boats there too.

I hope you enjoy your time here and I look forward to more of your writing and seeing more of your boat.

[landlockedsquid]

132 year old ex turkish pirate ship?
What a cool boat to be sailing. Would it be to much trouble to through up a youtube tour video? I would love to see this boat.