First things first. I found the perfect boat project

Here is my first look at my new sailboat project.

To learn a little about me I have had many boats over my lifetime, in fact all of them only power boats ranging from 14' to 37'. For the previous 2 years I was boatless. My quest was to find a 37' Cigarette Topgun project boat. This was one of those boats I have always dreamed of owning but never did. However, with gas pricing at my neighborhood gas stations approaching $4 per gallon, that's $6-$7 at the fuel dock, I knew I had to get a grip on reality and decided this was not the season in my life for this type of boat.

Still wanting a boat, I started down the sailboat lane and realized the fantastic benefits this could bring both for my family and still live my boating dream no matter what a gallon of gas or diesel costs. During my research, I came to the realization that I could actually take a year off working and sail where ever and when ever I wanted to go.  That was enough to take me into the sailing direction and never look back. Now I only had to find the perfect sailing vessel to fulfill my new dreams.

Then I had to face the music and realized I didn't have the money to head out to the boat show and buy what i wanted.  So the workaround was I needed to find a project sailboat that allowed me to utilize many of my previous project boat repair skills I have learned working on several of my past project boats.

Well in early 2008 I found her. She was a 1979 44' Kelly Peterson Sloop Cutter I found on on eBay. It met a few of my requirements; 1) it was over 40' long and had two staterooms  2) the hull was fiberglass which I knew felt comfortable with repairing and 3) it was a project boat I could buy for under $10K vs $200K+

Let me back up a minute and tell you how I got the opportunity for $2500 to buy my sailboat.  The seller was a marina located in New Orleans that took in over 650 of Hurricane Katrina damaged boats after the hurricane. The marina had two sailboats left that the marina had finally gotten title issues straightened out on.  They decided to put them on eBay. While searching for my next project boat I came across these two boats.  I knew the larger one was the perfect project boat and saved the item in MyEbay favorites.  Because I have previously boat project boats on ebay and knew from the very simple written ad along with only four pictures, all a little blurry not to mentioned the seller only had a feedback score of (2) which I know pushes some buyers away from bidding. I knew the boat would sell for about $5K-$7K this way which was a perfect starting point an my project.

The auction started at $100 and was at $1K day one. The next day I went I woke up to check out the auction and the boat listing was gone!  I couldn't believe it!  I knew this was the perfect sailboat project.  So I looked for the other boat they had listed and I reach out to the seller and asked him to call me. When he did I asked, "what happened to the other sailboat you had listed?" He mentioned he had closed the auction because he sold it and had been offered $2K and was planning on meeting him in a day or two to settle up. I replied, "If the bidder fails through I will give you $2500 site unseen". He said he would keep my number and that was that.

A couple days later the owner of the marina called out of the blue and said, "it's your if your still interested". I said "sure" and sent him a money as promised. A funny side note. Before I even sent the money to pay the marina for my sailboat I was offered $10K as is, where is.  I didn't even hesitate to turned him down.

Now I was the owner of a sailboat I have never seen and don't even know how to sail.  Really!  LOL