Remember my wife, June's rule about one boat at a time? Trouble was brewing. Not only had I spent a year and a small fortune (by her accounting) restoring the O'Day Mariner, Seanility, now I wanted to buy a different boat.
"Sell Seanility and then buy the other boat," she suggested firmly.
"It would take too long and I'm not going give it away. Besides, the other boat's a deal and it's perfect. It will cost me less than I'll get for Seanility if I have the time to find the right buyer," I said.
These discussions are important to a good marriage and the decision making process. You have to have this sharing of opinions before you can decide if you want it bad enough to go do what you want to do anyway.
I had invested a lot of time, energy and money into Seanility but she just didn't fit into the kind of sailing I wanted to do. I'd figured out that cruising and gunkholing were more my style. This new boat, a 1986 Sanibel 17, was just the ticket. A foot shorter in overall length but higher freeboard and twice the volume - made for gunkholing.
One of the things that makes the Sanibel 17 unique is the centerboard trunk. Unlike the Mariner's trunk that intrudes into both the cockpit and the cabin, the Sanibel's trunk is off-set and buried in the port quarter berth. The cabin boasts a v-berth as well as port and starboard quarter bunks that lay under the raised cockpit.
The boat came with a galvanized trailer, a 1986 6 hp 2 stroke Yamaha, a bimini top, a working jib, a bright red drifter, a main sail, bow and stern rails and a ss boarding ladder. The real bonus, however, was that I could easily step the mast without help by sliding the companionway hatch forward and walking the mast right up to the tabernacle.
The deal was cinched when the owner agreed to sell me the Sanibel for $1800. Nearly a thousand dollars less than I had invested in the Mariner.
With her short 17' 8" OAL and her high freeboard, the Sanibel looks like a pregnant guppy - so I dubbed her Guppy.
