The Joys of Reseach

A Group of Guillemots is collectively known as a "bazaar" or a "loomery" of guillemots. Perhaps we can name the dinghy the Bazaar?

What's In a Name?

What the Hell is a Guillemot anyway? And why name your boat after something that no one has ever heard of much less can pronounce?

To begin, it is considered bad luck to rename a boat. There are involved ceremonies, involving large amounts of alcohol (and perhaps a few virgins) to evade the bad luck (See: http://boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/rename.htm for a complete description). We thought that if the boat had always been called Edimir, we would have to keep the name. We discovered that she has been renamed by every owner, so we decided that the bad luck had already been used up. First she was Duchess, then Santa Paula, then Edimir. Edimir was the last owner's grandmother. , We decided we could continue the tradition and change the name.

Our last boat was the Lutra - Latin for the Genus of the river otter. We had thought about bird names then, but decided that Anas (duck) would surely be misunderstood, Haliaeetus (Bald Eagle) sounded like a disease, and Pandion (Osprey) didn't quite make it either. Boat names should have some snap and be easily understood over the radio!

While we were at the boat show on July 4, we saw a number of boats on which the dinghy had a name related to the boat - for example there was the Winifred, whose dinghy was "Lil Fred". We started thinking birds again, since we planned to use the boat in the winter to look at migrating waterfowl. We considered Scoter, since Surf Scoters are one of the common winter sea ducks, but Nancy vetoed that since she said it sounded too much like scrotum. For a while we considered Auk (the dinghy could be the Auklet) except that the Auk is extinct and that seemed like a bad omen! We seemed to be hovering around various seabirds that occur in the Pacific Northwest. Next was Murre since there is also a bird called a Murrelet (which would work for the dinghy). But Murre didn't strike the right tone for using on the radio.

And then we thought of Guillemot. The pigeon guillemot is a common seabird in the Puget Sound in the winter. It is an attractive black bird with bright white wing patches (in the winter) with garish red feet and mouth.

Called a pigeon guillemot because they resemble pigeons as they bob in the waves, the name probably comes from the French Guilliame, (meaning Little William) because of the call made by juvenile guillemots. To make things more confusing, in Europe, the birds that we call guillemots are known as Murres.

We didn't have a good name for the dinghy yet, but Guillemot sounded better each time we said it.

So when we went to register the boat, we officially changed her name - the Edimir is now officially the Guillemot. And we can spend the next few years explaining that it is the small black seabird, and not a native American chief or some kind of fishing gear

The Lutra is Sold

A day I thought would never arrive has come at last. We have sold the Lutra. I didn't want to say anything to anyone, since we have been left at the altar several times in the last couple of years, but we have finally sold the boat.

After the last potential buyer decided to go in "a different direction" one day before he was supposed to come and pick up the boat, I called a guy who had inquired the week before and seemed moderately interested.

I told him that we were "motivated sellers". This was before we had seen the Guillemot - I was just tired of having a boat sit in a barn in Maryland, when we were in Seattle.

Todd came back with a series of questions. By the time he was ready to make an offer, we had already bought the Guillemot, so we were now really motivated.

He eventually made an offer that was several thousand less than we were hoping for. We negotiated over the phone and ended up a thousand or so less than I wanted and a thousand more than he had initially offered.

At first I was upset that I couldn't get my price, but then I realized that I had gotten a great deal on the Guillemot, and he was getting a great deal on the Lutra, and that each of us was very happy with our new boat. Life is too short to bear grudges over money.

After Todd made his offer, he went down to Maryland and spent several hours inspecting the boat. I was afraid he was going to find issues and reopen the price discussion, but he came away satisfied. Our friend John Vail, who has been showing the boat for us, called and said, "You owe me big time. I just spent 2 hours at the farm while Todd and his buddy crawled all over the boat. He seemed really excited about the boat. I think you have a live one this time."

I called Todd. He said the boat needed some TLC, but that he still wanted to buy it. I asked him for a deposit to hold the boat, since he didn't want to come and pick it up for several weeks. He said he would send one. The next day he called back and said his wife didn't want him to send a deposit, but to pick the boat up earlier. I wasn't ecstatic about that since there still was a week or so before the pickup, but I decided to play it out.

Todd arrived today on schedule with a friend with a large SUV, and the Lutra left the barn for the last time.

John called me to say the check is in the mail!

Halleluah.

Falling in love all over again (A Boat Story)

When we moved to Seattle two years ago, we left our boat behind. The Lutra was a perfect boat for gunkholing in the Chesapeake, but because she had a flat bottom with little keel, we were concerned that she would not handle well in the wilder waters of the Puget Sound. So we decided to sell her, and left her in the barn on our farm in Maryland.

They say that the two best days of one’s life are the day you buy a boat and the day you sell it. We had trouble even getting on board with the sale part of the equation. First the economy tanked and boats became a luxury. We had an airline pilot make us an offer and then pull out because he was afraid that he was going to lose his job. Then another guy offered us $25,000 for the boat and I turned him down – I was insulted by the offer. A year passed with no serious offers. Then another offer appeared for $21,000. Nancy pointed out to me that if we had accepted the earlier offer of $25,000, we would have put the money into our savings, and by now it would have been worth less than $20,000, so that we were actually ahead of the game! I liked that logic. In any case, the guy really wanted the boat, and gave us $1,000 non-refundable deposit to hold the boat. Then 2 days before he was supposed to come and get it, he emailed me and said that he had fallen in love with a lady in Alaska, and that since he was moving there and the boat wasn’t right for the Alaskan waters, he was going to have to back out.

We were beginning to feel like that boat was going to be with us forever. I suggested to Nancy that perhaps I could be buried in the Lutra, in some sort of Neo-Viking ritual. She was unimpressed, as she often is with many of my wilder solutions.

Anyway, last week we were in Maryland, and went out to the farm to check on the boat. She was a little dusty, but looked great. And we got to talking. We came to the realization (sometimes for smart people, we can be fairly dense) that it might make sense to ship to boat to Seattle. After all it was a great boat for Lake Washington if not out on the sound. We checked and the shipping costs weren’t exorbitant. And somebody might see it and buy it from us. And we would be back on the water – an itch that nothing but a boat can satisfy. So it looked like we had a plan.
That same trip to Maryland, I went out on the Bay with our friends John and Ellyn. They have a nice 25 foot bowrider. But as we were cruising, I had an epiphany: I don’t like fiberglass boats. They are devoid of character, and all come (literally) from the same mold. My next boat was going to be wooden.

Last year we had seen a small steamboat on Lake Washington – it was maybe 15 feet and looked like the boat in the African Queen. I thought wouldn’t it be cool to own that boat. So I googled “Seattle Steam Boat for sale”. The little steam boat didn’t come up, but there was a 60 foot World War II boat available on Ebay. I was excited until I read a little further and realized that it was a total restoration project at best. The ad noted that they hoped to sell all the parts in one lot – I knew that this would be a lifetime project, so I passed. Anyway, Nancy would never go for a 60 foot boat.

But while I was searching for steamboats, I noticed that the Seattle Center for Wooden Boats was having their annual festival the coming weekend, so I mentioned to Nan, in all innocence, that it would be fun to go. Her mother was going to be in town, and I thought they might enjoy taking photographs of some of the classics at the show.

We went to the show early Saturday morning. Sure enough the little “African Queen” boat was there – it is actually named the Alien Queen. Alas, it was not for sale, but it was nice to see it.

There were lots of classic wooden boats on the piers, and some of them were for sale. The fourth boat we came across was the Edimir.

She was built in 1939. She has been extensively restored in the past 10 years. The last owners had put 70 to $80,000 in her – new planking, new diesel (it only has 678 hours), new cabin, radar, GPS chart plotter, refrigerator, stove, tanks, and on and on. She sleeps 4 people – 2 in the forward v-berth, and 2 in the main cabin. She has her own 9 foot sailing dingy. And did you notice – she looks a lot like the Lutra. Except that she has a deep keel, so she is suited to cruising in the inland waters in Puget Sound and the San Juans. The current owner was selling her because they had moved up to a Nordic Tug for more room. And as we had already learned, it is a terrible time to sell a boat, but a fantastic time to be buying – so the price was very reasonable.

I spent a half hour poring over the boat, talking to Steve Hansen, the listing agent who had brought the boat to the show, and salivating over all the amenities. I told Steve that I really wanted the boat, but I was going to have to convince Nancy – after all we still had the Lutra on the East Coast.

I caught up with Nan and her mother down the dock. Nancy could tell that I was in love from my glassy looking eyes and silly grin, but bless her; she wasn’t even jealous. She reminded me that we really needed to sell the Lutra first, since we didn’t need 2 boats. (Does anyone really need a boat)? We both agreed that this boat was perfect for us and Seattle. Nancy’s mother said that as soon as she saw me sitting at the wheel of the Edimir, she knew it was a perfect match. In addition, the boat came with the option of taking over the covered slip in Ballard, about 10 minutes from the house. The planets were aligning – this was looking like a great day to buy a boat. Nancy said that the Lutra had really been her choice – she had seen it at a show in Baltimore, and was smitten—and allowed as how the next boat choice should be mine. After a few minutes of discussion, we decided we should make an offer, so that no one would buy the boat out from under us.

I went back to the boat and told Steve that we were ready to make an offer. He said, “it didn’t take you long to convince your wife.” I told him that sometimes you get lucky. We made an offer, it was accepted, and we are now the proud owners of a 30 foot classic wooden trawler. Edimir was a family name from the prior owner – he has already changed the name and thus gotten the bad luck associated with a name change: We will call the boat the Guillemot. Look for us on the water.