All men dream, but not
equally.
Those who dream by night, in the dusty recesses of their minds,
wake in the day to find that it was vanity.
But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men,
for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.
- T.E. Lawrence
My dad and stepmom bought a new catamaran, a Sunsail 384. Their current boat, a Prout 31, is about as old as I am
and lacks systems and amenities for comfortable cruising. It probably also requires a bit more
maintenance than my dad cares for anymore.
And lastly, the boat is located about 1,200 miles from where they
ultimately want it.
The news is exciting to us on a number of levels. They have been looking at new catamarans for
about 19 years by my count. Since I was
a teenager. They were regulars at the
boat shows and there were always magazines and brochures around the house.
It is tough for a kid to accurately gauge the seriousness of
an adult’s dreams, a child’s view of the world being much simpler than an adult’s. So I spent a portion of my formative years with
the notion that buying a large catamaran was actually possible. And it stuck with me.
The first boat I recall them dreaming about with apparent
seriousness was a Privilege 48. This
imaginary boat even had a name. That
would have been about 1991. As I write
this aboard my own 48-foot catamaran, built in 1991, it is impossible not to think
of that boat, and those dreams, as our beginning.
But as we were developing the Five Year Plan that led to the
purchase of our boat, we came to the realization that they would probably never
buy theirs. They didn’t have a plan, or
what plan they did have started and ended with winning the lottery. They went on to develop property interests in
Panama, which I assumed was a replacement for the boat dream. So I was surprised a couple months ago when I
heard they were making a trip to Ft Lauderdale to look at a boat, even moreso
when I learned they had a plan.
They are buying the boat through the Sunsail Yacht Partnership
Program. Many charter companies have
programs like this whereby the company will take care of the boat, paying all
expenses and performing all maintenance, while it is used by charter guests. The program guarantees a certain amount of monthly
income for the owner which is expected to cover any loan payments. At the end of the program period, owners take
possession of the boat or the charter company will help them sell it through
their brokerage.
During the term of the program, owners have rights to use
their boat for a certain number of weeks a year. They can also trade the usage of their own boat
for boats in other locations. This is one
of the benefits of using a larger company.
Sunsail has bases in the Caribbean, the South Pacific, the
Mediterranean, and the Indian Ocean.
Pretty much anywhere you’d want to go sailing. My parents’ boat will be based in Belize,
which is very close to where they will ultimately keep it in Panama when it
comes out of charter.
I think we’re all hoping that they’ll use some of those built-in
chartering vacations to visit us at various points along our way. Conveniently, there is a Sunsail base right where
we’re headed in the Bahamas.
I often wonder: if our lives were influenced by seeing my
father dream, even when the dream seemed out of reach, what will be the effect
on my children when our dreams are lived daily?
Subscribe