Charles Went Sailing in Europe and We Adopted a Baby Sailboat

Posted on by T.J. Butler, Author

When introducing myself to a mixed bag of adults who may or may not be parents, I usually say we’re happily married and we have a beautiful dog. The phrase we’ve adopted a… has never been used for small humans and is generally only suitable for me when referring to pets or new habits, but whether those habits are good or bad remains to be seen. Thus, our somewhat recent announcement that we adopted a baby sailboat may have been the only time I’ll be able to say I’ve adopted something and not follow it up with phrases like squeeee, a miniature rescue pig, or a weekly boxed wine and yoga class. 

In that somewhat recent blog entry, we introduced the latest addition to our sailing family, a 24′ sailboat named Yoshi. It looks like our sailing family is quickly becoming a flotilla! Yoshi is a 1979 Precision Seaforth, also affectionately classified as a trailer sailor because sailboats of her size are easy to pop onto a trailer and take anywhere. Hopefully, this will be a body of water and not someone’s pasture because when a boat is Yoshi’s age, she’s either well loved and still afloat or overgrown and home to raccoons in the back forty. After we sailed Yoshi home, we found the one and only, and the not very active Precision Seaforth owner’s group. We dug deep into their archives as there were scant posts within the last few years, and we found that there were only six of her make and model in the world still sailing at that time. How many there are now is anyone’s guess but we know of at least one who is still afloat.

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Charles was especially interested in Yoshi because hey, she’s kind of a looker! Also, the sailboat we live on full time is a wonderfully solid cruising vessel, however at 22,000 lbs she’s not exactly nimble when the wind is light, but a small and maneuverable boat like Yoshi sails well in almost no wind.  It isn’t easy to take your entire home out for a quick day sail but there’s not much to do on Yoshi except cast off the lines and go. Prior to Yoshi, we looked at a few other trailer sailors within a few hours drive each way along the coast but none had her classic lines and unique features. When we finally found her and sailed her with the previous owner, we were sold. By sold, I mean that “shut up and take our money” may or may not have been part of the negotiation.

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Yoshi was restored a few years ago then, unfortunately, fell into a bit of exterior disrepair. Just a bit, though! We’re taking on the restoration tasks beginning with the essentials needed for sailing; upgrading a few pieces of hardware, and upgrading and replacing the rigging including the cables that hold up the mast and the ropes, also known as lines, that are used to adjust the sails. Yoshi’s much-needed teak varnishing is a beauty treatment that will come at the end of the summer.

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Yoshi is nearing 40, and everyone needs a little pick me up at this point. We’re pleased to show you Yoshi’s before shots today, and in the fall, after many hours of work, we’ll have a grand reveal.

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As an aside, let me share what a boat hour means since I’ve just said something about many hours of work and a fall deadline. A project on land that takes an hour may or may not take many hours or even all day on a boat; therefore one never knows precisely how long a boat hour may be. Believe you me, though, it isn’t a land hour that you can neatly measure in sixty minutes. I’ve optimistically promised you a grand reveal in the fall however Charles has been sailing in the Caribbean and in Europe for most of the summer. The seasons are ticking away so please forget I said fall if he goes out to sea again and fall comes and goes with no big and glorious reveal. We’re going with Cetol for the brightwork. If you have an opinion on this, please let us know but let’s not move into whether a catamaran or monohull is best or whether or not you put your TP into the head.

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Let’s talk about me getting seasick for the first time ever because there’s a first time for everything and everyone loves a good trouble on the high seas story. Just before our maiden voyage we paid the broker and then got the dirt, the scoop, and the rest of the story from Yoshi’s prior owner. It amounted to him retelling a story about one of the cool sailing YouTube vloggers from St. Augustine, Florida who happens to love Yoshi. What a small world; a few years ago I had a Facebook messenger conversation with her about cats aboard sailboats at about the same time as she was chatting about Yoshi in Florida.

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But I digress. If you’ve ever been seasick, which I hadn’t at this point, you know that staying below deck can cause it. Little did I know and little did Charles warn me. I cannot blame our puppersnapper Sylvie for keeping quiet, though, because she does not speak English. On this maiden voyage, I brought along a tub full of cleaning products and planned to thoroughly scour Yoshi on our sail from her old port to her new home. I spent a few hours below deck scrubbing, wiping, spraying, and sorting, and fortunately, most of the work was done before I realized I was feeling a little green around the gills. I crawled up the miniature ladder and into the cockpit, breathed deeply, saw that the wind was high, and realized we had many dreadful hours left on the water. My version of dreadful was Charles’s version of excellent sailing weather, and he was having the time of his life singlehanding Yoshi in weather that was excellent for sailing. With my chin up, I insisted that I could do everything needed for sailing-for-two because seasickness aside, we were sailing on our second boat, a boat we bought to sail for fun because we live on a bigger boat and because now we have two sailboats. Hey there, me at nineteen years old, let that sink in a bit, will ya?

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Our pup Sylvie and I have been hanging out together for a few weeks while Charles is on a sailboat delivery from Stockholm, Sweden to a TBD port in southern Italy, two hours from Florence.

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This vacation, more commonly known as a sailboat delivery, involves being hired to deliver a sailboat from one port to another as part of a crew.

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The captain and crew on this delivery are stellar.

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The food aboard the sailboat is excellent, as is the dark beer in Sweden.

IMG_3399 (1) The numerous ports are scenic, and no one aboard is in a hurry to breeze through coastal Europe, so there is ample time for sightseeing.

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Coming up next: I usually have a good plan for what’s next but this time let’s be a little loosey goosey. I have two published articles that I will be able to share soon and fingers crossed, Charles will share more of his European sailing adventures and pictures. That will be far more interesting than me telling you I was published in another magazine. If you’d like to hear about Charles’s adventures sailing in the Caribbean and in Europe, please let me know in the comments, and I can do a Q & A with him. Otherwise, you’re stuck with me! We’re able to share our monthly adventures with you because you keep coming back and for that, we are especially grateful. Thank you so much for reading about our little floating life!

Tiffany_Page_Divider_v3“One doesn’t discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.” -Gide

24 thoughts on “Charles Went Sailing in Europe and We Adopted a Baby Sailboat”

  7. Charles is right it’s a beautiful little boat. I have a 26 foot boat that I can’t find anyone who still has one. It is also in the throes of restoration. Two summers ago we gutted the inside which had rotted while she stood patiently waiting for me in the yard. I had sailed on this boat and learn to sail when my children were much smaller. Sadly my husband was always afraid of sailing so there she sat in the yard for 10 years. Two summers ago I cleaned her all up and had a Carpenter remove all the Rottenwood on the interior. The Carpenter been moved away And there she said it’s still with absolutely nothing on the inside. To be honest as I get older I don’t have a lot of expectations but I would like to put the boat in the water again even if just on a mooring so I can tinker, outfit, finish the teak and there she said still with absolutely nothing on the inside. To be honest as I get older I don’t have a lot of expectations but I would like to put the boat in the water again even if just on a mooring so I can tinker, outfit, finish the teak, And just enjoyed being on her again. Who am I kidding if I had the boat in one piece I would be out on the water.

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  12. It is such a joy to read of people who love their boat and take care of her. This little vessel is quite special to me as I am her designer. Each of my 500 or so designs I tag with a memory or two of something or someone as we built the first boat of this class. In this case it was one of my daughters. We had one but for a short time. Your story has made my day! “Thanks”
    Stephen Seaton. Ocala, Florida

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    1. Hello, thank you so much for reaching out to us! We love Yoshi because we live aboard a heavy displacement Gozzard and Yoshi is perfect for day sailing in light winds. After looking at many boats in Yoshi’s class, we fell in love with her classic design and now, we could not imagine ourselves on any other day sailer.

      Is it true that this boat was inspired by the Stonehorse? Charles was on the bay last week and another boat sailed close enough to ask if Yoshi was a Stonehorse.
      Do you know how many are left on the water today? We think there are less than a dozen afloat.

      We’re bringing Yoshi back to life, one project at a time. We’ve replaced all of her standing rigging, installed two new brass Lewmar size 16 self-tailing winches with teak bases, and installed a new Profurl furler for the headsail. Charles also removed and rebedded the deck hardware to keep her dry inside.
      Looking toward to the fall, we’re planning to restore Yoshi’s teak, and replace the headliner.

      We’d love to know how you tagged our design for your daughter. On our Gozzard, we have eleven lines carved into the mahogany next to her serial number, one for each of the children of the original owner. We are honored to have the opportunity to be caretakers for classic boats that have been well loved from the beginning.

      If you are ever near the Chesapeake Bay, we would love to invite you for a sail on Yoshi. Please email us at thesailboattara@gmail.com and thank you so much for checking in with us here.

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    1. So nice to hear from another Seaforth owner. What year are you? I’ve Googled for other owners a few times and never had any luck.
      At the end of last winter, Yoshi’s rudder sadly broke off right at the tiller. We put her on the hard and I turned her into a cozy writing retreat. We’re planning to get her back into the water in the spring, and researching ridder options this winter.
      I’d love to chat with you about our little boats. They’re so rare these days.
      I tried my luck connecting with other owners on the Trailer Sailor forum when we bought Yoshi, but it’s not too active.
      I have an article about Yoshi in Tiny House Magazine, and one is forthcoming in SpinSheet, a local Chesapeake Bay magazine
      My email address is tjbutlerauthor@gmail.com if you’d like to chat offline about our little boats.
      Thank you for stopping by!

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