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C.E. Grundler
There is no such thing as a perfect boat, simply because 'perfect' is in the eye of the beholder. As Tom's post on July 26th illustrated, it comes down to what you want from a boat, how and where you plan to use it, as well as your budget. Back when I sailed my little catboat, there was a Cheoy Lee trawler named Laura Lee sitting derelict in a boatyard where I worked. My old friend Butch used to joke that she was 'the perfect boat for me.' "I see you with this boat," he'd tell me. We went aboard, and oh was she a sorry sight – already in disrepair, she'd been run up on the rocks and then abandoned – but Butch knew me and he knew what valued in a boat. He hauled up a 3' x 4' hatch in the salon and pointed down. "Look at that," he said. And there it was, a single Ford Lehman nestled deep in the center of a spacious engine room. Yes, it needed work, but you couldn't ask for a nicer space on a boat that size. Suddenly I realized just how 'perfect' she felt. Butch was right. I wanted this boat.
Unfortunately she was tied in a tangle of red tape, and ultimately my husband and I set out to find another. For two years we looked, considering different makes, though each time we found ourselves comparing candidates to the Cheoy Lee. And when at last we found one of her sisters we had our boat. While virtually identical in most respects, Annabel Lee is a little prettier than her sibling: when she was built her owner must have opted for more elegant trimmings and a few extra features, such as those rounded corner salon windows and the access door at the helm. But there was one feature her more utilitarian sibling had that she lacked: full engine room access.
When these boats were built the engine was lowered in through a sizable opening in the salon sole. From there, the sole was finished off in teak parquet, though aboard Laura Lee it separated around that hatch, allowing full access to the engine room. There was a smaller hatch as well for day-to-day access. Aboard our boat, however, we only had that smaller hatch, which always bothered me. From within the engine room, the larger hatch was visible, though it had covered over from above.
Over the last four years I've repeatedly suggested that we open up that hatch. With all the work we had underway, my husband was understandably reluctant to take apart anything else, but I felt the work it involved would be offset by the improved access, making the engine room overhaul faster and easier. And once we'd coaxed the teak parquet, laid over sections of teak ply, from the salon, the hatch came right up.
Every event leads to the next, and if we stay we open may find ourselves at doorways we wouldn't have seen otherwise. If I hadn't worked at that boatyard and become friends with Butch, I would have never set foot on a boat that ultimately I dearly wanted but didn't get. I would have never sought out and bought her sister, and I wouldn't be doing much of the things that presently occupy my boat time. Things would have gone a different direction, and what that direction is I will never know.
Years ago I had an agent. He was happy to sign me, but I quickly realized he felt my book would sell better if I rewrote it into a cozy. Our contracted ended and we parted ways. I found another agent. She was enthusiastic and optimistic, but as time passed and publishers passed, her attention shifted away from me and my book. Our contract ended and I went back to querying. Another year passed and during that time, I'd been following what was happening with self-publishing and ebooks. Two agents asked for fulls and suddenly I realized there was another option – another doorway. At the time I wondered if I was making the right decision, but it felt right to me. I told both agents I was no longer looking for representation.
Sometimes we're faced with obstacles that make progress more difficult than it could be. Sometimes we're faced with delays and setbacks that in the end put us in the best possible place at the most perfect moment. Sometimes doorways are right there, unseen, just waiting to open. While it can be intimidating and takes some doing to get past them, we should always keep on the lookout for doorways (or hatches). You never know when or where you'll find them.
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