Boat Yard Sale...

Boat Yard Sale

When we sold the Hunter '39 last summer, there was stuff left over and a few items we changed out on our current Tartan '46 that have been taking up space at the apartment or were disguised as balcony decor. When the sky cleared on the morning of our marina's annual boat yard sale, John and I loaded our car's trunk with hopes of cashing in.  

Because we did not sign up early enough, we were barred from the rows of tables, the center of the action, and were relegated to displaying our items at the edge of the lot on the ground.  We had little hope of success and immediately started making plans for what to do with stuff after the sale as we lounged in our portable chairs.  However, it turns out that this 'end of the road' spot was just fine as we caught the eye of people walking to and from the public parking across the road.

Like garage sale participants, boat yard partakers have distinguishing characteristics for, as you know, not everyone cares for used stuff.  For example, the morning's crowd was primed with older guys dressed in wrinkled baggy shorts held up with a piece of line or an old belt, leathery skin, hair in need of a serious trim, a protruding belly and a waddling spouse. They likely came and left in pick-up trucks or worse-for-wear station wagons. Throw in a gold chain or two, a Harley bike or a luxury SUV and you have a power boater instead of a sail boater.  To the mix, sprinkle in some more "dude" like guys coming alone, wearing sleeveless sweatshirts and reflective sun glasses.  This was the quorum who seemed to buy as much or more stuff than they sold.

There were some, like ourselves, who were just selling and some who were just buying. We were definitely less ragged and more discerning as we were selling or buying  boating basics like anchors, chains and lines, safety gear and barbecue grills, rather than bits, parts and pieces.

By noon we had been able to sell all but two items -- the "bubbler" (a motor mounted with a small spinner that runs submerged to prevent icing around the boat if you leave it at the dock in winter) and its thermostat (to make sure it runs only when necessary), which we had been told, for sure, would sell quickly, but didn't. However, we did manage to sell two 80' lines (too heavy for me to handle and too short to remain our forward sail sheets), a 40 amp battery charger (a spare we never used), and an old anchor line consisting of 40' of chain spliced to 90' of twisted pair rope.

It was a good day.  The sun shone and warmed our backs. Our load was lightened.  We can now get on the more planning and preparation.

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