I got married today

by Allan Rosenberg

This is the first contribution I am about to write and will try introduce myself to the H23 family. So here I am lying in bed on the first night of my honeymoon– laptop on top of my lap trying to think of an angle to a story that won’t bore any readers.

I walked into a showroom in Durban many years back and on pure impulse bought a 14 foot sailing dingy called a Penguin. (a locally built boat in Natal) I still remember asking the salesman for a boat with a stick “pointing upwards with my finger” (a mast) meaning that I wanted a yacht with sails and not a motor boat. I became the proud owner of a brand new boat with a stick and a trailer for the total sum of R740 rands. The Bluff Yacht Club was my first port of launch with a few pals to help rig her through trial and many errors. So here’s this new guy on the block with a shiny new boat that everyone is looking at as I get her into the water with starch white sails up and ready to go. It wasn’t 10 seconds before I got my first solid knock on the head from the boom that actually knocked me out of the boat and my crew also with 10 seconds of sailing experience was left sitting in a skipperless boat wondering what to do next. Thanks to the quick thinking  audience who came to our rescue and pulled me and the boat back to shore. That was my introduction to sailing.

Over the next few years, I progressed to a Fireball then a 505 and every boat that came along side me developed into a race. I am yet to find a “yachtie“ who calmly allows another boat to sail right past him without some form of battle. Or an “ego topping” – could be a new word to the sailing fraternity.

Roughly about 15 years sailed by before I got my first keel boat – a Mistral which was such a responsive boat and delicate to any slight wind which felt like an over sized Lazer  and that’s where I really pushed the limits of reckless sailing. Fearless to give it a bash in any gale force winds which as I now look back was a silly thing to do but never really got into trouble except running aground a few times as the depth meter never worked from the day I bought her. As long as the sound system worked, all was well.

My next progression was my first “real” boat – a Holiday 23 named Peragwin. Much older and wiser with more “caution to the wind”  as the saying goes. The sailing cowboy attitude had vanished along with some of my hair and weekends on the Vaal with my wife and friends were the better part of living. I got a bee in my bonnet to get an L32 so the Boatyard found me a customer in one day and my H23 was gone only realising a few months later that I might have been too hasty in selling her.

Eight years have passed with no L32 as yet and I keep on getting those thoughts of how we used to motor into the middle of the dam in the evening, lie in sleeping bags on the deck and stare at the stars, listening to the talk show of the day. Those were some of the best moments of my/our lives.

Last week, I made a decision in 30 seconds that I want another Holiday 23 so my wife Debbie and I took a slow drive to visit Dicky at the Vaal. After some extensive boat searching, I found Greylag at Penant 9 moored to a walkon all clean and ready for inspection. This had to be her. This is the only other wife that Debbie doesn’t mind sharing her life with.