Part II-The Fog Begins to Lift.
In Part I we discussed deciding to buy a boat and ultimately how we got to buying one we had not seen. We pick it up here with taking delivery-the first time we were able to step onto our “new” boat.
On a sunny mid-July day of 2020, Julie and I hopped in our truck along with our two daughters and headed to Anacortes WA, a small waterfront town in the Northern part of Washington state. Shawn was bringing the boat from Sidney BC and would meet us there. The plan was that he would then step into a chase boat and head back to Canada. Once we arrived, Shawn gave us a quick overview of the operation of our new boat, “Next Dance” and departed. At this point, there was no going back. The paperwork was completed, money transferred and we were committed. So, we loaded up a few supplies, waved goodbye to our daughters who would run the truck back home and we fired up the motor. The run from Anacortes back to our marina in Des Moines (small waterfront town South of Seattle) is approximately 77 nautical miles which at our hull speed of 7 knots is about 11 hours (depending on currents etc.). We were leaving Anacortes late in the afternoon and I was not feeling like running at night with a boat I was not familiar with. This turned out to be wise, the next day we lost all electronics, including radar, just north of Elliott Bay, Seattle’s busy commercial port. Instead, we decided to stop in La Connor along the Swinomish channel, a short cruise of just a couple hours.
Once tied up in La Connor the emotional pendulum began its first swing… I was prepared for this, but much like jumping into the Puget Sound, even though you know its cold-it’s still cold. Thus began the second guessing, the doubting, the sackcloth and ashes, the critical eye looking for any and all flaws. I spent a somewhat sleepless night (Julie didn’t seem to share my concerns or sleeplessness- was she not paying attention?) Oddly enough, the sun still rose the next day and with it, the pendulum began its swing back in the other direction. Underway by 5:30am to catch the current, we began a pleasant run down to our home port of Des Moines. The water was relatively calm, the sun warm and we enjoyed sitting on the flybridge soaking up the warmth. This was what the trawler lifestyle is all about! Even, losing all the electronics couldn’t dampen my pendulum swing. By mid-afternoon we arrived in Des Moines and our little shakedown cruise was over.
I did some initial clean up, tracked down the loose ground wire to bring the electronics back to life and we used the boat for the rest of the season while I compiled a list of winter projects. After a final trip to the San Juan Islands in September, I buckled down to an average of 30 hours a week of work from October through April of 2021. My list of completed projects, big and small, is lengthy and I have another list for this winter. However, this fits my system well. Use the boat all season and work on it all winter. This is how I get 12 months of enjoyment out of my boats in the PNW.
Would I buy a boat again without seeing it in person? My answer? Maybe. Certainly not if we could not have seen other boats of the same model to get a feel for layout. Many of the boats in the old boat world are one-offs and you don’t have the luxury of being able to see essentially identical boats. Also, with such a strong production run (861 built with almost no change to layout) there were plenty of people to talk to about their experience with the GB32. I’ve never found anyone who speaks negatively about the design. I also had plenty of input about the wood GB’s, where the weaknesses are and what to look for, so far that has tracked right along as expected. Now would I recommend it for another person? My answer, depends on the person…but probably not. I don’t want the guilt of a recommendation gone wrong.
Todd Powell Boats 