SEA WEASEL: A New Chapter

The WEASEL welcomes her knew skippers.

As many people had seen on craigslist the WEASEL was up for sale. I was grudgingly selling it to reduce my costs after my last contract had ended. It was then I was approached by Mike with a indecent proposal.

"Can I buy half of the WEASEL?"

I had always been opposed to boat shares. One I can be a little possessive and the idea of sharing the boat did not appeal to me but more to the point I thought the idea of sharing the boat with a stranger just didn't seem like a good idea. However lately I had seen boat partnerships that seemed to work really well between friends. It got me thinking.

Over beers Mike had mentioned to Curtis about his idea to buy a share. Curtis said he was interested too. Soon David was interested too. It was like a revelation. Everything started to make sense and when I picked up a new contract and could easily maintain the boat but I still thought this makes a lot of sense. The reasons were two numerous to pass up:

1. We all sail together all the time so on one level it doesn't make sense that one person bears all the costs.
2. Operating costs split 4 ways work out to just under a hundred dollars a month each for the boat. This covers: moorage, haul outs, PHRF, and Insurance.
3. Another consideration was the upgrade path for the boat. I was not going to be able to save up much money for the "next" boat if I was footing the full bill for this boat. Additionally I would only be able to slowly upgrade the WEASEL while footing the whole bill. This now means that we could replace every sail on the boat and add a furler in the first year alone for less than what anyone individual would have spent.
4. In all honesty it was the people. These guys are my best friends and when I was doing all the maintenance on the boat recently I saw how they all came out and got themselves dirty. I felt these guys really care about the boat and would make perfect partner.

With that all being said it was important that there be clear expectations and with a contract worked out, calendar, and boat bank account it should be easy to manage. I am certain that this will be a successful relationship.

So without further ado I would like to take this opportunity to introduce the new co-owners/co-skippers of SEA WEASEL:

• Curtis Wensley
• David Marceniuk
• Micheal Schweitzer

For racing you will probably notice that we will be taking turns helming for a series and the helmsman will be listed for the skipper of that series on the results. I also want to point out with a dedicated crew of skippers and the upgrades planned for the WEASEL that all of you Division 7 skippers will need to watch out. We are throwing down the gauntlet.