Two good friends of mine, Sue and
Jere, out cruising in the Salish Sea, have sent me an e-mail picture of a
gorgeous little wooden boat they came across in Pages’ Resort Marina on
Gabriola Island in British Columbia. I
recognized her as a Vertue 25, a British design by Laurent Giles.
She looked brand new, sparkling in
the Canadian sunshine with gleaming white topsides and faultless brightwork,
but I discovered she was built by the Bent Jespersen boatbuilding firm on
Vancouver Island in 1985.
She’s called Sarissa and I fell deeply in love with her at first sight, as, I
suspect, my friends knew I would.
What can be more cruel than
unrequited love? I can’t afford to buy her, I can’t afford to maintain her, and
as far as I know she’s not for sale anyhow. The simple act of sending me her
picture has broken my heart.
I’ll get over it, of course. I
always do. This isn’t the first time. But each time it takes a bit longer.
I have drooled over the Vertue 25
ever since I first read Humphrey Barton’s book, Vertue XXXV. He singlehanded her around Cape Horn, of course, the
smallest boat to double the cape at the time, I believe. And then there was the
epic voyage of another Vertue 25 as detailed in that splendid book My Old Man and the Sea, written in
alternating chapters by father and son, David and Daniel Hays. A wonderful
read.
The Hays’s set out from Britain,
sailed south and across the Atlantic to Panama, made their way via the Galapagos
to Easter Island, and then plunged into the Screaming Fifties to round Cape
Horn and head for home up the Atlantic again.
So what is it about the 25-foot
Vertue that affects me so much? Hard to say, really, except that she’s simply a
beautiful, sturdy little
heavy-displacement boat that has all the features I love. A transom-hung rudder.
A full-length keel. A well-protected cockpit. Narrow beam. Three-inch bulwarks.
A cocky doghouse. A simple sloop rig. A sheerline to die for.
Most people these days would
describe her as old fashioned and outdated. I don’t care. I’m that way myself.
Say what you like, but this is a boat that just wants to be taken to sea, and
when you look at her you know that she’s promising to look after you in the bad
stuff, tiny as she is.
As a final touch of cruelty, it occurred
to me that if I did own a Vertue 25, I would feel compelled to cross an ocean
in her. That, after all, is her purpose in life. But I’m getting too long in the tooth for
that sort of thing. However, when I mentioned this to another friend she said:
“I disagree with you, John. The
purpose of owning a Laurent Giles Vertue
would be to have a boat that you loved, that made you recall previous ocean
crossings, and admitting that cross-ocean adventures are beyond you now,
while enjoying short sails in the protected Gulf Islands. Would you like us to
go and have a look at her for you?”
Thanks, Jen, but no. I’m suffering
enough already.
Today’s
Thought
It
is the special quality of love not to be able to remain stationary, to be
obliged to increase under pain of diminishing.
— Andre Gide, The Counterfeiters
Tailpiece
"I couldn't sleep a wink last night with those curtains wide open."
"Why didn't you close them?"
"I can't reach across the street."
Tailpiece
"I couldn't sleep a wink last night with those curtains wide open."
"Why didn't you close them?"
"I can't reach across the street."
