Mountain Wind 30May14

Well I did it... I found a 25 year old sailboat I like in decent condition. Rather than Majorca, Kingston, or Miami, it was thankfully somewhat nearby. We now have a 23.5 foot racer/cruiser; it's a Beneteau First 235 with wing keel designed by Finot group. For such a small boat it has all the fittings of a cruiser like stove, sink, ice cabinet, marine head, chart table, nice cabin, double sleeping birth and more. But it's also a high performance design with a great polar chart (a chart showing theoretical relative speed at each heading of wind). There were only 450 of them made and many are in Europe so finding it (and seeing it's good operating condition) is great fortune. The interior and trimmings will need some TLC but that's expected for this age. It's well named Mon Ami now but that'll likely change to Mountain Wind or GR8 Wind or something. The trailer was a bit of a surprise though, the prior owner had fused the surge brake system so the trailer was without brakes. This would not be the ticket for descending the pass so I'm having brakes installed and will tow it to Dillon later. Woohoo.