The Tayana. The last of the road trip boats. Recall Tayanas are Taiwanese-built boats, hand-crafted, so each one is unique, with a reputation of being sturdy as hell, built to survive the Apocalypse. This one certainly met that mark.
Her size and stature were definitely impressive but the remainder I would have to describe only as interesting. Kind of like when your blind date is described to you not as a smoking hot number but, rather, as “really interesting.” (But I guess that’s better than “Well, her size and stature are definitely impressive.”). There were so many things on the boat that the seller had rigged just for him that we just couldn’t see ourselves on it. For example, the helm. My God. That thing had more instruments and gadgets on it than a NASA spacecraft. You couldn’t even really see beyond it to look out on the waves or water.
(Yes, that’s the helm, I promise, look closely).
Another was the nav station. There were panels upon panels of buttons, levers, toggles, etc. It looked like you could conduct nuclear fission right there on the boat.
And, the seller was left handed, but the nav station was starboard, so he had rigged a special pullout slat for his elbow so he could write left-handed. He had also installed a swivel stool for the nav station because it had no seat. And, the nav station was all the way forward almost to the V-berth. Definitely not ideal if you’re in the cockpit and need to get quickly to the radio or electronics or your charts. And, the couple had been cruising on it for about ten years, so the thing was bogged down with buckets, bottles, straps and jerry cans.
Just a lot of little things that made her not quite right. Plus, I feel sorry for the Tayana, anyway, having to follow the Hinterhoeller. She just didn’t stand a chance.
Phillip and I had our minds made up. We clamored back in the car to make the drive home, only to find we had stumbled onto Daytona Beach during the famed Biker Week. We saw more leather and chaps in that one drive than I’ve seen in a lifetime (and I grew up a cowgirl), but the leather hydes were more human than bovine. These women were weathered!
But we finally made it out of the Biker debacle and back onto the interstate and got our broker on the horn to put in an offer on the Hinterhoeller. It was a long haul home but we were about as giddy as kids on Christmas morning. We had found our boat!