I spent this past weekend working the Flying Scot display with Dee Burns of Flying Scot Inc. The weather could not have been better, low humidity, bright sun and high temps. approaching 80 degrees and awesome breeze. It would have been a great weekend for a regatta, a thought I had about 500 times over the course of the weekend.
The display boat was #5815, a beautiful white hull with blue trim that will now live over on the east coast near Vero Beach. The excited new owner; Peter Dubai (spelling?) was on hand Sunday to help pack up his new toy, (no scratches please) for the ride home. Pete will be primarily single handing the boat on the scenic Indian River and will keep it on a lift in his backyard.
Aside from “jonesing” to go sailing, I really enjoyed the show. One thing that really hit me was the number of people that mentioned some previous experience sailing a Scot. We heard many people say they learned to sail on one, or there parents owned one when they were kids, or it was really fun to sail, etc, etc. Being relatively new to this class, I don’t have that perspective but attending the NAC/50 anniversary events and shows like these and I’m starting to get it. When I was shopping for a boat about 4 years ago I began considering a Scot, since it met the criteria I had in mind; strong one-design, easy to trailer, sailed by two people and a spinnaker. I had some doubts but since there really weren’t any other strong classes in my area that met those criteria, it came down to the Scot almost by default. I had heard some negative comments (mostly from people in other one designs) so in the end I bought an old (read cheap) one to try out and see if it was for us, if not and I’ll sell it is what I planned. Now we have become attached to PIG PEN, #812, even if it is a little heavy and a little on the ugly side it also has some kind of character, not sure what kind. In the end the choice was a really good one, we are here to stay. I guess we have become a believer, like some of those people from the boat show.
The 50th anniversary thing is a big one too. Real big. Think about all the boats that have been introduced in that time frame. How many really catch on and last? How many one designs are sailed PHRF or Portsmouth because they have no fleets? How many people lost a bunch of money on a boat that failed or the builder failed?
Who would have thought a new Scot would be built and delivered every third day? After 50 years?
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