Who is SabreDancing?

I’m in my mid 60’s, been mucking around in boats since I was a kid. My first sailboat was a salvaged cedar runabout that I hauled up off the bottom of Frenchman’s Bay and converted to a junk rigged something or other. It sailed like a dog. Thankfully a snowplow removed it from this world before I managed to drown myself.

My first real boat was a 26′ Grampian. Sweet little sailor, and just right for a 24 year old and his girlfriend. I spent a year and a half on that boat, before Teri and I split up and I swore I wouldn’t set foot on a boat again. Yeah right.

Two years later I was back into boats, and have bounced around through several harbor queens til I ended up with another Grampian. Through my adventures I decided steel was the way to go and my last boat before SD was a 1959 Mason, also of steel. Espie was a doll but had a wood coach roof that was rotting off. So when SD came along it was love at first sight. I’d admired the design since first seeing it in the 70s so there we go.

Otherwise, I’m single, currently working for Ma Bell, after 20 years in the aviation business and 4 years as a construction Millwright. I’m hoping to retire into seagoing poverty by next July. To that end, the overhaul of SD is my driving force these days. I have a list as long as my arm to get done by launch next April and then I can move aboard. I hope to be a live aboard again by the time I pull the plug on the job.

We shall just have to see how it plays out. Its interesting times we live in so nothing is ever certain.

Edit 21 April 2012: This July for a retirement date isn’t likely to happen, still way too many things that need doing. So the new date is July 1st, 2013. I wonder if we will still be here or if the Mayans had it right all along?

Edit 17 May 2013: Missed it again. Not going to set a firm date anymore, the Gods don’t seem to like such brashness. I have been crunching the numbers vis a vis pension and savings, and have determined it is doable at any time. So right now, getting SD up and running is the ONLY reason I still work. Right now its a race to see what happens first. Me retire or Bell shipping my job off to Egypt. No bets as to which will happen first.

Edit 07 May 2015: Checked the numbers on my pension, and various investments. I’m good to go anytime. Major push on this summer to get Sabre Dance into living condition. We will see. My motivation is in over drive, the bastards I work for sent my job off to others. I’m OK, being moved to another one but who needs this kind of bullshit.

Edit 01 July 2022: Sheesh, been a while since I updated the profile. I held on with Ma Bell for another 7 years before the deep brown got up over my nose and I packed it in last July 18th. Officially I’ve been a free man since August 31st 2021. Can’t say I miss it, I’ve settled into retirement quite happily. Got back into writing, both the novel I started in 2012, and various fan fiction stories, mostly based on the Stargate Universe and an anime called High School of the dead. Building model planes and tanks, gaming and working on  getting Sabre Dance finally into working order. I’ve started updating the blog again as things progress. A major glitch to the program on the horizon, both knees are shot, looking at surgery in the fall.

Sabre.