I had a boat some years back.  But before that, I had found a discarded boat and thought that was a pretty good find.  That old boat when righted and pushed into the water started to take on water from a multitude of leaks at all joints and all the supposedly solid spaces in between.      The old boat promptly filled with water and sank down under.  Before it looked pretty good and was on land.  Looks can be deceiving.

The boat I bought was a used 14 ft Pintail but it came complete with sails, rudder and a primitive one cylinder gas motor.  That motor was what sold me on the whole rig.  I bought it without seeing it on the water and if it was actually whole and did not leak.  I was lucky and it had no visible leaks, the sails worked and I was able to sail it without ramming other water craft or driving it up on land into muck and mire.

I loved that boat and would take it out sailing until I learned how to do it right.  One problem was that it was on a trailer that had to be backed down into the water and the boat floated off before being secured to the dock. The trailer rusted away before the boat came up with serious problems.  I actually bought an extra set of sails, had life-jackets and a set of oars – just in case.  I never really got out to sea in it and satisfied myself by sailing the inland waterway on the Navasink River in New Jersey as often as I could.  My delight in sailing became wet and soggy after I found that Carol did not share my pleasure so the whole affair sat on my property while the trailer rusted slowly away.

I discovered something, though.  The boat was made of plastic and while it didn’t leak, it held rain water that soon filled it and loaded more weight on the decaying trailer. I did a lot of bailing and discovered that one could not tip the boat over to dump the water out because it weighed too much.  Eventually, I discovered that it had a stoppered hole near the bottom of the rear transom and if I left this open, the rain water would drain out.

All of the foregoing is merely a commentary on bail-outs. You need to be prepared for the inevitable rain that will come to try to fill up your boat.  Leaks will do it from the bottom and unexpected seams.  I also learned that I could cover up the open spaces with some canvas and tie that down so the rain water would run off.  But, it was age and holes in the bottom that eventually caused me to try to sell it off and I did so, losing a lot of the money that I put into this boat I mourn from time to time.

I actually never became an “old” salt sailor.  I learned a lot about tacking back and forth and had a high old time running before the wind.  Important things like leaky boats were learned later.  I also learned that it was better to learn how to sail and take care of my boat before the leaks required bail-outs.