Thanks Dad!

Dad calls and says he is done sailing.  Done, done.  He has not been able to go out sailing for a couple of seasons and if my brother and I want his Contest 29 sailboat, we can have it…well of course we want it! Thanks Dad!

Growing up

Growing up in Maryland, my family (dad, uncle, grandfather, siblings) were sailors on the Chesapeake Bay, a beautiful body of water with over 5,000 miles of shoreline and many fun places to visit when sailing.  My Uncle and grandfather had a 35 foot sailboat that they owned for personal use and also chartered.  My dad had a 25 foot that we was solely for personal use.  Our summers were spent sailing almost every weekend and then we took longer trips when Dad would take his vacation days.  I enjoyed that a lot.

As occurs to all of us, as we grow up and get older, “life happens”.  Parents’ divorce, remarriages, step-familys etc.  I moved from Maryland to Illinois in 1975 during my freshman year in high school with my mom, brother and step-dad.  Then high school, college, my own marriage and children. 

The first few years after moving to Illinois, my brother and I would spend a good part of our summers visiting our dad in Maryland and still sailed a lot.  After about 1978 though, with the start of my adult life, trips back to Maryland became fewer and sailing during those trips rarely happened.

Dad of course continued to sail and even got a bigger boat in 1992, a Contest 29 built by Conyplex B.V., a Dutch company.

Contest 29 - July 2004

My wife knew of my love of sailing and on a few occasions she would surprise me by arranging for a bareboat charter, usually a J24, and we would sail for a few hours up and down Chicago’s beautiful skyline.