[Rhodes22-list] Stan the Man or Why I bought a Rhodes22

[Stephen Staum]

Mr. Babs,

Where do you hail from?  I live in Needham, MA & sail an '83 Rhodes out of Squantum Yacht Club in Quincy, MA. 

Stephen Staum
s/v Carol Lee 2
Needham, MA


Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 9, 2013, at 7:18 PM, Mrbabs <Marc at babineauins.com> wrote:

> Like many, since I was young, I dreamed of sailing away. Life interrupted the
> dream, with children, work, responsibilities etc. etc. and that just made
> the sailing dream seem, just that. A dream.Fast forward to June of 2012 when
> my significant other and I found ourselves talking about sailing again. I
> started reading sailing magazines, looking online, dream weaving. After a
> couple months I read something online from another dreamer (there are lots
> of us out there) who was looking for the "perfect" boat. An anomymous
> someone posted "Just get a Rhodes22".I found the Rhodes22 website and
> laughed myself silly reading everything. I didn't know who Stan Spitzer was,
> but he was one very funny guy. And I thought, I really like his sailboat! I
> traded a couple of emails with Stan and we decided to head south to the
> Annapolis Boat Show. This was about as far North as Stan was travelling and
> we wanted to see the Rhodes. This was our first boat show ever and boy were
> we overwhelmed with boats and equipment. Coming around to the Rhodes
> display, I mentioned to the man in one boat that I loved his website. He
> pointed to the guy sitting in the other Rhodes and said "Oh that's Stan over
> there, he's 86". What???!!!!  Stan is 86 years old!!  We immediately hopped
> boats and introduced ourselves as newbies. In our short discussion, Stan
> told me he had discovered the secret to immortality - many of his friends
> had retired and died. He figured if he just kept working he would live
> forever! To make a long story even longer - we hardly slept a wink Saturday
> night not knowing what to do. Sunday morning, we figured we would put a
> deposit on a boat. On the way over we ran into Stan leaving and I asked if I
> could put a deposit on a boat. He said sure, and when I asked how much, he
> replied $1,000. When I told him I didn't have $1,000 on me, he offerred to
> loan me the money!  Well I emptied my pockets of cash and handed it to him
> on the dock and we parted company. When we arrived back home in
> Massachusetts, I couldn't believe I had handed $800 to some guy on a dock in
> Maryland and walked away without a receipt, no information on the boat,
> nothing. He didn't even have our names! Talk about clueless!Over the winter
> we satisfied ourselves that Stan is real person and sells boats!  We figured
> out what we bought and it appears as though the dreaming is over as we now
> own a 2007 Rhodes22.  The last time I sailed was on a Sunfish 37 years ago
> so we have signed up for a sailing classes in Newport and will be keeping
> the boat on the Narragansett Bay.  We are clueless, but very happy to have
> found this group. We are also happy to have met Stan, who happens to be one
> of the most remarkable people I have ever encountered. I hope he lives to
> 186!  It appears from this group, I am not alone with these thoughts.We will
> be leaving to pick up the boat in 9 days and we may even learn how to use it
> this summer!Cheers
> 
> 
> 
> --
> View this message in context: http://rhodes-22.1065344.n5.nabble.com/Stan-the-Man-or-Why-I-bought-a-Rhodes22-tp45374.html
> Sent from the Rhodes 22 mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
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