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

[David Bradley]

Nice story Mr Babs. Thanks for sharing it. Enjoy your new boat. You've got great waters in which to sail her. I'm hoping to sail to Block Island this summer (from Greenwich, CT). Hope to see you out and about in the Sound. 

Dave

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
> 
> 
> 
> --
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