N 20 Cruising

N20 Cruising (Gene Halpern)

Perhaps our family holds some sort of record for cruising in a Nimble 20. Beginning in 1995, our family of four set off on a 3,000 mile, 13 month journey from the upper Ohio River, to the Gulf of Mexico via the Tenn-Tom Waterway, down to Marathon in the Keys, and then up to the Chesapeake Bay. While you scratch your head and wonder how that could be possible, please consider that our daughters were 10 and 12 at the time and were homeschooled on the boat---requiring two full years worth of various textbooks. An additional bonus: I ran a small canvas business off the boat and carried a sewing machine, several bolts of Sunbrella, and a full store of tools. A single 40-watt solar panel (mounted behind the mizzen) powered the sewing machine and VHF radio. We used a kerosene anchor lamp. During the 13 months, we spent a total of two nights in a marina---spending the rest of the time anchored out or short stays at public docks. We cooked all meals onboard. Our Nimble 20 -- Morgan Truce -- weathered two hurricanes with all hands aboard---including being within 20 miles of Hurricane Opal's landfall. Only in retrospect did it seem that such cramped living was so insane. Several years later, both daughters wrote abut their experiences in successful applications to elite colleges. At some point in nearly every conversation we had along that journey, complete stangers would offer our girls this sage advice: "This is an experience you will never forget!"

The first thing I would write on living aboard, is about your relationship to the boat. How you feel about a boat has everything to do with how well you can pull off living aboard it. A person should not own any boat that you can bear to walk away from---without stopping several times to turn back and admire her. (I think I am correct in attributing that thought to Bruce Bingham.) Whether day-sailing, cruising, or living aboard, a Nimble makes good sense. She is the kind of boat that people instinctively welcome---and, to the extent that you apply your careful attention to the boat, that welcome will extend to you. Being welcome where you travel is the key to wanting to push on ahead. Another bit of Bruce’ Bingham’s wisdom: “It is the owner who makes a yacht from a boat or, conversely, who makes a boat from a yacht.” A stock Nimble has many interesting features that set her off from plainer looking boats. Before I set sail, I sought to add several personal touches. I added mahogany planking to both the companionway hatch and the foredeck hatch, filled the seams with dark caulk, and then stained all the Nimble's wood a deep mahogany. I painted all the aluminum spars with several coats of cream-colored enamel. I sewed dozens of custom canvas items for the boat. The small rigid tender that we towed behind got similar treatment. Nothing I did was purely decorative, but rather served to make the boat easier to maintain, more seaworthy, and, above all, safer. I didn’t spend huge sums of money, but I did invest many hours of work. By the time we left on our journey, not only could I not walk away from the boat without turning around to admire her… I could barely walk away at all! I wanted to be on that boat. The reward for all that effort came many months later when we were invited to dock several days at the Fairhope Yacht Club down in Mobile Bay where we were welcomed as if we had completed some major circumnavigation. (We had just barely touched salt water yet…) We were tied up at a berth---between two very glossy and considerably larger Hinckley sailboats. That weekend, many people came strolling down the dock, right past the gorgeous Hinckleys, and said to us, “Oh, what a lovely old wooden boat!”

Thank you: Ted Brewer, Jerry Koch, and Bruce Bingham.

I just don’t know how we fit all that stuff on the boat…. All I know is that it took us 45 minutes to shift all of it around so we could get in our bunks… and another 45 minutes in the morning to get to the point where we could eat breakfast. If it happened to be raining, double those times---a real fireman’s drill!

The biggest "lesson" I took away from our long cruise was... "Shallow draft cruising has very special rewards." When you're cruising along well-travelled waterways, most of the people living ashore have had their fill of cruisers. In some places, you are lucky to get drinking water. In a shallow draft boat, your experience is completely different from the other fellow who might be drawing two, three, or more feet. With your shallow draft, you will be able to get into places where the people living ashore never see cruisers. They are anxious to see you and your boat. They ask if you need showers or the use of their washing machines. They give you the keys to their car to go to the supermarket. They give your kids ice cream! In this forum, of course, raving on about the joys of shallow draft is the equivalent of preaching to the choir.