I continued to look at the little Westerly and did some research. Well, ok a lot of research.
The original Westerly 22 and 25's go back to the very beginning of fiberglass sailboats. They were built as tough as possible to stand up to North Sea conditions and even came with Lloyd's of London's certification. Which is pretty much unheard of. Basically a blue water boat in a tiny package.
I was so excited about the whole thing that I promptly waited about 6 months before sending my wife to look at the boat which was docked at Lake Lanier just outside of Atlanta GA.
What were we doing in those 6 months? Chasing 5 kids, working two full time jobs, rebuilding various teens autos from unlikely calamities, and trying on rare occasions to get out on the lake on our little bow rider boat.
Slowly Michelle had become excited about the sailing thing, the thought of a boat that uses virtually no gas appealed to her. Thrifty can be sexy! (much later photo)
So Michelle went down to Georgia on one of our many, many travel baseball trips and went to look at the boat between games. The PumRunch, while still lovely, had not weathered as well in the water since her restoration as one would have hoped.
Her green paint was a single stage and had faded and chaulked badly. The interior was still amazing. The owners Simon and Audrey had done wonders. Simon (a English ex-pat) worked with aircraft interiors and many of his extras had found there way into a delightful, if tiny interior. Another problem, while docked the boat next to her had caught fire and burned to the waterline scorching the Pum a bit and ruining much of her sunbrella covers and her bimini top.
Michelle returned home with a positive report and few pictures.
So naturally we waited almost another 6 months before acting.