NEXT ADVENTURE
SADLEY SOLD SNOW BIRD 2012
May 26, 2007 Memorial Weekend in Poulsbo WA accross Puget Sound from Seattle. This unique Norwegian Fishing Village is now a go to resort area in the summer with bed and breakfast homes, Norwegian festivals, shops, restaurants, bakeries, marinas in a charming setting with mountains all around on a fijord called Liberty Bay.
I am joining the Poulsbo Yatch Club this week to be able to keep Snow Bird in the slip the previous owner owns and I will get slip very reasonably from him. I did meet some of the members and am taking the Snow Bird on a club trip this weekend to Port Ludlow as part of the initiation to become a member. Most of the members are cruising sailors with a few racers. This area of the country everyone heads out for the summer and many have left already for Alaska. One member just got back from Mexico another came back from Central America.
IN SEARCH OF SNOW BIRD
Richard Asztalos March 24, 2007 
For over a year and a half I have been on the Internet looking for a Cruising sailboat. My friend Leo Lamay invited be down to Trinidad last year where I wanted to see one particular boat that needed a lot of cosmetic work and time. There were boats there from every part of the world. Most people go down there to the bottom of the Caribbean to get out of the way of Hurricanes.
Two years ago I skippered a boat in Tortola BVI's with some friends and looked at a lot of cruisers there. Most were previous charter boats and I came across a friends boat from Michigan at the Bitter End. When I banged on the hull to see if they were aboard and they were not, the charter company chartered it to people from New York. As I looked at the boat from the dingy I could see where neglect and poor maintenance had raised it's ugly head. Screws popping out of the rub-rail, dings and scratches on the side of the hull. I then decided I didn't want a previous chartered boat.
I have looked everywhere and the Pacific Northwest is another sailing mecca that has more cruising boats than anywhere because it is a great place to cruise with protected water all the way to Alaska. My search took me to Seattle where I went to six brokers and when I got to the third broker Tradewind Yacht Sales in Poulsbo WA across Puget Sound from Seattle, I met Murray who showed me a boat that just was listed.
SNOWBIRD was sitting in her slip and it was love at first sight. Without getting on board you could see the quality, care and beauty of this boat. Once on board I found all the features of a huge center cockpit, instruments, rigging and other equipment. The sailor in me was very pleased with the equipment, double head sails, hydraulic back stay adjusters, hydraulic boom vang, transom door to walk out to the swim platform with an aft cockpit that leads into the master stateroom. This was more than I even dreamed for. Then we went below to the huge salon with two Queen Anne chairs with a wood-burning fireplace between them. Every thing is custom made from the draperies to the cabinets and the quality keeps shinning. The aft master stateroom with it's settee next to another wood-burning fireplace, an port-side bed with instrument and a compass over head to check navigation and a phone next to that to call up to the forward cabin. The engine room was incredible with a stand up workshop, bench, vise, grinder/buffing wheel, tool racks, outstanding. The galley with a u-shaped counter, and electric range and oven, microwave, deep freezer and refrigeration. There are two heads and two forward sleeping staterooms. Navigation equipment all consolidated to a computer system in the office like navstation.
Snowbird will be home and take me to many places and I hope that you stop by from time to time on this site to check on "What In The World Is Going On On SNOWBIRD"
Fair winds,
Richard Asztalos
248.763.0142
Skype nwsailor
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Send all e-mails to rasztalos@juno.com
