Chapter 11

UTAustin Sailing Club is a function of The University of Texas at Austin. The club is intramural with several fieldtrips. The school supplied the boats. UTAustin had a number of Sunfish and a couple of Lasers.

I rode the bus to the interview.

“Do you have any experience?” asked the interviewer.

“What do you mean?” I said.

“Ever sailed?”

“Yes.”

“What boat?”

“Boats. Not Boat ... boats. Plural.” I grinned.

“Ok ... what boats?”

“3.7 Farr, Farr 48, Custom 65 catamaran, Fountaine Pajot Samana 59, Custom 90 catamaran. What?”

“90?”

“Yeah ... my granddad has it in Fiji ... the Fountaine Pajot is there, too. Oh, yeah ... forgot ... a Lagoon 42 on the hard in Houston ... well ... Galveston. The Farr 48 is laid up in Brisbane, Australia. The Farr 3.7 is here.”

“Fiji ... Fiji? ... FIJI! Your granddad is Professor JW Flintkote!”

“Well, yah ... there aren’t a lot of Flintkotes ... we’re a rare breed.”

“You said the 3.7 is here ... where here?”

“My house by the river,” I said.

“You have waterfront property?”

“Sorta...”

“Sorta?”

“Daddy and I lease the land ... we own the almost house.”

“Almost house?”

“We share it with the airplane,” I said. “Look ... it’s complicated ... why don’t you come look?”

So ... that’s what we did. I hopped out at the gate, unlocked, he drove through, I locked back up and he drove over the hill. Spread out before us was Bud Field and ‘Austin Area Tours and Transportation’ in all its glory. The helicopters ... plural ... caught his eye ... mostly the parts and pieces SuperCobra. Twice I had to grab the wheel to keep us on the road ... rubbernecking idiot.

South the canvas canopy and shipping containers drew his eye. The SPAD figured heavily in the attraction. We parked next to the dusty Volvo 544 Sport. Daddy drove the ‘34 Ford to work, so it was gone.

The 3.7 was on the trailer.

“Where did you buy it?”

“I didn’t buy it ... I built it ... last summer ... Pentwater.”

“Michigan?”

“Yes.”

“You know Surprise?”

“My mother’s aunt.”

“What did the kit cost?”

“Not a kit ... Surprise has a laser cutter. The boat is pretty much 6 sheets of 4mm british marine grade plywood and a bunch of dimentional western cedar.”

“Composit boat. It’s pretty.”

“Thank you. I just followed along as she built boats. Surprise said I did a good job.”

“Now ... the yard art?”

“Fully operational AD-2Q. I’m taking lessons.”