A star is born

Picture below at slip in outermost harbor:  YI,  the Clarks 1986 (1985?) Whaler Montauk 17 with a 90 HP yamaha 2 stroke.   Possibly the greatest boat every made.

Features included

1. A compass which was exactly 90 degrees off (made for easier math)
2. A radio which could receive but not transmit.
3. A new anchor hatch cover every two years.  This was one of the last items whaler made from wood.
4. A ding in the steering wheel from where Jason broke his tooth following a hard landing off of a wave.
5. A cooler/portable seat containing oxidized bud light cans.  It is unclear how they got there or why nobody over the course of ten years took the seven seconds required to remove them.  It would have made for a nice time capsule had they not been empty.
6. Outdated inspection stickers which belied that fact that the boat would have passed the most rigorous unsafety test.  I would have been comfortable aiming one of the flare guns directly in my mouth and pulling the trigger.

Critical events included

1. Various runnings aground at full throttle featuring some rapid over the bow ejections.  In hindsight, while the bow rails were removed to improve the aesthetics, this also turned out to be an important safety measure as there was nothing to impede a smooth transition from boat to sandbar (save the bow light).
2. A return trip from Nantucket with a broken lower unit.  Upon arrival to the dock in Stage Harbor, Jason and I discovered that both reverse and neutral had been cancelled.  This was likely related to the strange noises we heard and ignored while leaving Nantucket Harbor.
3. A lower unit strike on a submerged rock at full speed (note this occurred after (2)).  It turns out that using lobster pot markers for depth guidance in an unfamiliar harbor leads to bad results when the markers are in fact marking hazards.
4. Many hours spent jumping waves including an interesting transom-first landing which resulted in instant transformation into a bathtub.
5. A trip to Nantucket in pea-soup fog during which we noted our track was roughly orthogonal to the Hyannis-Nantucket ferry track indicating we were about off-course as is possible.