|
Thank you for taking the time to explore the Sailboat Exchange!
We hope you find this site useful.
OUR BACKGROUND
Hi, I'm Mike Harris, and I want to welcome you to the site.
Please take a moment to get to know us.
I work as an engineer at a high-tech company, and sail the
San Francisco Bay area on BérBót, a Hunter 37
foot cutter out of Alameda, California. I began sailing at
age 8 in the harbor of Tripoli, Libya with Arab fishermen.
Teen years were sailing a Marconi-rigged plywood Sailfish
in the Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina area. My first keel
boat experience was on Lake Ontario, out of Wilson, New York.
After moving to California, I sailed small catamarans in the
San Francisco Bay, before joining the Napa Sea Scouts Ship
90 (Chaser) as Sail Master. For several years I skippered
their keelboats to various regattas in the Bay area, including
some inter-ship racing. I went to Baja, Mexico with Scouts,
trailering a modified 25 foot C-Class catamaran and Sea Spray
catamarans for sailing and camping at Bahia Los Angeles. I
got ASA certification during a week-long stay in San Carlos,
Sonora, Mexico. Later I crewed with a group chartering a Moorings
38 foot catamaran out of LaPaz, Baja, Mexico.
Penny Bair moved from New England to California, where she
now teaches. She experienced sailing in college, but after
meeting Mike, got a lot more serious about sailboats. She
achieved her ASA certification in 2002.
In 2001 we chartered a 32 foot Moorings sloop from Tortola,
British Virgin Islands, between Christmas and New Year. In
2002, we went back to BVI during the same time of year to
charter a 36 foot sloop.
Finally, in 2003 I bought my own keel boat. BérBót
can be found often around the Bay at Angel Island's Ayala
Cove, Sam's Anchor Café dock at Tiburon, and Bencia
harbor.
After our chartering experiences, we developed an appreciation
for the cost of chartering, as well as for the recent new
expense of owning and maintaing a boat. When Tom & Rose
decided to pass along the site, we jumped at it. The concept
is proven with the house-exchange model, and it seems right
for sailors world-wide to affordably share each others' cruising
grounds.
We would love to hear from all of you, especially about your
experiences using this site and exchanging boats. Please let
us know what is working and not working, and any ideas for
improving the site.
Fair winds,
Mike & Penny
|
