The Rock Lobster comes to fruition

I got the bug to purchase a sailboat after crewing on some friends' boats. My experiences on the Magic Juan and Shenanigans had lit a fire under my ass that burnt so hot I didn't care what I bought. With a little extra stoking of the fire by Scott Ellis (skipper of Shenanigans) I found a San Juan 7.7 up at Cap Sante marina in Anacortes, WA. The boat was definitely a sight for sore eyes with her faded blue and orange paint job with a large yellow star on the side. The "shooting star" spoke to me in some strange and twisted way, so I did what any man with a burning desire to sail would do...I bought that POS with the intent of fixing it up.

Shortly after purchase, Scott and I organized a delivery date with another cohort of this San Juan revival, Joe Flowers. Joe was kind enough to commandeer a trailer (from a source who we will leave nameless) and provide me space to do some serious work on the dry. The delivery wasn't quite smooth sailing. There was even a point when Scott was bailing the bilge out with a McDonalds cup to keep the water from overwhelming us. We did get a plan put together as to what improvements would be required, and once the boat was at Joe's the work began.


Little did I know how much effort it takes to fair a keel, sand bottom paint, epoxy all the holes in the transom, install new thru-holes, remove old crusty registration stickers, install new transducers (speed and depth), block the topsides, primer the topsides, block the topsides, and paint the topsides. None of it would have been possible without a team of people who made the SJ7.7 revival possible.

A huge thanks goes to:

Scott Ellis, Joe Flowers, and Jordan Lytle





There were honestly times that I doubted if we could really pull this off. I went from knowing absolutely nothing about sailboats to knowing every detail of the boat I am proud to sail on. What an amazing experience!