It’s two year after I started the restoration of my Pearson 28 and I was about 90% finished and not really looking for another project boat. The P28 was my first Pearson and I had come to have great admiration for the Pearson brand after sailing her for the first time before starting the restoration. On that day she was so balanced at the helm that I sat in the cockpit in awe. In one day of sailing, I had experienced a years’ worth of different weather conditions. The engine on the P28 was not working so I got a fellow sailor to pull me out to the outer marker in the Neuse River where there is no danger of grounding. The wind was blowing from the South at 10 with a Carolina blue sky full of sunshine. Nice day to go sailing I thought to myself as I raised the main and unfurled the genoa. It was a wonderful 30 minutes, she is sailing like a dream… then the winds started to build, 12 – 15 – 20. I put the first reef in the main at 15 and reduced the genny. She is still handling very nicely. Just then I noticed a line of black clouds moving quickly from the Southwest toward me. While I’m pondering about bringing in the main, the main and genny are hit with a 25 knot gust from the back side. The wind is freezing and I know what this is, a thunderstorm. The boat heels to about 20 degrees, I release the main and genny and both sweep across the deck. I sheet in both of them to stop the flapping and I notice that with my hand off the tiller she isn’t turning up into the wind like every other sailboat I’ve owned, she is still sailing on course. Wow I’m thinking… just then I’m hit, snap, with a gust of the same size from the opposite direction, main and genny backed again, boat heeling 30 degrees to the other direction. I’m getting tossed around the cockpit like a rag doll. I know I have to drop all the cloth, I drop the main and I tie it to the boom, rain and hail pelting me. I struggle to furl the genoa, it wants to unfurl itself each time I rest to re-pull the furling line. Finally all the cloth is down and I rush to the bow to drop the anchor. Now I can go below, drenched, to sit it out. I’m peering out one of the windows and I notice that I’m smiling, again I’m in awe on how this boat handled in difficult conditions. I watch the storm through the port windows kick up 2 foot waves and we are riding it out like a small bump in the road. Within 15 minutes the storm has passed. I scan the sky looking for trouble and see nothing but Carolina blue and sunshine. I climb back up on deck and re-hoist the main and genoa. Now there is absolutely no wind, a very bright baking sunshine, the temperature is rising quickly, 95% relative humidity which is also rising, but absolutely no wind. Every now and then I feel a whisper of a slight breeze. I sit in the cockpit with my hand over the side holding the genny out as far as I can just to maximize every little puff. I can feel the little tugs on the genny’s clew, and with each little tug I feel the boat move forward. Wow, I think to myself, she responds to even the tiniest little puffs of air.
Now 2 years after our first meeting when I was asked if I wanted to look at a Pearson 323 I thought, sure, I love sailboats and I’m starting to like Pearson’s a lot.
It was then that she drew me in… God help me…