Why the dolphins on my hull?

We hadn't lived in the neighborhood long when we bought the Clipper. A few days after she had been sitting in the driveway, alongside the Boston Whaler, I was standing there after work, looking at my new to me boat, admiring her lines and getting good solid mental snapshot, when I realized how just large the wave breaker bow appeared to me. After all, I was used to the little bow of my Whaler. Just then, one of my neighbors stopped to see the Clipper. As we were talking, I pointed out that I feel like something should be there. I mentioned, maybe I could airbrush an image of some sort on the bow. But, what? As we were walking around talking, I had an idea. I remembered how much I love to see dolphins running the bow when I was on the ocean. I mentioned this idea to my neighbor. He left shortly there after. Then, a week or so later, I was inside the house when someone knocked on the door. It was that same neighbor. He had stopped by to give me something. In his hand was something rolled up. As he was unrolling it, he told me he worked at a large printing company near by, then showed the decals he had printed for me. Wow! He told me, he had run across a one by one inch picture of a photograph of a watercolor painting in a magazine. He scanned it into the computerized printer at work and enlarged the image to forty eight inches, enhanced it and made a mirror image, then printed it on the tail end of a job they where running on sticky back vinyl. and then cut it out for me. How cool is that? At first, I wasn't sure I really wanted to use them, so I taped them into position to see how they looked. I left them taped on for a few days to see what kind of reaction they would get. To my surprise, neighbors, including kids where telling us how cool the decals looked on the boat. Of course my kids loved it too. So, I made it permanent. From then on, every time I had her out on the lake, at some point someone would slow to take pictures or shout how much they liked the decals . It was also nice to know that I had the only sailboat on the lake that has dolphins on the bow! I must point out the great amount of pleasure and peace of mind owning and sailing my Clipper Marine has brought me is tremendous.

Great story! When we can take something innominate, and transform that into something animate, it brings life to everything.

Thanks Gary for your response. I have a question. Am I the only one that likes to write? I hope not. A couple of years ago, I went to ITT-Tech to work on my Associates degree in Computer Science / Electronics Engineering Technology. In one of my classes we had to write a crap-load of essays. I used to hate to write. Most of the time they chose the subject for us to write about. When they let us choose our own subject, you don't have to guess what I wrote about. It turns out, my Professor was a sailor too and had just sold her sailboat a few months earlier. She loved my story called "Feel my Sailing". She said; "She could really feel it"! I got a 100 on it. As matter of fact I aced the class. She liked it and another one I wrote so much, she wanted to try to have them published. I haven't heard anymore about it. I had never been told that I'm a good writer before then, nor do I think I am. I just have entirely too much time on my hands for now. As it warms up, I'll be working on the boats. I hope I'm not overwhelming everyone. Just remember, you can always change the channel! I may post the essay later. Chip

I'd love to see a picture of the boat Chip! Great story! One of the things I like about sailors is that they all have a story, and I enjoy hearing them!

Hey Tiny Dancer, from Elton John's "Mad Man Across the Water" album. Right? Great name for a sailboat, but I feel funny addressing you by that. Could I use your first name? I finally figured out how to download pics. I was overlooking the button. I put one on the public forum and a few more in my personal forum. You should be able to view them. I have a lot more I plan to download. I scanned about thirty and tried to download them but, they weren't excepted. Turns out, I used the wrong format. Tomorrow, I'll re scan them into JPEG. I plan to set up the albums to correspond with the two stories. I don't have any really resent pics. But, that should change this season. I also plan to photodocument (new word) projects and post as they progress. I glad you like my stories. Thanks, Chip

Hey,.. you can call me Dan! The song title seemed appropriate for a 21' Clipper Marine.. Though the boat name was inspired by my 3 year old Grandaughter who dances constantly! I wanted to somehow name it after her without hurting the feelings of the rest of my grandchildren! (Now you have "the rest of the story"!

I too would like to see a pic of the artwork on the front of your vessel. Welcome to the forum.

Dan, RE: Your last post. I completely understand not wanting to hurt the feelings of the other Grand children. Nice choice! Although, I had my boats long before my grand kids. I had a hard time trying to come up with a name for my boats. When I first got the Boston Whaler, I was thinking along the lines of whales. Then I thought I might call it "Wet Wind Dancer". In an effort to be unique, I thought I would use a different language, like in Cherokee but, the translation was too hard to pronounce. I couldn't decide on anything, so I ended up naming her the: "Ashley Victoria" after my daughter. Now my son gets to name her whatever he wants. When I got the Clipper, I wanted to have a catchy name. I was out on the lake one day wishing for some wind, I kept saying to myself, come on wind blow me! Then it occurred to me to name her "Blow Me", relating to the wind making the boat go. After trying that name out on a few people, it was clear that it compelled the wrong image> (people and their dirty minds). So I added "Away" and that seems to work. After all, It's a family boat! I didn't mean to assume that "Tiny Dancer" related the album; "Mad Man Across the Water" but, I think if it had, that would be cool too. Hey, can you all not see the pics I've posted? If you go to "Free Forum" scroll down to to CM 26, click on Photo Gallery,(I'm sure ya'll already know that! lol), you should see my CM26 at the dock. If not, we need to talk to Gary.

Ah! Found it! Nice graphics! Once I get the tarp off mine,... I'll post a pic of "before and after" of our CM21! I have yet to paint it but it is white with a blue stripe now,.. but will be burgundy when I get it finished. I also have a Newport 27 for sale that I need to paint the bottom on,. a J-24 that we have been racing the past 5 years, and we just bought back our old Newport 28 that we sold 3 years ago! Bought it 4 days after buying the Newport 27 which we got to replace the 28 we sold 3 years earlier only to find out our old boat was on the market again! Well,.. I guess you can see we are "boat poor"! We bought the CM21 last spring so we could travel and sail, (we hate traveling with the J-24) and wanted a swing keel that would be easy to load and unload, as well as being light to trailer with the Honda Ridgeline. We never got it in the water last year but we got it pretty cheep and it isn't costing us a slip fee so it doesn't really matter that we have too many boats! Just need to sell the Newport 27.

My bad! I sometimes forget to check the gallery. Very cool graphics.

Terry

It is still winter, I think we will have more posters as the season gets underway.

Glad to have new faces posting, it will give the other members incentive to respond and post.

Hey,.. as one of the new guys, I am thrilled to be part of this! I have not seen much that compares to this forum. Thanks again for having this site for all of us Clipper Marine owners!

Hey Gary, back in 2002 or 3, I was a member on a CM website that was hosted by a really nice man that lived in Columbia S.C. with his wife. I was living in Chattanooga TN at the time. He made several references to sailing on Lake Murray, S.C.. I too have sailed on Lake Murray. My son and I moved there a short time after making the connection. My mother needed some help after some surgery. (She lives there) I can't remember his name. He was so kind to let me keep my Boston Whaler in his back yard, beside his CM21 (I think). My Clipper was at still in Chattanooga at a friends'. A few months later, my son and I moved back to Chattanooga. We lost touch and a couple of years ago, I tried get in touch, but the numbers were no good. Do you or anyone know whatever happened to this former CM website host? I'd like to know how they are doing. Thanks, Chip