Storms rolled through Sarasota last Tuesday giving me an extra day to get a few things prepped for the trip to the boat yard.
I drove up to Bradenton to get the lay of the land and meet the Snead Island Boatworks crew who would be taking care of the yard jobs on my to-do list. I couldn’t find much about Snead Island online, but I’d heard lots of good things about them over the years.
It’s a family owned boat yard that’s been around for 75+ years. The service manager immediately knew of Brewer/Whitby sailboats and has worked with a good many of them in his 30 something years at the yard.
I had considered hiring a captain to help me with the 4 hour trip up on Wednesday since I’d yet to singlehand the boat. But I ultimately figured there was no better time to give it a shot than on the way to the repair yard.
I pulled out of the slip around 7am Wednesday morning. After a quick dolphin show and waiting for 2 bridges to open, I anchored out in front of Snead Island in the Manatee River around 11:30am.
About an hour later they had the haul-out basin ready for me. It took a little longer than I’d like to admit to back the boat into the haul-out slip, but I managed it without hitting anything, so we’ll count it as a success. There’s no doubt it’s going to take a lot of practice for me to get a good handle on how my full-keel’d boat moves in reverse.
I’m working in Atlanta & Nashville the next couple of weeks, but I’ll leave you with a short video of my trip to the yard…
[Video should appear below. If not, click here to view.]