yacht glory
GLORY 37 Feet.Sleeps 3 Guests in 1 King(s), 1 Single(s)
Updated April 10th, 2009
We received this email today from David, informing us all that Glory was going out of charter and he was getting mmmmmaaaarrrriiiieeeedddd! Congratulations to them both, but it is always a bit of a sad feeling when you see one of the long term good boats leave the fleet!
I am posting a bit of the info to give you an idea of one directions Charter Boats and Captains retire too, before taking the yacht page down.
After 18 years, 500 charters, 10,000 charter meals....only 73 of which were eaten below, 50-70% annual repeats and an all time high of one guest returning 10 times, another 9 times, others 8 and 7, too, never mind the 4s and 3s......I am retiring from the business. I've had wonderful times mostly, but of course, a few "charters from hell." Only 5 guests would never be allowed aboard again, which is only one in a hundred. I laughed like hell two years ago with the fifth, saying, "great, with this horse's ass outta here, I've got 99 more good ones coming! Hot damn!!" I've had wonderfully appreciative guests, the highest gratuity of $1500...nearly 50% of the fee in those days about 8 years ago, and the poorest one, zero. They all got the same service, the same energy, the same enthusiasm. For the years before 911, I was always one of the three top-booked boats in the fleet. It was exhilerating....and produced three magazine articles. I've kept in contact with many, and know the tremendous impact I've had on their lives, as boat owners, cruisers, sailing instructors, bareboaters, and professional captains, too. It is wonderful to know how many I have touched in that way. Some have been flying me around the country so as to help them with their knotty boat problems on-site.
I've made wonderful friends, had memorable moments, but the time has come. In November, I am getting married to an old old friend....my best friend of some 22 years, who sailed into Christiansted with her husband on their Southern Cross 31, about the time I ws getting divorced and living on my little race-boat in Christiansted Harbor before I bought Glory, before I starting chartering. Debbie's husband, Art, has since died, but our close friendship continued, and now has blossomed to "something more than friends." It's very exciting, as well as freightening! This season has again, been slow, and discussions with collegues shows that they on the whole, the benchmark-boats, are not doing well either. This, in a way is fine and perhaps makes this decision easier. I am back in St. Croix with Deb, and have blocked out my calendar for the future. Why St.Croix when I could do so many other "day" boat jobs in St. Thomas? Because St. Croix has been my home for 43 years, it is the land that I love and the land of my children's birth. The land of friends and roots. And Debbie's, too, for 22 years. While her house is 300' up on a lovely hill overlooking Christiansted Harbor's entry channel, offering million-dollar unobstructable sea views from there to east of Buck Island and miles of countryside, and we will be living there, I do not intend to sell the old girl. A friend of her's asked her, "Oh, God, if David is going to live with you, is he going to sell the boat?" She replied, "If he sells that boat, I won't marry him!"
For the time being, I am going to continue and finish the "replace the external teak" project, as well as some other things to make Ole Fatso more of a longer range cruising boat than a charter vessel. We plan to see many of the islands neither of us did in our earlier cruising days. She'd sailed from CT to the Chesepeke, up and down the east coast and back and forth to both sides of FL, to the DR, PR, the ABCs and Venezuela, and simply by chance, stopped off in St.Croix while en-route to PR again, "for a few weeks" to visit one of Art's old friends from his aerospace days. That was the 22 years ago. St. Croix has a way about her.
Why not have her join me chartering? A number of reasons, really, but.... one is that the boat simply can not command enough money for two.
When the boat projects are done, there are ideas for her house that she's wanted to impliment for years. I have the skills to do that instead of hiring a contractor or $50-120/hr. tradespeople. After that, well, I'll look for something else or we'll just bag it and go sailing.
I want to thank you and those who came before and are now retired, for your trusting me with your clients and the business you have sent me over the years, or in some cases, "almost" sent. And for stopping bye at the boat shows even if just to chat, as friends. Because of the broker efforts, with the number of charter guests I've had aboard, I have often said I can travel across the country for months at a time and never pay for a hotel room. And traveling the country is something else we want to do. So little time!
Best of luck in the future David
I really did not meet David and step on board his yacht Glory until the fall boat show. I had seen the boat, for many years of course, and it reminded me of a "true sailing boat" of "yore" and you could usually find David in some out of the way anchorage snorkeling! I did not realize that it WAS a charter boat at first, not because of it being in bad shape, it was in good shape, it was just obviously a classic sailing monohull, and at 37 feet, about 10 feet longer then the "sailboat" that I received in pieces as a tip in a restaurant I owned! We dreamed of doing something big with that boat, but all it did was sit in the yard and we might have sat inside it and dreamt of the time we could sail-away. Probably with beer in hand back then! Now without three hulls under me, 2 engines, a generator, ice machine and air conditioning I am not sailing anywhere. But many do!
We recently had charter guests on board Glory (November of 2008) Click here to read reviews of Glory
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David in cockpit of Glory
On Dock in Charlotte Amalie
Side view
Cabin
Glory anchored at Watermelon Cay
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What I did not realize about David until as soon as I stepped on his boat, was how peaceful and soothing his presence is.. I felt myself breathe deeply and everything about the boat was, well, right! I sat in the cockpit and thought that me, who likes all the amenities that you could ever want, would have been happy to sit in the cockpit for a week and be taking back 50 years and REALLY learn how to sail! It is probably the only boat I have ever stepped on and felt like that.
David is both captain and cook, except for the two meals that he requests that you eat out a week. Not only does this man cook and sail, and fix whatever needs to be fixed, he will also teach you how to sail, and i guarantee you will feel like a "true" sailor on GLORY!
He lovingly maintains his yacht, and is being dragged slowly into the modern age, with installing IPODS and the like, but I am certain that it would be a marvellous week aboard Glory, learning the many years of knowledge he has about boats, the area and sailing. I now believe there are too few boats like this around.
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