Dream On

It is more than likely that it is the season that has turned my thoughts to the dreams that we have all had in our lives, those things that we have wanted to pursue. These stand in opposition to the now dreams we have like the kids of sugar plums dancing in their heads, the ones that fuel this past Fridays frenzy. I am thinking of the dreams that lead us to make the life choices we all have to make, the ones that lead us down the life path we have followed those which have caused us to arrive at place we now inhabit. Many of us start out with the common dreams of childhood of being a fireman or similar, as time passes these initial dreams morph into new pursuits or simple refinements of the original as we discover more of the world and of that which interests and motivates us.

For me my life has been spent around and on the water from trips with my parents as a child to a toddler tossing toys off the break wall in the backyard into the river to see what would float. My first real dream of time on the water was as a pre-teen my parents, mainly Dad set about to plan a trip south under sail, that was the first dream that I really remembering embracing. It was also the time of my first love and she was a beauty at least that is how I recall her now, 52 feet on deck, ketch rigged, powerful and able I kept a picture of her as a marker in my text books at school and dreamt. She still lives in my dreams, more I imagine as she was intended to be than as she really was but she still sails there and she is a thing of beauty powering forward under full press of sail. For reasons I have never known that dream died though I still remember her and how close it came to reality with the boxes of books for our schooling stacked in the garage set and ready to go.

That was followed a few years later by my first boat purchase at the end of my teen years and sailing at every opportunity that could be had, it was also accompanied by the need to pay for time on the water and so came that ‘safe’ job. This was followed by the other choices life is filled with I met the ‘one’ and not a boat this time a real live woman, then that decision that shapes the rest of your life. In one hand a quote for the building of a new boat, on the other a wife, the search for a house, the new boat lost, and so eventually did bigger boats a decision I don’t regret for it led to a life with a great woman and two awesome kids now out pursuing their dreams.

 This leads to now , the ‘safe’ completely unfulfilling job wasn't safe and is long gone replaced by the pursuit of old dreams, tempered by life’s other demands. There is now a diploma in yacht design, a few years experience building boats, time working in both commercial and pleasure boat design offices and here I am. Designing boats for people who still dream, whether dream is an old one revived or one just born, who want to spend time afloat, and can with some guidance build their own boats.

Dream on, and we will see you on the water.