Two old guys, and a Garmin, part 1

Multihull sailing fascinates me anyway, but yesterday’s scoot around the Bay was inspirational and momentous. That grinning dude, bigger picture here, with the magnifying lens clipped to his already serious glasses is 73–year-old trimaran designer Jim Brown, who I’ve had the pleasure of knowing since my days in the 80’s running WoodenBoat School, where he and longtime boat-biz partner John Marples taught a wonderful class in Constant Camber multihull construction. Jim’s had macular degeneration nipping away at his vision for some fifteen years, and his good buddy Jo Hudson, 70 himself, is sporting some brand new artery stents. But yesterday was, in part, a test sail preparatory to Jo and  Jim taking off today, headed for Jim’s dock in Virginia. And they’re dreaming about the Azores and an Atlantic circle starting next April. That’s the inspirational part!
  The momentous part is that Jo just bought Good Enough from Steve Neil, center below, who took Jim’s class in 1986 along with his dad, for whom he (beautifully) built this 35’ Constant Camber Marples-designed trimaran. Steve went on to build several other multis, took this one over after his dad’s passing, and is now production manager at Wayfarer Marine. It’s not easy to give up a boat with so much personal history, but he and his mate Diane (chasing us in a photo boat) seemed delighted about turning this one over to Jo and Jim.
  And, yes, there was a marine electronics element. Part of my function yesterday was trying to orient the old guys to the Garmin 3206 that Jo just bought and Steve installed. It was a challenge. This is a pretty complex machine, with a lot of buttons, and Jim can only see it by putting his magnifiered eye inches away. I tried to set it up to be as useful yet straightforward as possible—more about that in part 2—but Jo still found it overwhelming. Hopefully, he’s making friends with his 3206 right now, on the open Bay. If you live or boat along the Northeast Coast, keep an eye out for these old cats!