Originally Posted by
Grace
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Oddly enough, I have some information on Freelance. On May 16th, I discovered an absolutely perfectly restored 1980s Shannon 28 cutter named Summer berthed in Pelican Harbor in Sausalito. While I was snapping pictures of the unusually fine craftmanship, Freelance was getting ready to depart her slip on the other side of the fairway. Freelance has been berthed at Pelican Harbor for over a decade. The owner was a member of a local yacht club and a friend of his I knew well advised him not to buy the boat - full of some obvious and many yet to be discovered defects. However, he did buy the boat and put many hours and dollars into making her right, but to no avail, she was too far gone even then.
As I taking photos of the Shannon 28, there were three individuals on the dock helping throw off the docklines preparing Freelance for departure. Freelance's slip was right against the large tar covered pilings of the seawall at the north end the marina. It appeared that there were two individuals on board - one driving in a cabin with no rear visibility and a crew member standing on the port side deck looking aft and advising the pilot. As Freelance eased her way backwards into the fairway, it was immediately clear that whoever was driving that day had no idea of how to control the boat in what is a generously wide fairway. Backing up and almost striking a Valiant 42, the crew yelled at the driver to go forward to avoid the collision. Smoke bellowed from the stack on top of the pilot house as the engine gunned. More back and fills followed with no progress pointing Freelance's bow toward the harbor exit. One final attempt gunning the engine in apparent frustration had Freelance's bow just clear the seawall pilings accelerating toward the open water of Richardson Bay, but alas, the pilot forgot about the motion of the aft quarter on the port side which while turning struck the seawall with such force that the supports for the roof over the aft deck exploded and flew into the water.
I made my way over to the individuals who released Freelance's lines. They said that the boat was just recently sold; the new owners were on board and the plan was to motor out the Gate to Moss Landing. The forecast for that day was poor for this journey. When I got home, I told my wife the story over dinner and ended by saying we may be hearing about Freelance in the near future...