Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

Selling stuff

Since changing my ISP account to Westnet I have gradually become aware of the extra services they include for the price. One of these is a classified ad section. Equipped with the correct password, members can insert free ads to sell junk on their web pages.

Now I have quite a bit of junk around here, and to be honest I would feel guilty about selling much of it to anyone. If the right person came along I would give it to them for free.

Since the May tornado we have had a small Pelican dinghy propped against the mulberry tree in our front garden. I bought it second hand for $250 a few years ago in the hope that my teenagers might be inspired to take up sailing. They weren't. Instead on the first day out on the water it capsized and they had difficulty in righting it. They decided that the life of a land lubber was preferable to a sailor.

I was going to sell it last summer, but didn't get around to it. The class is raced in a couple of clubs on the Swan River, but this is a wooden hull. The much lighter and faster composite ones which cost in excess of three thousand dollars are all the go now. No one wants a slow wooden one, especially when they have the type of daddy who can afford to pay for one and a yacht club membership.

So the old tub sat here for a further year, and last week looked like it was to be a resident for even another summer. I thought about taking it down to the river one night and rigging it up, then sending it out onto the water under sail and aflame Viking style, but then decided it would probably land me in trouble.

So as I was exploring the Westnet website last week I came on the classified section and decided to take up their offer. Only that morning I had contemplated cutting the boat up with the circular saw and taking it to the landfill. After all, my older sons had assured me it wasn't worth a bean.

It's actually quite a good boat and is fully equipped with sails etc which were carefully stored in the garage. I wouldn't really have destroyed it, but I had to find a new owner.

So I inserted an ad, and tongue in cheek, put a price of $100 on it. I hoped it wasn't too much. I was surprised to get a half dozen replies over the next 24 hours.

Now really a hundred bucks was not a lot. The fittings alone would have cost much more, as anyone who has ever built a yacht could verify. But some people just don't have a clue about yachts. "What was a Pelican?" "Was it in perfect condition?" " Could I deliver it?" "What colour was it?" "Did it have a motor?" "Could I email a picture?" I quickly sent two people a picture of the hull at it sat under the mulberry tree. One man replied and indicated he would come to see it on the weekend, but never did. He even asked for a good time to call and I gave it to him, then never heard from him again.

But someone else saw the ad and rang me. They were coming up from the country town of Narrogin for a medical check and could they call in. "Of course." I replied, trying not to sound too eager.

They were an elderly couple on the lookout for something for an enthusiastic teenage grandson. They had sailed yachts in their younger days, but not now. They obviously knew about boats and that $100 was a very fair price. The two fifties are still smoking in my wallet waiting to be converted into a Christmas present for my wife.

They couldn't take the boat with them. A daughter was going to call in with a trailer.

She arrived yesterday afternoon and we loaded the boat and rigging. She had come from the southern port of Bunbury and called into the Fremantle Markets on the way. A parking inspector had issued an on the spot fine because she had not purchased an extra parking ticket for the trailer. That's the last time she'll do any shopping in Fremantle.

So now the Pelican has gone to Bunbury. I was wondering about that because there is nowhere to sail one in Narrogin. I expect that soon one my kids will complain that I sold it.

This is the second yacht to get out my life over the past month. One of my sons (number 2) had a Laser with the same sort of sorry history, except that he had bought it with his own funds. That one came from Bunbury. I thought that was going to be here forever, but someone actually gave him what he had paid for it all those years ago. I noticed he didn't give me any of the proceeds for the inconvenience of tripping over it in the meantime.

Now I'm going to advertise the old windsurfer for 30 bucks. No, hang on! I think I'll try for fifty. It's cheap even at that price. Of course it is.

I hear much noise in the loungroom this morning. My wife and the kids are putting up the plastic Christmas tree and its associated baubles. We were going to buy a new one this year but the only one we liked was tagged at $250 at Myers, so we baulked. They've sold out of that model now. Phew!

© MMV Paul R. Weaver.

About the writer

Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days.

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