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Our Ranger 33 ‘Summer Sailstice’ Finds a New Home in Alameda

We’re not really believers in the saying, “The two happiest days in a boat owner’s life are the day they buy a boat and the day they sell.” We like the updated version that the two happiest days are Saturday and Sunday. Surely this past Saturday was a happy one for the new owners of our Ranger 33 Summer Sailstice, and for us too — it was a beautiful day to be sailing. It was also bittersweet, as we said goodbye to the boat we’ve enjoyed for the past 18 years of Bay and Delta cruising, racing and daysailing.

Ranger 33 Summer Sailstice
Wesley and Christina Nunez sailing Summer Sailstice to her new berth at Alameda Marina.
© 2021 Latitude 38 Media LLC / John

We’ve had Summer Sailstice in our Classy Classifieds for a couple of months, noting that the 1975 Ranger 33’s original Atomic 4 was at the end of its life or, in fact, we think it’s toast. Regardless, Wesley’s going to make an attempt at proving us wrong. We’d been considering replacing it with an electric motor as, based in the rarely windless Bay Area, it’s an ideal solution for a Ranger 33. If Wesley can’t get the Atomic 4 out of the ICU, electric may be the alternative. Beyond the engine repair, the boat has a few projects, and after 18 years, we wondered if we wanted to take on the next phase of this Ranger’s life, or if it was time to pass it along to the next generation.

Fortunately, Wesley Nunez, who’s the son of Roger Nunez of Alameda’s Reliable Marine Electronics, and his wife Christina have recently become fired up about sailing. As Wesley explained, “I’ve been working on boats with my dad for about eight years, but had never really got into sailing. However, I did go out with customers to check our installations and found I also loved the sailing. I wanted to learn more. My wife and I bought an older Santana 22 and have had a great time learning to sail in the Oakland Estuary. We’ve taken out tons of friends who have never sailed and wanted room to bring more friends when circumstances allow it again. I’d also sailed on a customer’s Ranger 33 and thought it a great boat so have had my eye out for one.”

Since the boat literally does not have a working engine the question was how to get it to its new home at Alameda Marina. It is a sailboat, after all, and since Wesley and Christina were game, we decided to try our luck sailing with them on a sunny, 10-knot breeze and 11:30 max ebb forecast. I didn’t mention it to them, but the night before when I opened my mail, my new Boat US card had arrived,  with towing service. An omen?

Garmin Quatix 6
Wesley’s cool Garmin quatix 6 says we left at 11:11, so who’s going to argue with that? It also says our elevation gain was 49 feet! Apparently, our downwind sail was all uphill.
© 2021 Wesley Nunez / Garmin

As you can see from the course, we made it, and with a 2.4-knot average, you can safely assume we didn’t get a tow. We started out with a gentle northeasterly and optimistically headed to the west side of Angel Island. With a strong ebb running we hugged the shore but also found ourselves in the windless lee of Angel. It was a perfect chance to demonstrate the spinnaker setup. As the Bay turned glassy and the ebb built I was looking over my shoulder, wondering if the Golden Gate Bridge was getting closer to our engineless efforts. Finally, the forecast westerly arrived and we were able to shift back to jib reach across to Treasure Island toward the Estuary. Once past Yerba Buena we reset the kite after a spinnaker-packing review and joined many Estuary dwellers on a warm, leisurely sail, only having to douse the chute in time to sail into Summer Sailstice‘s new slip.

Summer Sailstice Heading home
Christina heads Summer Sailstice toward her new home in the Estuary.
© 2021 Latitude 38 Media LLC / John

Yes, we were happy to see new owners taking over ‘our’ boat, but we also have a lot of great memories from all our years of sailing her. The bright spot is we are looking forward to bringing our new-to-us Sabre 38 Finistere north from Southern California, though we’re not sure when that will fit into the schedule.

Joining us on the Bay for the day was the Egleston family’s Lester Stone & Son-built 56-ft cutter Water Witch.
© 2021 Latitude 38 Media LLC / John

In the “small world” way, as we sailed up the fairway to the slip in Alameda, we passed John and Anita Dodge’s old Pearson 10M Windhover, which used to live five or six slips down the row from us at Corinthian Yacht Club. The two boats are now neighbors again with new owners in a new marina. We’ll look forward to seeing them both out sailing the Estuary as summer sailing returns.

8 Comments

  1. Chris Boome 3 years ago

    How much easier this trip would have been if you had left about an hour before the flood started!

    Looked like those Water Witch people read their currents….looked like a beautiful day.

    • John Arndt 3 years ago

      So true but then we would only have had about three hours of beautiful sailing instead of five! Probably should have hugged Treasure Island a little closer too.

  2. Rich 3 years ago

    Nice story, you guys! Good luck with your “big boat.”

  3. -Jude 3 years ago

    Thanks for the great story, John!

  4. chris mckay 3 years ago

    You made us 33 owners proud by sailing her as much as you did and keeping her looking good. Gary Mull is smiling. Looking forward to seeing what’s next. I might have sold the Santana to your buyer a few years ago in Oakland. Another great Mull design. Keep up the great work you’re doing with the rag and SS.

  5. Mitch Perkins 3 years ago

    Bitter sweet. Thanks for the opportunity to crew aboard Summer Sailstice. Always fun and always competitive. I’ll echo McKays sentiment…. hats off to smiling Gary Mull. Onward!

  6. Kevin Roesler 3 years ago

    Great story! Glad to see that Summer Sailstice is going to another great home!

  7. April & Roger Nunez 3 years ago

    Summer Sailstice will be well loved and cared for. Wesley and Christina are already sharing her with others and helping to spread the appreciation of sailing. Their guests have ranged from 16 to 88 so far! They are looking forward to many projects and days on the water enjoying the boat. They also make this mom and dad very proud!

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