Ronnie Simpson’s New Journey

Sailor, journalist, racer, Latitude 38 contributor, supply skipper and Iraq conflict veteran Ronnie Simpson lately scored, shifting to the new-to-him Serendipity 43 Puffin. As Ronnie defined on his Fb web page, “About eight months after promoting my Peterson 34 Quiver, I’m as soon as once more a ship proprietor. Fairly shortly after shifting to Maui in August I began boats once more. By about November, the hunt was actually on. Finally, my on-line searches led me to San Pedro, California, to take a look at one other Doug Peterson design, a Serendipity 43.”

“She wants some work however is super-cool and fairly good, and a whole lot of boat for the cash. Customized-finished in Santa Cruz, she is a reasonably distinctive boat and has a approach totally different inside from any of her sisterships. The boat additionally comes with a ton of sails, together with a full race stock. Mainly an even bigger and nicer model of my final boat, and drawn by the identical designer. I’m thus far super-stoked on this Doug Peterson-designed Serendipity 43 at present named Puffin. I’ll change the title, however she was recognized and raced as Samiko in NorCal for a very long time, up till a number of years in the past. Nonetheless residing and dealing in Maui and never 100% certain why I simply purchased a 43-ft sailboat in California, however let the adventures start! Stoked!”

Many readers know Ronnie’s story as a wounded Iraq vet who bought into crusing later in life, jumped in with each ft, and has completed Singlehanded Transpacific Races and quite a few different occasions. He now has properly over 100,000 miles below his keel. His power for brand spanking new and attention-grabbing crusing boats and adventures is inspiring. We will’t assist liking it when somebody like Ronnie finds a cool previous boat to revitalize and proceed its legacy.

We wrote to Ronnie. He defined additional, “I purchased the boat. I’m not completely certain why, however I like boats. I used to be drawn to it, and I may afford it, and so I purchased it. Due to its present location, it solely made sense to me to ship it all the way down to San Diego after which refit it for the Baja Ha-Ha after which most likely ship it to Maui shortly afterward. I’ll must refit the boat remotely from now till August, as I nonetheless have a great job on Maui and it’s seemingly that I’ll return there in about December. I’ll take a summer season sabbatical from work to do Pacific Cup supply work and media work as media supervisor for the Pacific Cup, then a Serendipity 43 refit in September and October, then the Ha-Ha.

“As for long-term plans, I actually don’t know what they’re. It’s simply one other boat. I at all times have boats and I at all times do one thing with them, however the precise crusing is normally fairly totally different from the Day One plans. Actually, the long-term imaginative and prescient entails Fiji, a spot that I like and the place I gave a go at making a enterprise and life. I gave the boat a Fijian title, MatuaMai, which mainly means I’m rising up or maturing. This boat selection displays these objectives. The title can also be a double entendre as a result of the boat is rising up too. It’s actually an even bigger, nicer, extra grown-up model of my final boat, the Peterson 34 Quiver. It was additionally essential to me to present the boat Fijian vibes from Day One.

“She was hull #26 of 26 and was bought out of the boatyard in Richmond as a hull and deck that was not accomplished. Then she was reportedly taken all the way down to Moore’s Reef, completed between ’90 and ’92, and launched in late ’92 together with her first sea trials in 1993. She has a customized inside, barely shorter keel for cruising, and so forth.”

“She ended up not cruising an excessive amount of as a result of the proprietor, Dexter Bailey, was having an excessive amount of enjoyable racing within the IOR Warhorse division within the 2000s. She raced in opposition to Infinity, Aleta, Zamazaan and others. Bailey bought the boat in 2018 and had the boat delivered all the way down to L.A. in 2019.”

“It sat nonetheless as a result of COVID and private causes. Now in early 2022, I’ve turn out to be the third proprietor and will definitely use the boat. I’ll be doing my first actual crusing on the boat subsequent weekend. The primary journey is to take the boat to San Diego and put it in a marina someday round mid-April. She’s going to keep in San Diego for a refit after which go away with the Ha-Ha.”

Like many components of life, sailboat gross sales are constrained by supply-chain points. Nonetheless, there stay many good used boats obtainable that, in the suitable palms, might be restored to sail once more. This Serendipity 43 is in the suitable palms. We’ll look ahead to seeing her crusing once more quickly and becoming a member of the Ha-Ha fleet within the fall. Apparently 2022 could possibly be a ten,000-mile crusing yr for Ronnie, with a great chunk of that on his candy new experience. You’ll be able to experience with Ronnie aboard SV Matuamai by following on Instagram right here: @svmatuamai.