Excitement is Building

Ever since I really decided to buy another boat, I thought that maybe I would take a cue from my fellow KYC MC competitor Chris Hawk, and write a blog about my MC and Lightning sailing adventures.

Well, so far, 2011 has already been an exciting year. I started looking at Lightnings in early February. I had a verbal deal with a guy for an early 90's Lightning, but unfortunately he had someone else come along and offer straight cash for the boat. So he reneged on the our verbal deal. What a bummer. With a little more research, some financial finagling, lots of emails and a few phone calls later I had a deal to buy Lightning 14756.

The weekend of April 9th I traveled to Windsor, Ontario to pick up the boat with a stop over in Kitchener on Friday and Saturday evenings to visit with my brother Jay and his family. The exchange went well with Adam and I going over much of the boat and the improvements that he had made. Sunday brought the border crossing. I was little nervous as I did not know what to expect even with all the research Adam and I had performed about importing boats into the U.S.  It turned out to be a piece of cake with the officer looking over my paperwork, said everything looks fine, and let me go on my merry way.

This is where it gets a little more interesting.  On Monday I head to the Corning NYS DMV to properly register the trailer. The lady behind the counter is very nice. She looks at all the paperwork and is about to give me the plates and the registration when she looks at the computer, looks at me, then the paperwork and turns around to talk to her supervisor. She comes back and asks for the customs importation paperwork. I told her that I did not receive anything from customs at the border. She says she cannot register the trailer without it. So I leave with no registration. I then proceed to call customs in Buffalo to ask what I need to do. The sympathetic man on the phone tells me that I need to come back to Buffalo with the boat and trailer and talk to someone there to get all the correct paperwork.

This past weekend I went back to Buffalo with the boat and trailer and go to the customs offices. I told them my story about the DMV and not being allowed to register the trailer without any documentation from customs. The officer just shakes his head and says "That's silly, I can't believe she told you that. We don't do anything for boats and trailers of this nature." I told him that I even called up the Buffalo customs office and he told me to come back up. The officer then went to talk to his supervisor. He comes back and has me fill out form HS-7, which he tells me is still real silly as there is no motor on the boat nor any emissions from the trailer. He does stamp the form for conformance and lets me go. He never once asked to look at the boat and trailer. I will find out next week if that will satisfy the DMV.

The MC-Scow was stored at the Bath Fairground over the winter. This morning I went and took it out of storage in anticipation of my first MC regatta of the season at Hoover Reservoir in Columbus, OH in two weeks. It is now sitting next to the Lightning in my driveway.

I can't hardly wait. The excitement is building.

By the way, the name of the blog comes from a line in one of my favorite songs, And You and I - by Yes. The line is "There'll be no mutant enemy we should certify".