The Live Aboard Sailor Story
A true story about my Miami Beach live aboard friend
1980
Written 05/2013 and Re-written 10/2015
Howard Yasgar
In 1980, I was in the automotive and marine electrical parts business located in Miami.
Our specialty was rebuilding starters and alternators for the wholesale automotive and marine market.
On occasion, a retail customer would contact us, and although dealing with the public was not really our type of business, I always tried helping people to solve their problems.
I have always felt that when a person has an electrical problem, even though to us, it may seem like a minor thing, it was probably the most important thing on that person’s mind at the time.
So I always believed in treating people as I would want to be treated myself, had I been in their position.
Because our company only sold wholesale, we were located far off from the main street, we were in an industrial neighborhood, and unless you had a car and knew where you were going, finding our company would be pretty difficult.
One morning, as I walked by our parts counter, and I noticed a strange gentleman standing there.
He was hard to miss as he was tall, thin, and dressed almost totally in white except for a small yellow and red feather he had in the band of his white Fedora.
He also had on a Mariners style belt with all the colorful marine flags on it.
I had to stop for a moment just to look at him, as he had clean well creased white slacks, a white shirt, and a white sports jacket, and of course the white hat with the feather and don’t forget the expensive marine belt with the colorful flags on it.
He looked to me very much like the kind of wealthy retired guy you would see sitting at the bar or at a table in a yacht club.
The other thing that was unusual about him, was that he had that hand carry type Coca Cola cooler that he had placed on the sales counter.
I recognized the cooler right away, it was the kind that you took to the beach, and it probably held about six cans of soda.
As I sort of studied the guy, I also looked out the front door of my building and out into the parking lot, and I didn’t see any cars there, so I wondered how the hell this guy ever got to our place.
I assumed that someone had probably either dropped him off, or he had come by a taxi cab, which would have been extremely unusual.
There was always the possibly he had walked to our company, which would be even more unusual, because walking to our company just wasn’t practical, we were not near any bus stop and we were 20 miles from Miami Beach.
Besides from being dressed in all white clothing, he appeared to be about 40 years old and his face was a bit gaunt looking, to me he looked as if he had hefted a few too many scotch and sodas in his time.
But other than that he was clean shaven, and his clothes were spotlessly clean and nicely pressed.
He reached over the counter and shook my hand, and he said, “Hello”,
He said, “I just came from Miami Beach Marina, I heard that your company tests alternators here”. Tying to be nice to him I said yes we do that kind of work.
The fellow then opened the cooler and took out a small marine style alternator, made by the Motorola Company.
I thought that was strange for two reasons, I had never seen anyone carrying an alternator in a Coca Cola cooler before, also, the alternator was rather unusual because instead of using a pulley to turn it, it had little propeller on it.
I had heard about this type of alternator before but I had never actually seen one, it was an item usually found on a sailboat.
It was usually installed by attaching it to one of the cables that held up the mast.
As the wind blew it turned the propeller and the alternator put out enough electricity charge a battery or to run a small 12 volt light bulb.
I immediately assumed that this fellow was a wealthy sailboat owner from Miami Beach, I knew there were tons of sailboats on Miami Beach, and there were lots of eccentric wealthy people there also hat owned them.
So, once I saw what he had, I told him that the type of test equipment we had in our factory only worked with alternators that had pulleys on them, we had no way to test his alternator with a propeller.
He appeared very dismayed, and I really felt bad for him.
I could see by his contorted facial expressions that he was becoming distressed.
Then I had an idea, I told him that I had a friend around the corner that had a smaller electrical rebuilding shop, and I would call him up, perhaps he had a way to test the propeller driven alternator.
So I did just that, I called my friend Eddie who had a business called Truck Industrial he was located about three blocks away from me.
Eddie said, that I should send the fellow right over, he would be happy to help him.
So when I told the fellow what Eddie had said and gave him directions, he was elated.
He put his alternator back into his Coca Cola cooler, lifted it off the counter and walked out of our building carrying it, and that’s when I assumed that I had seen the last of him.
Incidentally, as he left, I saw that he was wearing expensive white boating shoes and no socks.
As I had given him Eddies address, and it appeared the guy was going to walk the three blocks to Eddies business.
Now, I thought that this guy walking was kind of strange, but I knew that in the sailboat ownership there were a lot of strange and eccentric people.
So the fact that this guy was walking everywhere, made me think that he was probably more than a little eccentric, perhaps he was a little crazy.
About three in the afternoon, I saw that the fellow was back standing at my parts counter.
I had thought I would never see him again, but apparently he had walked all the way back from my friend Eddies shop. He said, “I just want to thank you for sending me to your friend, he tested my alternator and said it was working fine and he didn’t charge me anything to do it”.
By now, I was thinking that for sure this guy was little off his rocker, so I asked him, are you sure you came here all the way from Miami Beach Marina, that’s miles away. “Yes,” he said, “I live aboard a sailboat there at the Marina.”
Well that explained the nice clothes, hat, belt and shoes, this guy was a live aboard sailor and probably did have a sailing yacht at the Miami Beach Marina.
So naturally I had to ask him, tell me, how big is your sailboat?
“Twelve feet,” he replied.
I didn’t know if he was joking with me.
I said you really live aboard a twelve foot sailboat.
I couldn’t believe this guy was serious, but he was.
“Yes he said, I have a built in bed and a little shelf where I keep some salami and some cheese.
“Thanks for your help.” he said, I’m heading back to the Marina now, and he turned around and walked out my door carrying his alternator in his Coca Cola cooler.
I had to go to the door to look, he was definitely walking, there was no taxi or car.
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