This is a little story about a little thing that happened to me the other day!
Off the back of a life changing experience I wrote about in my last piece where I walked into a Supercar show past the security guard — acting like I belonged! I learnt that if you want to do something, do it, what’s the worst that can happen?
So anyway, I was down in Cardiff for the 5th time in two weeks (looking at some new machines for my business). Now a bit about me… I like boats! I like the freedom that they give people, I like the fact they are pretty much an upmarket caravan and I love the water. So anyway I was driving past the Marina and I had been given the key to the factory the day before so there was no real rush and no one was waiting for me, so I decided that I should go take a closer look.
I drove down to the marina, parked my car and walked over to where I could see the big masts over a hedgerow. As I got closer I realised that there was a massive gate between me and the car park — I probably should have expected this because at the end of the day it is still a ‘Yacht Club’. I stood by the gate looking inside and thought, I want to go and look at some boats! I didn’t really want to turn around and go back because I’d just gone 10 minutes out of my way so I didn’t want to go back just yet.
Then I saw it, a car was pulling out which meant the gate was going to open. I whipped out my phone and pretended to make a call so if anyone asked I was calling someone on the inside trying to get them to come and let me in. The gate opened, the car went out and I strolled in. Gate 1 done! It turned out that was the gate to the office, but there was another big gate to the boat yard. How did I get past this one? I saw an old man doing some work on his boat so I walked out and made up a question about getting let out of the main gate (I knew there was a buzzer somewhere but I wanted him to tell me). He told me where the buzzer was and then we got talking about boats — I can luckily talk about boats, because as I mentioned earlier… I like boats! We spoke for a little while about his boats and then he offered to show me around the boats down my the dock. I said yes, and I was in! He unlocked the Gate 2 for me and I was in.
We went down the dockside and he showed me his boat, and then he said to me… ‘You know what! Do you want a boat?’ I said ‘Yes, of course’. He told me that that an old guy had recently passed away and they were looking for someone who wanted the old boat for free!
To be fair, the boat wasn’t in the best condition, but it had no leaks, the inside was clean and the sails and mast were all in working condition. Sure it would take a week or so of sprucing up but the worst of the muck would come off with a pressure washer. These boats can sleep 4 people if they need to, they can really rack up some speed and more importantly they are considered one of the best boats to learn to sail on!
I genuinely wanted to take the boat there and then because why not, it was free! Sadly I couldn’t though I moved back in with my parents to start a business and they wouldn’t want a boat lying around. The allure of owning a boat outweighed the actual practicality of the whole thing!
The point of the story is, do things and who knows what the outcome will be. I wanted to go see some boats because I like boats, and I could have walked away with one. If you want to do something, just do it! Have the confidence to go after what you want and who knows what will happen!