First sighting; we meet someone with two dogs and a boat...

This Friday, Gerald and I drove to Riverside, California (though according to Gerald, it's not particularly fashionable to admit to traveling to or living there, the town did seem okay to me.) The reason for the trip was a certain "vehicle" resident at the Riverside Municipal Airport -- a boat. After checking into our motel room, we arranged to see the "Jada Yachta" that evening and get a quick first look at her.

Gerald on deck. The owner let us into the secured part of the airfield and we followed him past parked airplanes to a hanger that in daylight would have been almost in the shadow of the airport control tower. I suppose that keeping the boat at the airport and close to the control tower was an appropriate decision -- because this is, after all, a racing boat.

Port side of a slender thirty-three-foot sloop. We wound up spending more than two hours getting a good overall tour of the boat and her systems and a bit of her history. Jada Yachta isn't a simple stock boat, but instead has some great history as well as all sorts of customizations.

Owner on deck, showing us various boat systems. The boat came with quite a lot of optional equipment. The unusual tower astern is designed to hold a radar dome, but can be removed for short cruises and races.

Owner in cockpit

Keel, raised into position for travel. When lowered, the keel is secured by four large keel bolts and the top of the keel well is sealed with a gasketed cover.

Detail of electrical panel added by the boat's previous owner. Most boats of this type have only a couple of cabin and navigation lights and nothing else but this boat has some systems more typical of a blue-water yacht.