Sailing a Piece of History

By Pam

Our fleet has been around for such a long time that many of us are currently sailing a piece of history. Since I happen to know my boat's history, I thought I'd share it. My brother, Robert Balboa, received my boat for his 10th birthday 42 years ago. He even sailed the boat in the 1973 Nationals. When he moved on to sailing other boats, the poor Butterfly sat outside for over 30 years before I picked her up with a pipe dream of sailing her again. As you can see from the picture, she was in pretty bad shape.

As my luck would have it, about the same time that I picked up my new project and had almost decided she might make a better planter than a race boat, I also ran into my brother's best friend from his sailing days whom I hadn't seen in about 30 years. Ben Miller was now in the boat repair business (BM Boat Works down in Houston, TX) and agreed to restore the boat since he had sailed on it when he was a kid. When I dropped her off in Houston he said she was in pretty bad shape. The next time I saw her she was looking like a goner but he said he could fix her and showed me paint samples and asked me to pick a color. Fighting Lady Yellow was to be her new color.

I picked her up a few months later and couldn't believe my eyes. Ben is truly a miracle worker. Of course, given her paint color name, I now affectionately call her the Fighting Lady and I find it appropriate not only as a description of the boat and the sailor but, in many ways, of our fleet and club as well.