Weeks of still and silence
In my new role as of SailStiletto.com I spent weeks soul searching while being hardly productive. Certainly from the outside looking in the board of directors were concerned. They secretly questioned if they made the right choice selecting me as editor, but I knew this is just my typical modus operandi.
It is my process, the only way I create good work. My brain produces nothing until I have that ‘spark’, the idea that wakes me up in the night, the one idea from which all others will flow. For Stiletto, I struggle with all the sailor techy-talk, this modification and that. It feels cold. Where is the connection?
The spark
That ‘idea’, the spark, came as I interviewed a Stiletto owner. She was the fifth owner I had spoken with who agreed to speak with me about her boat as they others had. I asked the typical questions about how she’d rigged and modified her boat, when she raced it, and at what speeds she’d topped. But, her answer started with, “Well, I named my Stiletto ‘Dream Boat’ because I met my husband through this boat”. The interview quickly turned into her story of this great memory that she’d built with her love, her sweat, and her Stiletto.
In that instant, my own memories rushed through my thoughts, and I felt an immediate connection. Not just to this woman, but to all those owners that I had spoken with. These memories are the connection, the commonality between all stiletto owners. Each interview I conducted quickly breezed past the techy-specy talk I expected, turned sharply, and produced a rich personal narrative of memories made on Stiletto.
Making memories since 1976
And instantly I knew. Sailors have been making memories since 1976 on Stiletto. Some of these stories are all about rounding the marks and competition, but the most treasured weave tales of marriages, great loves, children, parents, and adventures that will never be forgotten.
Stiletto is fast and beachable, but that is not what makes this boat special. It is the legacy of those people who chose to set their life’s stage on Stiletto and see where the sea would take them.
My goal for this site, my responsibility to the owners of these boats, is to tell the stories of lives forever impacted by this big fast beach cat. I hope you will share your Stiletto memories with me.