I bought this Old Town Wahoo sailing canoe some years back at Denio’s flea market for $200. Somehow I borrowed a dolly and rolled the giant 85 lb (38.5 kg) sailing canoe to my small Mazda3 sedan, and heaved it up on the roof. Drove it a mile to my house half lashed down and somehow wrestled it down, and into the back yard. Where it sat.

That crippled me up some time and it took weeks before I was moving around better. I had gathered at least two rigs work of sailing tack through the years and planned to take it out on the local lakes when I rigged something up.

These plans proved too optimistic in view of my arthritic issues, the fake right hip, and neuropathic, arthritic feet. Making heaving it up on my friend’s tall vehicle problematic. Doable but not fun.

I put it up on Craigslist but got few nibbles for months. I did manage to sell the complex, heavy and clunky rudder/tiller assembly for $100 to a fellow Wahoo owner.

After selling the rudder, I dropped the asking price down to $400, and then $300, which finally worked. A pool cleaner from fashionable Loomis, with a young family he wants to take canoe sailing, gave me six $50 bills for it.

So I almost broke even considering I got the rudders, boards, masts, booms, and sail pretty cheap through the years. But, like a weekend in TJ, it’s cheap but it’s not free.

I threw in the sail rig components gratis, happy to clear out the back yard and garage; also giving him an anchor, two paddles, and two CG approved floating boat cushions so that at least two of his family won’t get ‘boat butt’ rash from the hard canoe bottom.

The happiest boat owning days are when you first buy the vessel, and then when you manage to find the next fool to buy it. So that was a happy day for both of us.

And just in time too, because I took my high-tech Euro inflatable kayak out to Folsom Lake two weeks ago for the first time since my hip surgery years back, and it was not successful.

I found little joy on the lake because my steel and plastic right hip joint, and funky arthritic feet took the fun out of clamoring in and out of the tight cockpit. With a good chance of an accidental swim for me with all the required squirming and weight shifting.

So last week I put it up on the Sacramento Craigslist ‘Boats for Sale’ listing, with a duplicate ad under ‘Sporting Goods’. I set $400 as a price but will go to $300 if I get a nibble. I paid ~$750 for it back in 2016.

I used it a half dozen times on Folsom, Natoma, and Loon Lake. Because it got increasingly harder to get in or out of with my deteriorating hip. And total hip joint replacement didn’t make me spry enough to bring any joy to my paddling expeditions either.

So far, Sacramento and environs has shown no interest in my unusable Czech Republic inflatable. OTOH it only takes one buyer, flush with cash and eager to go boating, to rid me of this high-tech reminder of what I can’t do any longer from aged deterioration and RSI. Like the Wahoo, eventually it will sell. And money always hits the spot.

But I’m still walking some miles (kilometers) at least OK, if not pain free. And I can still ride my bikes, lift weights, and do my daily NEAT chores (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis).

And I can still get in and out of my friend’s open Old Town Pack 13 ft (396 cm) canoe. So I’m taking that out on the water soon, decide if I’m still having fun out there.

Unless noted, all text and images by todgermanica.com.