Episode #183: Kiki Kormos on Buying a Boat Sight Unseen

In this episode of Good Jibes, we chat with Kiki Kormos about the continuing saga of her 27-foot wooden boat Mayfly, which she bought from Nate Stephenson (Good Jibes Episode #177). Kiki is now living her dream of living on a boat. She’s even recording this episode from aboard!

Tune in as Kiki chats with Good Jibes host Ryan Foland about how to find love at first sight with your boat, make repairs and modifications, survive the first survey, how to live on your boat, and why boaters are the friendliest people in the world.

Here’s a sample of what you’ll hear in this episode: 

• Why you need to keep going, even in the face of rejection
• Every boat in Japan has this one feature
• What motor is on the Mayfly now?
• How did Kiki find an insurer?
• What lessons has Kiki learned from living on the boat?

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and your other favorite podcast spots — follow and leave a 5-star review if you’re feeling the Good Jibes!

Learn more about Kiki on Instagram @Kiki_Kormos. Read “SV Gallia, from B.C. to Santa Barbara” by Nate Stephenson on page 36 of the January 2025 issue of Latitude 38 Sailing Magazine. Learn more about our host Ryan at Ryan.Online.

Check out the episode and show notes below for much more detail.

Show Notes

• Kiki Kormos on Buying a Boat Sight Unseen
  • [0:21] Welcome to Good Jibes with Latitude 38
  • [0:55] Introducing Kiki Kormos
  • [1:42] Tell us about Mayfly!
  • [2:24] What’s a sailing story that shaped Kiki?
  • [3:55] Was this Kiki’s first big experience on a boat?
  • [5:05] How did this all start?
  • [8:02] How did the first conversation with Nate go?
  • [9:42] What happened after the sail?
  • [10:59] Check out our classy classifieds at Latitude38.com
  • Mayfly
  • [14:06] What kind of motor does the Mayfly have now?
  • [15:40] How is harbor life in Santa Barbara?
  • [17:14] How did Kiki find an insurer?
  • [19:12] How was Kiki’s first survey?
  • [22:01] How is the Mayfly looking now? Does she have her own Instagram?
  • [23:26] Any future aspirations about traveling aboard?
  • [24:10] If you’d like to be a sponsor, email [email protected]
  • Living on a Boat
  • [24:44] What number owner is Kiki?
  • [25:34] How did Kiki connect with the original builder of the boat?
  • [26:48] What lessons has Kiki learned from living on the boat?
  • [27:20] Did Kiki get any insider tips from the builder?
  • [31:18] The Good Jibes unofficial Not-Ha cruise
  • [33:12] What would Kiki say to the old dogs and the dreamers?
  • [34:27] Make sure to follow Good Jibes with Latitude 38 on your favorite podcast spot and leave us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts
  • [35:52] Connect with Kiki
  • [36:10] Connect with Ryan
  • Check out the March 2025 issue of Latitude 38 Sailing Magazine
  • Theme Song: “Pineapple Dream” by Solxis.

Transcript:

Please note: This transcript is not 100% accurate.

00:03

Yeah, the surveyor  took one step on the boat and was like, this is crazy.

00:22

Ahoy and welcome to another episode of Good Jibes brought to you by Latitude 38, the sailing magazine for West Coast sailors since 1977. Today we’ve got a fun episode lined up because this is somebody who bought the boat from somebody who I just talked with on the Good Jibes podcast, Mr. Nate, my fellow ginger friend. And so we are going to learn about the next episode  of Mayfly.

00:51

And today we have Kiki Kormos.  Welcome to the show, Kiki. How are you doing? Doing fantastic. How are you doing? I’m good. And technically this isn’t just a podcast. This is a boatcast because if I understand correctly, you are streaming in from your boat. You’ve got that right. And the reason that we are talking is because our prior guest that I was speaking with

01:14

We talked about the boat that you’re now in and he mentioned how it got into the hands of just an amazing person who is now loving it as much as he did and I was like, we need to talk to this person and here we are with Kiki and me, Ryan, on the show, on the boat cast here with Good Jibes. I’m a little jealous, I have to say, because I’m  not on my boat right now, but you are. So tell us a little bit about the boat that you’re on so that people can understand where you are and then we’ll dive into.

01:44

a sailing story that shaped you. So I am on Mayfly. She’s a 27 foot wooden boat that was built by hand by a unprofessional professional out in. This was his fourth boat in his lifetime, so it wasn’t the first boat that he built. But she has custom built, super spacious on the interior for a 27 foot, because he had built it with the intention of spending a lot of time on it and that he did.

02:14

So 27 feet, but very spacious, very comfortable. Awesome, awesome. Now you are on a sailboat. We’re going to assume you’re into sailing, but we want to know a little bit more about maybe how it started or some sort of impact that the waters had on your life that makes you want to hang out on a boat so much. Can you tell us a sailing story from your past, something that you look back, you’re like, damn, that shaped me in some way, or form? I think the…

02:43

experience that I can look back on and say like, oh, wow, that was that was a big  aha moment was my trip down from Santa Barbara to Ventura, which I know is it’s small. No judgment here. No judgment here.  That was my first proper trip on the water.  My first time driving it, navigating it, taking it outside of really just the Anchorage and back.

03:11

I had been preparing for it for months at that point. All the work that I had put into the boat, which was basically like two months of full-time work, all of that led up to this trip down to Ventura and getting myself into the marina down here in Ventura. So that was huge for me. A big like, wow, I actually did that. I finally made it happen. had you been, had sailboats been on your radar before? Is this your first boat? Is this your first

03:41

boat and first sailing experience. Totally interested in how this all played out.  Is my first boat and that was my first proper sailing experience. That was my first time putting up  the sails on Mayfly before that. I mean, I always knew I wanted to live on a boat. I’ve always been pretty connected to the water, started free diving when I was like 10 years old with my dad,  diving after that and surfing and kite surfing. I’d always, always been super involved with the water, but

04:11

Sailing, I hadn’t done. I knew I wanted to learn how to sail and eventually buy a sailboat to live on, probably four or five years ago at this point. So I did take some intro lessons while I was in college. There was a really cool intro to sailing class. We’d go out once a week for  one quarter. So was really only  six weeks, but I did get the bare bones, the basics down two or three years ago. But beyond that, my own first

04:40

sailing experience on my own boat was that trip from Santa Barbara to Ventura. Well, you have your kite surfing experience as well. I mean, that’s a that’s a whole wealth of knowledge and you’re really out there sailing technically. Yeah, sailing on a tiny little board.  Instead of a 27 foot board that  was hand built and is wooded and has all of its lovely adventures waiting and awaiting.  So that the two months building up into that.

05:07

Did you know what you were getting into? Because oftentimes we talk about people who end up with boats and it ends up being a lot more bring on another task kind of boat. But  maybe tell us the love story of how this all started. How did you find out about this? How  did it work out where the time was right? And then  I want to know about the two months of blood, sweat and tears into it before this sounds like very successful first journey. Like I said, I had been wanting, I was dreaming about.

05:36

buying a boat and learning how to sail and living on a sailboat for years.  But I didn’t start actually looking into it until really last year. I started doing the whole Facebook marketplace scroll. Had you been sort of lurking for a while? Was there any  like inciting incident that just made you decide to turn on and start searching? Or was it kind of a you stumbled into it and you just had been and then all of a sudden you saw this.

06:05

totally stumbled into it. I was lurking for a really long time. Because I know a lot of us lurk and it’s fun to look at different boats and you’d been dreaming about this for a while. And so it sounds like there was just like this little itch and then all of a sudden you discovered something that maybe changed your mind. Yes, absolutely. I was living at home at the time in upstate New York just for a super short summer. I had planned to be back in Santa Barbara. I knew I wanted to be back out on the West Coast. So I was really only looking for boats.

06:34

out there. This boat in particular, my friend had sent me, it was being sold on Instagram, which is pretty, which is pretty funny.  But my friend had sent it to me. And  what really made me say, okay, this is this is an opportunity, I need to do it was that the previous owners were willing to teach me everything that I needed to know. If I bought the boat,  was a sale with

07:01

sailing instructions and support and anything along with it. Yeah. Wow, that’s a super sail. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Because usually, usually you’re looking to somebody’s boat that they’re ready to get rid of and you’re just like you basically adopt everything that’s wrong with it. Still have to kind of try to figure out what’s what because like there’s a sail. There’s a there’s a transaction. But  that is definitely something to catch an eye. Absolutely. I was like, wow, this is

07:28

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Not only is it in the perfect spot, it’s exactly where I want to be, but I have a support system and the couple still lived in Santa Barbara. still they still do now and they just moved on to a bigger boat. So I knew that they were also going to be in Santa Barbara in the Anchorage. And they loved that boat. I mean, when I talked to him and he told me the story of of him and his partner, how they got involved with it and did it like you could just tell.

07:57

It was just such a labor of love because he put in quite a bit of work as well. So tell me about how this goes. You reach out to him, you get it referred. And then what? Step me through that initial process. Were you like, is this real?  How did that how did that first conversation go when you actually connected with him? It was very much so. I was across the country. I was like, oh, boy, is this is  literally is this real? But yeah, first conversation with him. was just.

08:27

very straightforward. I knew it was legit. I knew I could trust them in a weird way. He’s a ginger too, so I’m a ginger. He’s very trustable. Yes, I get it.  Yeah, I knew after talking to him on the phone, was like, all right, this is legit. I was sold.  Now just  sight  unseen, right? You hadn’t seen it. You saw, I’m sure, bunch of pictures and whatnot of it.

08:50

But you just like, how was that? Just traveling over to see something you had committed to. Like, I mean, it’s gotta be pretty cool. What happened when you first saw her? It was definitely love at first sight. No, I highly don’t recommend buying a phone before you see it.  Because there’s typical things, you know, you got a surveyor, you got these things, you go visit it, you take it out for a test sale, all these things. Yeah, do that for people who are thinking about getting a phone. Do that.  Although I don’t regret a thing. It was perfect.

09:19

It’s literally like the it’s it’s an online dating story at the end of the day. Yeah, a blind date with my future boat. Yes, yes.  With my future home and podcast studio, by the way, is this the first podcast you’ve taken from the boat? Yeah, it is. Most definitely. It’s now it’s now a podcast studio is our boat cast studio as well. Perfect. OK, so you saw her. You fell in love.  You got along with the in-laws essentially because

09:47

or her parents, guess. I don’t know whether Nate would be an in-law or a parent. Probably like an in-law because he wasn’t the original father, right? Right, right. And then did he just say like, all right, you’ve got about two months of work on this thing. Let’s go to work. Or like, what was that? OK, now I see it. Now what? For the way that they were living on it, it was very functional. The only reason I needed to put a lot of TLC into it is because before it was built for Anchorage life.

10:17

Um, was set up for Anchorage life, but taking it into a Marina, there are so many more rules and regulations that have to be met. That’s really where all of the TLC came into. So I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Does anybody. Yeah. And I was originally planning to do Anchorage life as well, but I pretty quickly realized that would be, that would be silly. I wanted to have a little bit more experience on the boat  before I committed to.

10:47

staying out in Anchorage.

10:51

Hey good Jibes listeners and Latitude 38 readers. Have you looked in our classy classifieds lately? It would be impossible for us to know how many boats have sold to new owners over the last 45 plus years  of publishing Latitude 38.  But we’re sure they have helped countless people realize their sailing dreams. Every month there are new boats listed that will fill someone’s sailing adventures.  If you have a boat you want to sail or looking for that next boat in your life, the pages of Latitude 38 will surely have something to suit your fancy.

11:21

Pick up a magazine at a local marine business or visit our classy classified pages at latitude38.com to find boats, gear, job opportunities and more.  Then tell us your next sailing story. This is great. I want to transition into learning and understanding about harbor life. Now you had this adventure. Did anything go wrong on the adventure down there or was everything is exact ship shape as you thought? Because

11:48

to put that work in and have it work so flawlessly is amazing. Like I just want to make sure that the journey you can tell us either a highlight or a low light or something, but it all worked out as planned. And were you by yourself? Did you have a little crew? Just help us get down the coast. And I want to talk about Harbor Life. The trip down was perfect. It was smooth sailing, literally. Awesome. We had the perfect weather conditions. There was just enough wind to we did motor sail down,  but there was just enough wind to at least get the sails up. Yeah.

12:17

Which for me was very exciting. It’s like, wow, I’m finally sailing. It’s happening.  It definitely wasn’t all perfect according to plan. Like the motor that was on it before was pretty unreliable. Inboard, outboard, original motor. us,  I forget if Nate shared with me. It is an outboard  and actually the boat was built without a motor at all. Wow. The builder, the original owner had sailed it across the Pacific with no motor power.

12:47

The boat was definitely not intended to have any  motor at all. Okay, so remind me where this was built again. It was built out in Japan. So this guy builds in Japan and with no engine just decides to sail it over here. Oh yeah. This is awesome.  There’s some good juju on that boat.  Yeah, seriously. Okay, so you take a little scoot, you make a little bit of wind, you’ve got some wind, you’re making it down the coast. Absolutely cruising.

13:14

got into the harbor exactly according to plan, was beautiful. But yeah, before I was having some  motor issues and it wouldn’t idle well. So it was always going a little faster than intended. And when I would come into a parking spot or when I would park the park it in a slip, I would come in much faster. Coming in  hot. Yeah. Yeah.

13:38

So, and for a beginner especially,  was intimidating and it was very intimidating to want to take it out.  Knowing that, I’m like, okay, this is extra finicky, she’s extra special. I would say that was the biggest actual speed bump of like, oh, I don’t feel safe with this, like I don’t like this. And ironically for a speed bump, it was just making you go fast. Yeah, exactly, yeah. But I did get a new motor on it, which I’m very excited about and very excited to test out. Nice, now what kind of motor?

14:08

I’m on my umpteenth millionth boat, my second official sailboat, and I had an Ericsson 25 Plus originally. She was kind of like a little ping pong ball. And I got it off of somebody who had donated it through a donation program because it was a little bit rough around the edges and the engine had blown up. And so it was just replaced with batteries for ballast. And then there is the little kicker on the back. And I’m curious at a 25 foot and a 27 foot.

14:36

What size of a little kicker do you have on the back now? Now I have a 15 Honda. Wow, that’s a good one. That’ll get you cooking. I just remember I had like a little 99 or something and same thing. Like I’d be so irritated, like especially when I go in reverse because it didn’t like lockdown properly. So every time I went reverse, the engine would just like kick up and give me nothing. And then with prop wash, I could never go the direction I wanted. OK, so you got a little 15 on there. You’re you’re now hauling when you need to. That’s awesome.

15:06

Yeah, and because before it was it was also a 99. A 99 running hot, a hot 99. A hot 99, a hot 99 that would turn off whenever she felt like it. So, I don’t know, I guess I wanted to be a little extra cautious. I know it’s a little over. No, no, there’s nothing wrong. There’s nothing wrong with making wind. Look, and if anything,

15:30

Your podcast studio, mean, Boat, like is at its purest, like has lived off of wind forever. So just to help it out with make a little bit of wind, it’s all good. Yep. Yep. Just when necessary. So tell me about Harbor Life. So you got her ship shaped so that she could raise sails and get down the coast. And  like, I’m sure the harbor is beautiful up there. went to Santa Barbara and I’m now in Southern California, live in Long Beach, but I love that area up there and what an amazing place. So.

15:57

Harbor life, like did you have to do a lot of logistics and figure it out and you like even finding a spot? Like there’s so many, there’s so many pain points around that. How’d that all go for you? And then how is it? Honestly, it was a  very scary time.  It was so scary because I’m sure it would have been fine in the Anchorage, but I was like, okay, winter is coming. There is a time crunch. It was really hard to insurance.

16:25

on the boat and if I didn’t have insurance on it, then of course I couldn’t have it parked in a marina. And most of the marinas were full, but the places that did have a spot or two, they’re like, all right, well, you have to figure out your insurance first. If you can figure out insurance, then call us. I had called, I had talked to, it was like, honestly up to 30 companies, 30 insurance companies. Wow. What was the issue with it? The age or just the, was there anything in particular? Just that it’s a custom boat.

16:53

Just hand and when you say hand-built like that’s that’s legit this guy in Japan literally put this thing panel panel by panel with its hands Which is just crazy pants. So people were like, alright, well, let’s yeah, can see how they might be  Unwilling to insure but was it the  31st and then you just all of a sudden hit it or did you have to? How did that how’d you find that magical insurance company? It was literally the 31st and then it was  like magic. It was so easy

17:23

They’re like, yeah, of course, great. We’ll insure you. You can, you’re insured as of tomorrow. Like, okay, great, awesome. You have no idea how hard that was before. Well, that’s a good lesson there in general is that, I mean, 30 times for just about anything you think you would be done. You’d be like, the world is telling me this can’t work. But number 31, like lucky number 31, that’s like, it just goes to show that there is no standard issue in a number of times. And if your end result is to get things to happen,

17:52

You got to just keep going until you find them. That’s a very sailor of you. I appreciate that. That’s good. Thank you. Thank you. You’ve always been a sailor, whether you’ve had a boat or not.  think so. think, like you said, it’s been in your blood there. Definitely. I was drawn to it. I couldn’t possibly explain it, but I was like, I need to do that. I need to do that for sure. But thank you for saying that. Yeah. you get call number 31, lucky number 31, and get insured. And then you head over there. was that the scariest part or?

18:21

I mean, it seems pretty intimidating if you’ve never gone through this process before, but  once you got the insurance, was it all downhill from there? By that point, it was great.  it was only another couple of weeks of kind of this like this tense waiting period of like, OK, I have the insurance now. These marinas that said they had an opening, do they still have an opening? And the processing time was a little while. So I was I was definitely anxious and tense for.

18:50

for a couple more weeks after that waiting to see if I was actually going to have a permanent place to stay. Yes. The insurance was a really difficult part, but I think the scariest, the part that made me the most scared was when I got my first survey.  Oh, right.  And did they just sort of pick it apart or were you just holding your breath the whole time? Or like, how was that? I mean, was that the insurance survey or that was a survey from the marina? Who required that? That was a survey for the marina.

19:20

They all suggested, like, all right, again, when I explained my situation to Marina’s, I was like, yeah, I’m on a 25 foot custom sailboat and I want to live aboard. This is my first time. They’re like, okay, you should just go get it checked out first and then we’ll talk. But yeah, the surveyor took one step on the boat and was like, this is crazy.

19:47

It was his first words. steps on. He’s like, this is crazy. I love it. Okay.  He comes on. He takes a deep breath. He’s like, oh boy.  Which to be fair, it’s not necessarily, it wasn’t built for regulations. It was built for sailing. It was built to get this guy across the Pacific.  He wasn’t, and he wasn’t building it to fulfill all the. He wasn’t looking for the specs that you’re looking for right now, sir. He built a boat. Exactly. He kind of gave me.

20:17

list of things that I needed to work on but this this guy actually had sent me an email afterwards and said I’m gonna have nightmares about you on this boat you need to scrap it he told me to scrap it. No not the May flight no he can’t he can’t that’s not professional. Right yeah yeah I was like oh okay that’s that’s bold yeah very bold. Tough survey answers tough survey results. Yeah.

20:47

But of course, after dropping my life savings on a boat, I was like, no, it’s not. We’re just going to selectively hear this. Yeah, we’re not going to believe you. Yeah, not ready to give up just yet. You should frame that damn email. Actually, I should actually. That’s a good idea. Might be kind of funny. I mean, just like it’s a big old, you know, it’s a big old F you. It’s a big old like, I got this. What now? Right.

21:15

Especially when you go sail it back to Japan just for fun sometime. Exactly. I’m going to get a nice ornate gold frame for it and just write it up.  Yes. But yeah, so he did give me a list of things. He’s like, all right, if you’re I mean, if you’re going to try, here’s a list of things that you need to work on before going into a marina. So I started jumping on that list  ASAP. And one of the biggest ones was that which feels kind of silly, all of the woodwork.

21:42

It was epoxied over and it was really flaking off. He’s like, all right, you need to make this look pretty because no Marina is going to want you looking like that. Like, OK, OK, all right. I got to work on the bright work and I really wanted to do it right. That’s what took me the most time for sure. It’s like layer by layer. And how’s she looking now? Beautiful, shiny. All right. Well, you you’re going to have to send a couple of those photos over. So when we share this, we can feature her and we can can have everybody see.

22:11

bright work be bright. Can do. Now does she have her own Instagram or is she just living through yours? She right now she’s just living through mine. I haven’t posted much about her yet so not super avid on social media. No no no I didn’t mean to assume so but I know sometimes boats have their own you know once they get all ship-shaped they end up somewhere online or personalities or a grumpy cat or something like that. Yeah yeah. So you get settled

22:40

She’s ship shaped, you’re at the dock, you’re there.  How is Harbor life now? How is what you thought to what the reality is of being there, hanging out on the boat? It’s gorgeous. It’s beautiful. The community  is  so warm and welcoming. I think boaters are some of the friendliest people in the world. Like,  so  excited to  help me out.

23:08

in any way, because obviously as a beginner, there’s so many hurdles  to jump over and everyone’s really excited  to share their knowledge and expertise.  It’s just awesome. That is rad. Now,  I know you talked about surfing and all this other stuff. Do you see yourself taking  Mayfly and flying over to some of the Channel Islands? And do you have any future aspirations about traveling up and down or around and about or anything like that?

23:38

100%. Good.  I am  so excited to take it out to the islands this summer. My so my educational background is in ecology, and I’m just so excited to get out there and really explore.  It’s not only a podcast studio and a boat. It’s also your office now, too. It sounds like yes.  And some sort of a nature spaceship to go check out the ecology and everything like that. That is awesome.  So excited. I’m so, so excited.

24:08

Hey, listen up. We hope everyone is enjoying listening to the stories of West Coast sailors on our Good Jives podcast.  We’ve heard lots of great feedback from the 150,000 listeners  who’ve tuned in over the last couple of years. And if you have a marine business,  we’d like to give you an opportunity to connect with them during upcoming podcasts.  If you’d like to be a sponsor of future podcasts,  you can email Nikki,  N-I-C-K-I,  Nikki at latitude38.com  to learn more about how your company can benefit.

24:38

from sponsoring Good Jives.  Now, what number owner of the boat are you? Is that making number three or were there a few in between the maker  and Nate? Do you know the lineage, the history? Yeah, there was one other guy  from what I understand who had it before Nate and Meg, but he had it for a really brief amount of time and the boat had while it was under his ownership, it had ended up on the beach,  which is

25:08

when Nate and Meg had picked it up and they’re like, all right, we’re going to do a lot of work, I think, to get that keel back on, if I remember correctly. Oh, yeah.  Oh, yeah. They had their work cut out for them. Like, really. And you had mentioned that you got a chance to talk with the prior owner. I’ve had that opportunity as well, and it is so cool. Shout out to PJ, who’s out there. And he just emailed me the other day just checking in. And like, it’s so cool to have somebody who

25:37

I mean, even cooler if they built your boat, but if they’ve been on it for an extended amount of time, how did that connection happen? Did you reach out? Did he reach out to you? How were you literally connected with the person that built this boat so long ago? Actually, he reached out to me first, but I  was hoping to reach out to him if he didn’t do that. But I thought it was really lovely. It’s definitely for him. He was very excited to still be involved with Mayfly.

26:04

has been asking me for pictures and such. He’s like, please keep me up to date and call me if you have questions ever. So not only did you buy the boat unseen with  the prior captain saying that he would he would hand off the reins in every which way possible, but now you’ve got the OG builder, the father of the boat, who’s reached out, added to this community that you have, who’s basically saying, you’ve got a problem, let me know. Like, we are all going to fix it. Yeah. Yeah. Which  is so special. I wouldn’t.

26:33

trade it for the world, this is the perfect boat to live on or to learn on. Yeah. Well, to learn and to live. And now you’re also learning to live on it. anything that you learned as a result of living on it that you didn’t necessarily know before?  Specifically living on it kind of outside of  the framework of sailing and boating. Just living on a really small space makes me super conscious  of all of the things that I have. Being a minimalist.

27:02

Absolutely no choice but to be minimal. Yes.  Oh, yeah. I don’t have a storage unit or anything. I just have actually everything that I own on the boat, which feels pretty cool. That does feel cool. Yeah. And  I don’t feel like I need anything else. have everything that I need. And that’s a really good feeling. Did you get any insider tips from  the builder father of the boat when you got a chance to talk with them? Or is there anything in particular that you had?

27:29

questions about that you didn’t know that he discovered kind of like  anything about the boat in particular that now you are more familiar with because you’ve got Basically a relationship with the father. It was kind of funny. He was like, oh is is this still here? Is that still here? There’s so many little quirks about the boat like there’s a there’s a little shrine and The v birth that I was always curious about I could not possibly

27:55

get rid of it because I’m like, don’t know, does that have a meaning? If I get rid of it, is that bad? It feels like bad juju. can’t do that. But yeah, it was cool. I got to talk to him about that and hear the backstory. And apparently every boat has a shrine in Japan. That’s just a thing that you do. Yeah, but it doesn’t have any actual meaning to him personally. He was just like, oh yeah, they all have them. So I had to put one on. I’m like, okay, cool. Okay. It’s not going anywhere.

28:24

Nice. The shrine, does it have like a place for a candle or incense or is it like just like a little decorative ornamental Japanese  something?  Yes, it’s a little decorative  piece that has these super pretty seahorse doors and it kind of opens up to a mini cabinet.  Seahorse doors, that’s very cool. Do  you keep anything in it or is it like, does it like become a little special spot or is it just a special space shrine that just holds?

28:54

but it has. There  were apparently leaves in it from Japan because again that’s  something that you do.  He had this special for good luck I guess. Okay yeah. But there were leaves in it that I think they’ve since decomposed but I guess I’ll have to put some leaves back in it. Okay well that is  super cool. My PJ  who owned the boat that I had a long time before

29:20

He literally in this email, he’s like, think I forgot to tell you, but I put a few extra sections within  where the raw water comes in just to make the engine easier to work with. And I had always seen these like two or three offshoots from the raw water and the whole thing just seems a little finicky. And I’m like, why would you have all of these extra things? Like, I don’t get it. And he just nonchalantly dropped, you know, the other day that like he just did that to make it easier to work on. I’m like, there’s nothing easy to work on when it comes to  an engine in a small compartment.

29:50

But you know, however many 30 years later, he just like had that epiphany just to like let me know as a thoughtful moment. So I’m like, you know, there you go. Like, oh, that that makes sense now. Yes.  Well, I am super excited for you. And I’m super excited for the boat because you  have given it a new life. And it sounds like she’s never been a ship shape. Sounds like she’s happy there in the harbor with you. And I’m sure that  that she’s just as happy to get out and sail those channel islands and.

30:18

If you ever do want to get crazy and make it down south and you want to get to Catalina Island or you decide to make some sort of trip, let me know because I basically hang out there as much as possible during the summers. Blue Water Cruising Club, Big Geiger Cove, it’s an anchorage only. So when you need some freedom from up north and you explore down, happy to have you be a guest and get you back on the anchorage but back on the island for a little bit of time. That would be awesome. I am dying to get out to Catalina as well.

30:48

That’s farthest reach for the summer. That’s my farthest goal. want to get there this summer. Okay. Oh, so it’s already out there. It’s out there. Yes. Well, you know what we should do? We should talk to Nate and you should do like a buddy boat thing. Cause I was trying to convince him to come down too. And so there’s some other people I’ve interviewed, including some dude who bought a $2 catamaran and he’s fixed it up. And that’s a fascinating story. If you haven’t heard about him, maybe we just get this whole like armada of

31:17

boats from up north to just like come down south and visit Catalina Island as like a good Jibes unofficial  not ha crew or something like that. I don’t know. I’m just throwing it out.  sounds epic. I’m telling you, we just all figure something out and go where the wind blows.  you know, the community that you think that you’re talking about, I think is just such the unsaid and unknown about people who’ve never really been into the boating scene.

31:46

And I think it can be intimidating and it can be elitist and it can be expensive and it can be probably not very welcoming to even certain groups of people or even  disadvantaged groups have a hard time getting out on the water. But I still think there’s something magical about people who are drawn to the ocean, drawn to the adventure, whether it’s surfing, kite boarding, sailing, anything like that. There’s just some sort of energy on the water. And for you to be able to be there and live it and rock it and see it.

32:15

And it sounds like it’s tied in with what you love to do as well. The fact that you’ve got your prior owner, the father, the people down the dock, like everybody just wants to help. Except for the damn guy who sent you the email who’s a survey guy and he’s going to eat those words.  yeah.  Oh yeah. If only he could see her now.  only, if only. You should. When you actually, should,  whenever you send photos to the old owner, you should also just

32:44

throw them the survey dude’s way and say,  how about them apples?  Just the subject line and then nothing else. There’s a whole bunch of photos and  hopefully  he still has nightmares. Well  Kiki, this has been tons of fun  and  I think we’re pulling her back into the dock here with a 15 that idols nicely, not some nine-nine crazy pants that wants to run us into things.

33:12

Any final words you have for those that are, you know, from somebody who is a lifelong sailor to somebody who’s listening to this, that’s in your position a year ago, sort of cruising around looking at boats and things. What would you say to the old dogs and what would you say to those newbies who are, you know, in the different ends of their journeys on boats and things? First off, first off to the old dogs, I want to say thank you because they have all been awesome.

33:40

keep being encouraging and welcoming for the dreamers, for the people who are really hoping to make it happen and who are intimidated. There is so much help out there. So much help out there. Just take that first step.  And take the 31st step as well.  Oh yeah.  You might be a few steps in a direction and feel like nothing’s working, but just remember Kiki and the 31 step rule. Your solution for any type of insurance or drama.

34:10

Well Kiki, thank you so much. I look forward to hearing and after you make some of your adventures this summer, we should have you back on and learn all about them and see how everything worked out and just get you more plugged in because there’s a lot of old dogs and new dogs who are listening to good jibes. And if you are a new dog listening to this podcast or an old dog listening to this podcast, you should follow this podcast where you like podcasts so you get them every Tuesday into your ears.

34:38

And Latitude 38 is magazine and really a larger community, the Latitude 38 Nation, since 1977, putting things together. Now, Kiki, do you get your hands on Latitude 38 every once in a while? Oh, I do. I do. I do. And I will be listening even more after this to the podcast. Nice. And sometimes the podcasts also end up as articles in the actual magazine. So you never know. as you get inspired to share some of these stories,

35:08

make sure you always throw a copy to editorial at latitude38.com because they’re always looking for homegrown stores and things like that. That goes to you as a listener. Don’t just be a listener. Be a follower on social media. Find and follow latitude38. Now Kiki, if somebody wants to connect with you, if they’re an old dog or a new dog in town, is there a certain place that they can get in touch with you? I know you said you’re not really on social, but…

35:33

And if you don’t want to be contacted, that’s totally cool. They can just look for this, the most beautiful boat in Ventura Harbor and find you. But how would people connect if they want to learn more about you or connect and follow your story? So I’m not crazy avid on social media, but can absolutely shoot me a message on social media. Very open to that. love connecting. And that would just be my first name, @Kiki_Kormos Totally open to messages. Sweet and Kormos is K-O-R-M-O-S.

36:02

Alright, well you want to get in touch with me, anybody out there, you can find me online, specifically at Ryan.Online, which is my website and it’s got everything about me, including if you ever want to go sailing.  And I’m getting pretty close to  launching a new book series called Getting Your Ship Together. And the first one is about Speakership. So keep an eye on the horizon for the Speakership book as it comes.  All the stuff that I’ve learned through my podcasting and speaking around the world of  how you can get your  Speakership ship shape, right?

36:32

Well, thanks again Kiki for everyone out there. We’ll see you online some other time. And  don’t forget,  go where the wind blows.  Adios, Kiki!  Adios! Thank you so much!