"None of the crew knew what to expect," he wrote. "Any anxieties we may have felt turned out to be completely groundless."
Six weeks later, while still in Greece, he married his wife, Linford, who would become his frequent cruising partner. It was a second marriage for both.
Linford, who much preferred cooking than other duties such as standing night watch, ultimately wrote the chapter on how to provision the galley in Beebe's 1975 book, which in its updated version is still considered a must-read for the trawler set.
"Ten years and 60,000 nautical miles passed under Passagemaker's keel from the day she left Singapore," Linford Beebe wrote."We cruised in all kinds of weather conditions. We went through rough seas and had green water over the wheelhouse numerous times."
Beebe finally sold the boat in 1969.
"It was a wrench to let her go but I felt over I had learned all I could for her and wanted to take the next step," he wrote.
Many years later, a Dutchman named Eilco Kasemeier read "Voyaging Under Power" and was inspired by it. Ultimately, in 1983-84, he became the first man to circumnavigate the globe in a small trawler.
Later, Leishman, who updated the book in 1994, incorporated many of Beebe's classic design principals for Nordhavn, which makes safe, slow-moving trawlers from 35 to 86 feet.
"He was definitely a pioneer," Leishman said."He was really the first person to have the vision of traveling the world in a motorboat in lieu of a sailboat."
FOR SALE
In 1997, a North Carolina retiree named Charlie Baker bought the wooded boat, fixed her up and spent two years sailing her around Florida, the Bahamas, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Trinidad. But his health and his marriage suffered, and, in the midst of a divorce, he decided in 2001 to pull the boat out of the water and put it on the market.
Enter Kolesnikovs. When he and several friends in the boat industry heard that the boat was up for sale, they hoped to band together to raise enough money to buy the boat, have it restored, bring it back to the United States and place it in a permanent collection at a marine museum such as the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons or the Mystic Seaport Foundation in Connecticut, which houses Beebe's papers.
However, Kolesnikovs was unable to drum up much private or industry support. They were able to raise about $10,000, just enough to pay for a survey to see how much work was needed to be done on the vessel. Kolesnikovs calculated he needed to raise about $500,000 for the entire project.
So the effort has been abandoned.
"At the time I was quite dismayed and shocked," Kolesnikovs said."I thought everybody would feel what I felt, "˜Oh God, let's save it.'"
In an email, Baker confirms that the boat is still for sale, with an asking price of $105,000."She needs a good home," Baker said.
Kolesnikovs agrees.
"It's very sad," he said. "It will just probably stay there and crumble into dust."
