Beaton’s memories

A comment from a new reader prompted a walk down memory lane.  Jim S recently commented on the Beaton’s page about growing up at Beaton’s and what it meant to him. Here’s the text of his comment:

“I grew up summering at Beaton’s Boat Yard. I bought my first sailboat, a Snipe, from three school teacher’s who sailed it from Beaton’s for several season’s. I had a friend, John Callahan, who introduced me to Beaton’s. He sailed the Snipe, then purchased a G sloop. We had many fabulous sails from Beaton’s over several year’s. We were given a lightning owned by Mr. Beaton on one occasion in Mid December. We sailed on the calmest bay with a light breeze that day. It was surreal. Not a single other boat on the bay that day as far as I could see. There were very old boats rotting in the weeds which we played skipper on for hours and admired the old brass fittings and large wooden cleats and pulleys. A lot has changed since I last saw Beaton’s 35 or 40 years ago, but I still get the same warm feeling when I saw it again today. Please don’t change it. And thank you for being a part of my growing up.”

While I didn’t find Beaton’s until my mid 30’s, my sons Jeffrey and David had experiences similar to Jim’s.  Many a time I’d go looking for them after a days labor on Caprice, our 24′ Crosby tabloid cruiser, and find them on an abandoned boat in the back row, happily pretending to be guiding the wreck on some imaginary voyage.

There’s less of that today, but the spirit of Beaton’s continues.  Thanks for the walk down memory lane Jim.

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There’s been a few changes in the years since you were here Jim. The major one is the building of the new office/store complete with showers. This is the view from the building’s second floor of the wood shop and Bay looking much like they did years ago.

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And here it is. Give it a few years and it will blend right in.

Any more Beaton’s stories out there readers?