Couple Buys Sailboat to 'Simplify Their Lives,' Now Spends Every Weekend Doing Fiberglass Repair

Married couple Steven and Laura Ketch purchased a 38-foot sailboat in January with the stated intention of 'simplifying their lives and getting back to what matters,' a goal that has manifested exclusively as spending every weekend performing emergency fiberglass repairs in a marina parking lot. 'We were going to sell the house, quit our jobs, and sail the Caribbean,' said Steven, covered in fiberglass dust from the chest up. 'That was eight months ago. We still have the house, still have the jobs, and we've sailed twice. Everything else has been maintenance.' The boat, a 1991 Beneteau named Simplicity, was described by its previous owner as 'turnkey.' The Ketches have since discovered that 'turnkey' apparently meant 'requiring approximately $40,000 in repairs before it can safely turn any key.' 'The surveyor said it was in good condition for its age,' Laura said, sanding a gel coat crack along the waterline. 'Its age is 35 years. Good condition for a 35-year-old fiberglass boat is apparently still terrible condition by every other standard.' The repair list, which the Ketches keep on a whiteboard in the cabin, currently contains 47 items. They have completed 12 and added 23 new ones since beginning the project. 'The list grows,' Steven observed. 'Every repair reveals two new problems. It's like a hydra made of polyester resin.' Their weekends follow a fixed pattern: arrive at the marina at 7 AM, assess the latest problem, drive to the marine supply store, spend $300 on materials, return to the marina, begin repair, discover a worse problem underneath, drive back to the marine supply store, spend another $300, and leave at sunset having addressed none of the items on the whiteboard. 'We've simplified our lives in the sense that we now only do one thing,' Laura said. 'Fiberglass repair. That's our hobby, our exercise, our social life, and our primary topic of conversation. In that sense, it's very streamlined.' The Caribbean departure has been rescheduled to 'sometime in 2028.'