Big new Sabre motor yachts.

The small fleet of big motor yachts, burning enough oil to power a small third world country, left deep wakes that suddenly turned my previously docile boom overhead, into a thrashing widow maker.

Engulfed in the jackhammer roar made by the explosions of dozens of paint can sized pistons, a further invasion of rock music from the leaders wheel house overwhelmed even this thunder of combustion.

OK, I’m having a little fun here. Truth is, Rockland Harbor has heavy motorboat traffic all day long(except the crack of dawn, photo below). And the Sabre motoryachts were much quieter than the lobsterboats on the water and, the were making a grand entrance to their Sabre Rendevous.

And while big motorboats can be annoying when you’re trying to sail, they’ve been around forever. Like this big motoryacht, mercifully silent(no generator running), at dawn.

So what happened to Sabre sailboats? You know, the trusty 28 and 30, the popular 34 - 36 - 38, the 40 and 42. Sabre sailboats are a benchmark of what is considered a high quality sailboat today. And Sabre sailboats, discontinued designs, are everywhere.

But they don’t make them anymore. The buyers that bought Sabre sailboats new, in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, they’re gone.

As I furled sails to get out of the washing machine, I was thinking, the Sabre sailboat line is history. Or rather, the new Sabre sailboat buyer, is history, an extinct species.

Why can’t an esteemed sailboat builder like Sabre find a way, new designs(Spirit aside-I've never seen one on the water-enough said), to continue such a valuable legacy? Where did the new Sabre sailboat buyers, go?

Doug Rothkoph(Sabre 40), Dave Evans(Sabre 34), presently at the Sabre rendevous, how about a moment of silence for the extinct Sabre sailboat line, during the award for most fuel burned getting to the Sabre Rendevous?