Meet the Crew
We’re three friends from Ontario who bought a tired old sailboat, argued about fibreglass for six months, and somehow decided the best thing to do was write about it on the internet.
This is SBM: Offshore Adventures — S for Sam, B for Billy, M for Max. One captain, one navigator, one mechanic. Three friends who grew up twenty minutes from Lake Ontario and spent most of their twenties promising each other they’d buy a boat “one day.”
Sam — The Captain
Sam is the one who started this whole thing. He spotted the listing on a marine classifieds board at 11:30 on a Tuesday night, fired off a message before he’d even finished reading it, and called Billy and Max at 7 the next morning. Sam grew up in Whitby, Ontario, about 400 metres from the waterfront. His grandfather kept a 26-foot day sailer at Port Whitby Marina all through Sam’s childhood. He holds a Transport Canada Pleasure Craft Operator Card and is working toward his Restricted Operator Certificate (Maritime).
His job: Final decisions, passage planning, harassing Billy and Max when they’re moving too slowly.
“I know this boat is mostly rust and regret right now. That’s fine. So was my first car.”
Billy — The Navigator
Billy is the quiet one — which is funny, because he’s also the one who knows where everything is, has read the weather forecast three times before anyone else is awake, and will produce a laminated chart of Lake Ontario at the exact moment you need it. He grew up in Oshawa, crewed on his uncle’s racing yacht out of Frenchman’s Bay, and studied geography at the University of Toronto.
His job: Route planning, weather monitoring, keeping the logbook honest.
“Navigation isn’t about knowing where you are. It’s about knowing where you’re going to be in three hours — and whether that’s going to be a problem.”
Max — The Mechanic
Max is a licensed automotive and marine diesel technician who runs his own garage in Ajax. When Sam called about the CS 33 with a Yanmar 2GM20 that “probably just needs a service,” Max drove to the marina, climbed into the engine bay with a flashlight, said nothing for four minutes, then emerged: “We can fix all of it.”
His job: Engine, electrical, standing rigging, keeping Sam from breaking things.
“Every boat is just a list of problems you haven’t found yet. I enjoy the finding.”
The Boat — Persistence
She is a 1981 CS 33, hull #47, built in Collingwood, Ontario — 33 feet of fibreglass, teak trim, and questionable decisions made by every owner since the mid-1990s. We bought her out of Port Credit Marina for less than the price of a decent used car. We renamed her Persistence at a dockside ceremony in November 2025. Max played Don’t Stop Believin’ on a Bluetooth speaker, which was not in Sam’s script.
Welcome aboard. Try not to touch anything.
— Sam, Billy & Max
