In 1963, Kathyrn Conant’s grandfather, Don Coleman, bought a 1963 wooden Penn Yan. He loved the boat, and named it Sea Jay, after the first initials of each of his daughters. It was the boat the family grew up on. In the late 80s, the boat left the family, but they treasured their memories of the boat. 

Fast forward to 2020… Dave Madison, who lives on Sodus Bay, has a hobby of restoring old boats and cars. Because of the pandemic, Dave needed a project to keep him busy, so he bought a Penn Yan to restore. It hadn’t been in use for almost 30 years. 

In  2106, Kathryn and Tim Conant, who grew up in Rochester, decided to buy a lake house on Sodus Bay, as their retirement plan. When the pandemic happened in Spring 2020, Kathryn started working from home at the lake.

Had it not been for the pandemic, Dave would not have bought the boat, and Kathryn would not have been taking morning walks along Sodus Bay. 

“One day, in 2020, when I walked by this property, I saw Dave out with the boat, and chatted with him about his restoration project on this old boat. Had the boat had the cover on, I would not have even noticed it.”

She shared that her grandfather, Don Coleman had a similar boat many years ago. 

"In August, I was working in a room with windows that looked out on the road, and happened to see a truck pulling the Penn Yan boat on its trailer. I texted Dave’s neighbor, who I had met and asked her where the boat was going.” Kathryn said she panicked that Dave might have sold the boat. Turns out he was just getting a new cover for it. His neighbor sent her a photo, which Kathryn shared with her mom.

Looking up a 1963 picture of the Sea Jay, Kathryn’s mom noticed that Dave’s boat had the same registration numbers on it. Sure enough, Dave had bought and restored her grandfather’s boat. 

The next weekend, Dave and Kathyrn actually met and talked about the fact that Dave had restored my grandfather’s boat. He shared pictures of the boat at the time he bought it, unused and stored in a barn for about 30 years. It still had the “Sea Jay” name on it when he bought it.

“It looked and felt exactly as I remembered it," said Katyhryn. "We told Dave that whenever he wanted to sell the boat, to let us know. That night he said that ‘this boat needs to be back in your family’ and two weeks later he sold it us.

Kathryn noted that much of the boat is original to when her grandfather had it - trailer, metal gas tanks, and even the flag and flag pole. 

So the Sea Jay is now back in the family.