Puget Sound Chronicles: Sailing Stories with Cosima Franchini and Olympia Sailing Co.
Are you ready to set sail on a thrilling adventure through the Puget Sound?
Are you ready to set sail on a thrilling adventure through the Puget Sound? In this episode of “Exploring Washington State,” host Scott Cowan has a heartwarming conversation with Cosima Franchini, the owner of Olympia Sailing Company. They delve into the world of sailing and the captivating story behind the sailboat “Pterodactyl.” From family ties to sailing tips and favorite local spots, this episode is a treasure trove of nautical delights. Let’s embark on a journey and uncover the wonders of sailing with Cosima Franchini!
A Family Legacy: “Pterodactyl” and Olympia Sailing Company
The episode starts with Cosima Franchini fondly recounting her family’s deep-rooted connection to sailing and the sea. Her father, a passionate boat builder, crafted the impressive sailboat “Pterodactyl” in the 1970s, turning his dream of sailing into a reality. With a hull made of Ferro cement and a deck and interior crafted from wood, the 42-foot deck and 59-foot overall vessel hold decades of maritime history within its sturdy frame.
Bringing Sailing to the Community: Inclusive Experiences
Cosima’s commitment to creating an inclusive sailing experience shines through as she discusses the offerings of Olympia Sailing Company. Whether you’re a seasoned sailor or new to the water, everyone is welcomed aboard for an unforgettable journey through Puget Sound. With options like the golden hour sail, quiet morning sail, and day-long excursions, there’s something for sailors of all preferences and experience levels.
Sailing Secrets and Inspirations
As the episode progresses, Cosima generously shares her personal experiences and insights into the art of Sailing. She illuminates the boat’s capabilities, favorite routes, and the sheer joy of using the wind to navigate through the sound. Her discussion of the boat’s equipment, maintenance, and future business plans provides a captivating glimpse into the world of sailboat operations.
Navigating the Puget Sound: From Hope Island to the Inside Passage
Accompany Cosima as she vividly describes the enchanting destinations of Puget Sound, including the idyllic Hope Island and its diverse attractions. From encounters with raccoons and deer to the allure of camping sites and orchards, these destinations offer a wealth of experiences. Her captivating narratives of sailing expeditions bring to life the physical challenges of handling the sailboat and the exhilaration of navigating through the sound.
Local Flavors and Praises: Olympia’s Delights
When it comes to Olympia’s culinary delights, Cosima doesn’t hold back. From her favorite coffee spots like Olympia Coffee Roasters and Halyard’s Cafe to the city’s vibrant punk scene, she invites listeners to savor the city’s charms and sample its eclectic offerings. With a delightful touch, she shares her preferred coffee brewing method and the local hotspots she frequents for a delicious meal.
Setting Sail for the Future
With her eyes set on new horizons, Cosima reflects on her past voyages and envisions future expeditions. Her yearning for exploration and discovery is evident from the Mediterranean to potential Pacific escapades. As she shares her aspirations and dreams for the future, her infectious enthusiasm for the open seas shines through, inspiring listeners to embark on their own sailing odysseys.
Olympia Sailing Co. Cosima Franchini Episode Transcript
Hello, friends, and welcome to the exploring Washington State podcast. My name is Scott Cowan, and I’m the host of the show. Each episode, I have a conversation with an interesting guest who is living in or from Washington State. These are casual conversations with real and interesting people. I think you’re gonna like the show. So let’s jump right in with today’s guest. I am sitting down today with Cosima from the Olympic sailing co. She calls it co.
Scott Cowan [00:00:30]:
I would’ve said company, but she calls it co. So the Olympia sailing co. They have
Cosima Franchini [00:00:36]:
Hello.
Scott Cowan [00:00:37]:
Hello. And you have a ship.
Cosima Franchini [00:00:41]:
I do.
Scott Cowan [00:00:41]:
I know nothing about ships other than they go in the water, and and it’s a concrete hull. And that makes no logical sense to me, so I wanna make sure we get that out of the way that I have no clue what we’re talking about. But before we go there, introduce yourself and give my audience a little bit of how you ended up on the water because I think there’s a big story there.
Cosima Franchini [00:01:05]:
Absolutely. Well, like you said, my name is Cosima. Cosima. I’m the owner of Olympia Sailing Company. Obviously, we’re based in Olympia, which is the very south end of Puget Sound. Yeah. So I grew up in Olympia, on a little cove called Big Fish Trap. My father is a boat builder and actually built the boat that you’re referring to.
Cosima Franchini [00:01:29]:
Her name is Pterodactyl.
Scott Cowan [00:01:31]:
Pterodactyl.
Cosima Franchini [00:01:32]:
Yeah. I
Scott Cowan [00:01:33]:
wanna know about that, but we’ll get there.
Cosima Franchini [00:01:35]:
Yeah. Okay. Most people do. So, yeah, I I grew up sailing on Puget Sound as a kid. You know, I I was always around boats and around the water. I think for me, when I really got excited about sailing was probably right before I got my driver’s license and I wanted my freedom and I didn’t have a car. My parents were like, hey, kid. You wanna go somewhere? Like, take a boat.
Cosima Franchini [00:01:59]:
And I was like, I can just take a boat? And, so sailing was my first kind of, you know, my first little taste of independence as a kid. My brother and I, who I’m still really close with and is really involved at Olympia Sailing Co, We’d always go out fishing or exploring or taking our friends or kinda go and, like, camping on some of the islands. And, yeah. I guess you could say for some reason around boats, there was not much supervision in my in my childhood, my family. So that’s how I first kinda got hooked on boats.
Scott Cowan [00:02:28]:
Okay.
Cosima Franchini [00:02:30]:
Yeah. I ended up kind of running with that throughout my adult life. When I was 19, I started working on the Schooner Adventures with which is, run by a nonprofit called Sound Experience, which if any of your listeners don’t know about them, they said check it out. They have awesome school programs, kid programs, and then just cool sailing experiences around Puget Sound. But, yeah, I got a kind of taste of what it meant to work on boats, and that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing my adult life. And then, yeah, in 2021, I opened the Olympia Sailing Co with, you know, shortly after purchasing the pterodactyl from my dad, kinda during COVID.
Scott Cowan [00:03:10]:
So you and your brother grew up and as teenagers, you know, before driver’s license, mom and dad said, here. Go take a boat. It just blows my mind. I just I not being a boater at all, the idea that they would I don’t want to say trust you, I don’t mean it like that, but but like, but trust you. And, you know, and and you go out and take what could go wrong. And, you know, honestly, I’m of the age where, you know, the theme song from Gilligan’s Island is going through my head right now, and it’s a 3 hour cruise. What could go wrong? Your early days with boating, you must have some funny stories that you I mean, I was a teenager a long time ago. I got in trouble.
Scott Cowan [00:03:53]:
I mean, I did, you know, I did stupid things, and I’m sure you did too. Oh, yeah.
Cosima Franchini [00:03:59]:
Can
Scott Cowan [00:03:59]:
I get you to share one?
Cosima Franchini [00:04:01]:
Well, I mean, let me just put it this way. The boats were already half sinking, most of them. We grew up in a cove. So, basically, at high tide, there was, like, 12 feet of water. And when it was low tide, the boats just kind of laid over on their sides. So, you know, they’re crusty and mud. They’re not expensive boats. They’re boats that my dad, like, got off Craigslist for like a $1,000 and we all just kind of played on them in the summer.
Scott Cowan [00:04:21]:
Okay.
Cosima Franchini [00:04:22]:
Like, we’re talking like took like 10 minutes to, like, figure out how to start the outboard. So, you know, we’re not talking yachting here. We’re talking some, you know, some mudflat boats. But anyways, yeah. So gosh. Yeah. Where do you even begin? I mean, my my brother, especially, he always had little motorboats that would always end up towing me somehow in my sailboat that I barely knew how to sail. But, yeah, we we had, we had a lot of fun.
Cosima Franchini [00:04:48]:
And, you know, the main thing was that the marina down the way had a soft serve ice cream machine, which is probably why I really got into sailing because I was only allowed to have ice cream if we sailed there. So that was always my little bribe to get me into it. But
Scott Cowan [00:05:02]:
That’s funny.
Cosima Franchini [00:05:02]:
But, yeah, it worked.
Scott Cowan [00:05:03]:
That’s funny. I okay. Once again Yeah. Not my world at all. Right? But one of the what you just said okay. So we’re gonna we’re gonna go sailing. I mean, you’re taking the boat down to the marina to get some Scott serve ice cream. Right.
Scott Cowan [00:05:17]:
I have a couple of friends who are private pilots, and they’ll fly to go get coffee somewhere or go get a burger and a milkshake, and that just blows my mind. They’re like, oh, no. It’s just what we do. I went with them one time, and it was like, get in the plane, fly, land, go eat, fly back. I mean, I’m like, this is crazy. I’m in a in a small plane. I’m like, yeah. Yeah.
Scott Cowan [00:05:39]:
Yeah. We’re we do it all the time. Whatever. So probably the same thing for you. It’s like, yeah. This is what we did. Alright.
Cosima Franchini [00:05:44]:
It’s nice to have a destination. But, you know and that’s the glory of Puget Sound. We’re not in the open ocean here. It’s not like this crazy squall was gonna come through and tidal wave and 6 foot seas. And, you know, we’re in an inland waterway, especially down here. I mean, the water’s cold and it’s obviously it should always be treated with respect and there’s always dangers involved with on the water. But for the most part, it’s a pretty predictable and safe, you know Okay. Body of water to to test to, you know, I don’t know, learn to sail on.
Scott Cowan [00:06:15]:
But then alright. Well, let’s bounce here because you when you and I first started talking about having you on the show, I think you were in were you in Spain or Italy at that time? You were somewhere in the Mediterranean.
Cosima Franchini [00:06:26]:
Probably.
Scott Cowan [00:06:26]:
Yeah. And you were doing you were working on a on a a yacht for some organization or somebody or, you know, you were you were on you’re on the crew of a of a a large vessel. Yeah. Where have you been around the world on on boats? Yeah.
Cosima Franchini [00:06:46]:
So, I think, yeah, I was in the Mediterranean when we spoke. So for the last 10 years, I’ve, you know, since I graduated college pretty much, I have been in the yachting industry, so I work on private sailing yachts. So, basically, someone with a lot of money wants to have all the fun of the boating experience and the traveling, but they don’t wanna deal with the maintenance or the accounts or the logistics or they don’t have the skills simply to do it. So they hire, a full time crew. So that’s basically what I’ve been doing.
Scott Cowan [00:07:19]:
Mhmm. My
Cosima Franchini [00:07:20]:
last boat, I was my first captain’s job, which was very fun. We, was on the boat for about 3 years with my partner who’s a marine engineer along with, you know, other crew. We were a crew of 4 to 7 depending on what we were doing. But, yeah, I’ve sailed across the Atlantic three times. I’ve sailed throughout the Caribbean, the Eastern seaboard up into Nova Scotia. I’ve sailed the entire Mediterranean. And then, this time last year, we were sailing up to Norway, which was really fun exploring the fjords. So I’ve been really lucky to to do a lot of sailing.
Cosima Franchini [00:07:54]:
But I gotta say, I think this area here is still probably one of my favorite, and, you know, probably most beautiful places I’ve I’ve really ever sailed. So it always pulls me back.
Scott Cowan [00:08:05]:
So when you’re captaining a boat for a private owner, they are not living on the boat full time. Right? Or are they?
Cosima Franchini [00:08:14]:
Well, that’s generally the case. Yeah. I mean, usually, these people have so many resources that the yacht is just one of the toys in the toy box.
Scott Cowan [00:08:21]:
Right.
Cosima Franchini [00:08:23]:
These people I actually just recently working for, they lived on the boat full time, which is very rare.
Scott Cowan [00:08:28]:
Okay.
Cosima Franchini [00:08:29]:
And in some ways makes it more challenging as a crew because you’re constantly responsible and looking after and, you know, checking in with these people and, you know, we want them to be happy and obviously safe. So it it did it did make it a bit of a harder position. But at the same time, you know, when the owners are on board, that’s when you sail hard, go all the different places. You know? You know, I’m not gonna pull into Portofino without the boss on board because it’s, you know, 1,000 of dollars a day. So in
Scott Cowan [00:08:55]:
some ways, part of the reason why the last 2, 3 years of
Cosima Franchini [00:08:55]:
my life were so action packed, is because we did have live aboard, owners, which, yeah, I’d say it was it it made it really special.
Scott Cowan [00:09:08]:
That’s kinda cool, though, that you got to see, you know, those ports of call throughout. But now what I what I noticed here is you didn’t mention anything in the Pacific. Have you have you not done much in the Pacific?
Cosima Franchini [00:09:19]:
No. I really I’ve actually never I’ve never really sailed in the Pacific, which is is crazy. I’d love to. It’s it’s a place that a lot of, like, bigger superyachts don’t go as often because it’s longer legs and there’s less resources and less support. Mhmm. There’s less airports for people to fly into. I mean, it’s just really longer legs of sailing.
Scott Cowan [00:09:37]:
Right.
Cosima Franchini [00:09:38]:
But I would absolutely love to do it. It is on the bucket list.
Scott Cowan [00:09:41]:
It’s on the bucket list. Alright. So let’s talk about the pterodactyl. Yeah. Odd name.
Cosima Franchini [00:09:48]:
Yes.
Scott Cowan [00:09:48]:
Odd haul. That’s my Yes. My my professional assessment. Why on earth We
Cosima Franchini [00:09:55]:
are off beats for sure.
Scott Cowan [00:09:56]:
Why on earth did your dad decide to build a cement? And I know it’s not technically cement, but, you know
Cosima Franchini [00:10:05]:
It is. Yeah.
Scott Cowan [00:10:06]:
Why? What was the what was his his and then how how on earth does the thing float? I mean, water displacement, but it seems once again, to the non sailing guy, this seems very odd.
Cosima Franchini [00:10:20]:
Absolutely. So that’s a great question. Well, Faroe Cement, and FARO’s referring to the steel infrastructure of the boat. Okay. So FARO cement was a type of building that really became popular. You know, it started showing up, I think, more in like the forties, but really it took off in the loom seventies eighties. And why that was is because it’s basically a a pretty cheap and easy way to build a boat. Well, I shouldn’t say easy.
Cosima Franchini [00:10:47]:
It’s quick.
Scott Cowan [00:10:48]:
Oh.
Cosima Franchini [00:10:48]:
You Cowan, you know, comparatively. However, Ferro Cement kind of has a bad name in the sailing industry, and in some ways it deserves it because a lot of people built boats without any experience. And because it was semi affordable, people just kind of went for it. So there’s a lot of below par, ferro cement boats out there.
Scott Cowan [00:11:13]:
Okay.
Cosima Franchini [00:11:14]:
That being said, when it’s done correctly, it’s a very strong, very low maintenance, hull, which is luckily what I have. My dad was a pretty well known they call him plasters, back in the day. So that’s basically once you build your steel infrastructure, you have a professional crew come in and basically fill it with cement. And it’s a very slow curing, very, very strong cement if done properly. So you have your your rebar infrastructure that basically has a square welded mesh, you know, kind of around the structure. And then you fill it with cement. And you, you know, you usually want it to take about I think it’s like 2 to 4 weeks to dry. So you have to keep it wet.
Cosima Franchini [00:11:55]:
And it’s it’s a very big process. And if you do it too fast, then you have a very brittle cement. Anyways, maybe I’m going too far. I don’t know if people
Scott Cowan [00:12:02]:
can ask me. I care. This is this is I was gonna start asking questions, so go for it.
Cosima Franchini [00:12:07]:
Yeah. It’s it’s it’s interesting. And, yeah. So a lot of people are like, ferro cement, like, kinda stick their nose up at it because, you know, you do see a lot of them around. And sometimes they’re just you know, they weren’t well plastered. They’re kinda ugly. They’re wonky. They’re very shippy
Scott Cowan [00:12:21]:
Mhmm.
Cosima Franchini [00:12:21]:
As we say sometimes, just meaning, like, big old herky boats. Right. But anyways, yeah. So my dad built this boat when he he started when he was 25. He’s from New Jersey, but he always had a dream of sailing and, moved out here to Washington state. Yeah. I think I guess yeah. He must have been, I think, 25.
Cosima Franchini [00:12:42]:
And the goal was simply to come out here to find some cheap land and start building a boat. And his brother ended up coming out. All his friends from high school came out. It was kind of like a, you know, pretty much a little hippie commune and everyone was building there.
Scott Cowan [00:12:54]:
Was this in Olympia?
Cosima Franchini [00:12:55]:
Their boats. It was actually in Snohomish.
Scott Cowan [00:12:57]:
Oh, well, once again, kind of Yeah.
Cosima Franchini [00:13:00]:
Not far.
Scott Cowan [00:13:00]:
Well, but also what you just described is fairly typical during that period of time Yeah. Too up there.
Cosima Franchini [00:13:05]:
Yeah. Exactly. Okay. So, yeah, they actually, were given this old powerhouse, in Snohomish, which was just like a huge long warehouse perfect for building boats. So they built actually 3 boats, in the early seventies. Oh. My dad is kind of the mastermind of it and got a lot of experience while he was building the boats on a professional plastering crew. But, yeah, it took him actually 10 years to build a boat.
Cosima Franchini [00:13:31]:
It wasn’t, I guess yeah. 1984 is when the boat officially You just
Scott Cowan [00:13:36]:
said it’s a fast way to build a boat. So I’d I’d hate to know how long you I’m just teasing.
Cosima Franchini [00:13:42]:
Well, I should say this. The so with pterodactyl, the hull is ferro cement.
Scott Cowan [00:13:46]:
Mhmm. Yeah.
Cosima Franchini [00:13:46]:
But everything else is wood. The interior is wood. The deck is wood. The mast you know, everything is wood. So and he was also helping his brothers. Yeah.
Scott Cowan [00:13:53]:
Just the whole thing. Okay.
Cosima Franchini [00:13:55]:
Yeah. I think he built the hull in, like, 10 months or something.
Scott Cowan [00:13:57]:
Question for you. How many feet is this boat, Charles?
Cosima Franchini [00:14:02]:
She’s she’s 42 on deck, but overall so from the end of the bowsprit to the end of the main boom, she’s 59. So
Scott Cowan [00:14:10]:
Approximately, what does she weigh?
Cosima Franchini [00:14:12]:
She weighs 21 tons. What So £42,000.
Scott Cowan [00:14:16]:
If this is a wood hull boat, would it be much lighter? Would the weight be the same? I mean
Cosima Franchini [00:14:22]:
So that’s an interesting question. Basically, a a boat design
Scott Cowan [00:14:27]:
Mhmm.
Cosima Franchini [00:14:28]:
In order to displace the water and float, it has to weigh the same regardless of what the material is.
Scott Cowan [00:14:33]:
Oh.
Cosima Franchini [00:14:34]:
Whether you put that in the keel as ballast or it’s in the hull itself, it needs to technically be a certain weight to be able to displace the water properly as it was designed. So it’s less about the material, more about the design. However, Pterodactyl is a very beanie boat, meaning, you know, very wide and she’s very deep.
Scott Cowan [00:14:52]:
Mhmm.
Cosima Franchini [00:14:53]:
So she’s, you know, that’s why she’s a great charter boat. She’s so stable.
Scott Cowan [00:14:58]:
So it just carries its weight differently than, say, a a boat with a a wood boat with a keel? Mhmm. Okay.
Cosima Franchini [00:15:05]:
And, you know, weight of boats is pretty much exponential recording to size. You know, it’s it it yeah. She’s she’s a heavy boat for sure. And the the rig is very heavy as well. Okay.
Scott Cowan [00:15:15]:
The masts. Right. So that could have been maybe maybe you could have the the the rigging could have been lighter weight if you wanted to. You you could put
Cosima Franchini [00:15:23]:
Yeah. Well, you you could make her a little more sporty, but it’s Scott necessarily what we need to do for what we do with her, but you certainly could.
Scott Cowan [00:15:30]:
Okay. Alright.
Cosima Franchini [00:15:31]:
Yeah.
Scott Cowan [00:15:31]:
So it took him 10 years to complete the project, mid eighties completion. What did he do with it once he was done?
Cosima Franchini [00:15:41]:
You know, she hasn’t done any far fledged trips. My dad did sail. You know, he spent a lot of time sailing on other boats around the Pacific, other boats that he built. But because he ended up having a family, with his first wife and my older brother, he stayed pretty local. I mean, he went all up into the inside passage in Canada, but the boat was mostly, on Bay Bridge Island for a lot of the time. He did live aboard for, I think, 20 years.
Scott Cowan [00:16:03]:
Okay.
Cosima Franchini [00:16:04]:
And always sailing, always on the move. But, unfortunately, he didn’t get to do any of the the longer voyage he had initially planned. But she’s she’s still been busy, the boat.
Scott Cowan [00:16:12]:
Could it could this boat is it theoretical that it could go around the world with it? I mean, is it Yeah. Mean, theory? Okay.
Cosima Franchini [00:16:22]:
She I would wanna, you know, beef up some things, particularly the steering.
Scott Cowan [00:16:25]:
Just, you
Cosima Franchini [00:16:26]:
know, when you’re offshore surfing down waves, there’s just so much more load on all the steering. Obviously, that’s not something you’d wanna lose. I would definitely bulk that up. And then, you know, from a system standpoint, there’d be things I’d wanna add to be more comfortable. But in terms of safety, you know, if I did some updates, I would have no qualms sailing this boat around the world.
Scott Cowan [00:16:46]:
Okay. Cool. Alright. So your dad owned it, and then you bought it from him.
Cosima Franchini [00:16:52]:
And Yeah.
Scott Cowan [00:16:53]:
So did you buy it with the the strict intention of opening the sailing company?
Cosima Franchini [00:16:58]:
So, well, one funny thing about the boat is so when I was born, you know, and my brother, my younger brother as well, sailing was kind of put on the back burner for my dad and the family. So pterodactyl was actually in my front yard on boat stands almost my whole childhood. I think she went there when I was probably about 5, and then we didn’t relaunch her until I was 19. Wow. So this boat actually was kind of like my tree house as a kid. Like, you know, my friends would come over from school and crawl up the ladder and hang out on the boat. Yeah. You know, I probably drink my first beer up there.
Cosima Franchini [00:17:31]:
It was kind of like our our little clubhouse. And then when I was 19 or 18, 18, I guess, 19 and, you know, we’d had our little boats and I’d kind of gone sailing on some bigger rigs. My dad was like, oh, my kids really like sailing. We gotta get the boat going. So that he kind of went on a couple year mission to, put some resources back into the boat. And, yeah, I think she relaunched in 2014.
Scott Cowan [00:18:00]:
Okay.
Cosima Franchini [00:18:00]:
Yeah. 2014. So she’s only been back on the water, you know, 10 years. But yeah. So to to answer your question, my dad’s getting older. He’s in his late seventies now, and he’s still super with it. And he, you know, was still sailing the boat, but it was just becoming a bit much to look after. I mean, just these boats take up so much, you know, just to maintain is a lot of physical Cowan.
Cosima Franchini [00:18:24]:
And, you know, he he I think he was just ready to pass it on. And so yeah. When COVID hit and I was working on all these yachts, my partner and I were in the Caribbean and all the borders were closing around us. And we decided to we wanted to, you know, we hadn’t been home in so long. We decided to come out to Washington, leave our boat job for a little while. And before I even had any notions of maybe buying the boat, I asked my dad if we could take the boat for 3 weeks and go sailing up into the San Juan Islands and go exploring. And, he let us. And, yeah, we just had so much fun sailing.
Cosima Franchini [00:18:59]:
And, especially as a yachty and someone who’s just worked on boats their entire adult life, I owned nothing. Like, I’ve been living out of a duffle bag for 10 years and I kind of got the idea. I was like, you know, it could be kind of fun to start investing some of my time into something that’s not someone else’s boat.
Scott Cowan [00:19:17]:
And
Cosima Franchini [00:19:17]:
I asked my brother, I was like, I think I might ask our dad if I can buy the boat from him. And my brother was like, no way, dude. He is not ready. Not happening. So anyways, I ended up did I did ask my dad, and he was pretty much like, oh my gosh. Please take it. Thank you. And then within, like, 5 minutes, I was like, oh my god.
Cosima Franchini [00:19:35]:
Okay. I’m I’m doing this.
Scott Cowan [00:19:36]:
What have I done?
Cosima Franchini [00:19:38]:
Yeah. So I was like, so I went I ended up going back to work for a little bit, because I did know that I just know boats of any capacity. Even cheap boats, you know, they just require a lot of money to upkeep and more and all of that. So I knew that from the get go that I didn’t want this to be a burden for me. I wanted to be something that I could always enjoy and also keep it up to my standards, that I would like a boat to be. So, I started playing with the idea of starting a day sailing company, which was kind of, yeah, how this all started.
Scott Cowan [00:20:12]:
That’s actually a cool story. So your dad was it’s funny. Your brother says he’s not ready and your dad, the way you describe the story, is like, oh, please take it. You know?
Cosima Franchini [00:20:21]:
Yeah. It’s like,
Scott Cowan [00:20:21]:
I don’t know. It’s yours. Yeah. What I always, I love to ask questions of like the unexpected things, the, the, that might’ve seemed, you know, like, oh, that was bad at the time, but we always learn stuff. What about buying this boat? And then you you becoming the owner, and now you’re responsible for its care, its maintenance, and all that. What about the boat caught you by surprise, if anything?
Cosima Franchini [00:20:52]:
Well, when I bought the boat, it needed a lot of work again.
Scott Cowan [00:20:54]:
Sure.
Cosima Franchini [00:20:55]:
Which I was a little afraid about. I remember when I first bought it, my partner, Nick, like, pulled me aside and we were, like, looking around the boat. And it’s just like, I’m pretty sure on the engine log, it said the last oil change was, like, 1989. And he was like, are are you sure you want to do this? And I was still I was like, oh gosh. This is a Scott, because it’s a big boat. Mhmm. Anyways but I I once I carried through that, I was shocked at how much I enjoyed fixing up the boat. K.
Cosima Franchini [00:21:25]:
It was really empowering for me. I mean, I’ve always kind of been a handy person and I love using my hands and working on projects, but just giving myself total permission to just make this what I want and work really hard at it. And that’s pretty much what I did. I left my well, I went on a 6 month hiatus for my job, and I just woke up every morning and I worked till late every day just working on the boat. And it also one of the the best parts of it is my dad and I just having so much fun doing it together.
Scott Cowan [00:21:56]:
Okay.
Cosima Franchini [00:21:58]:
I mean, having the guy there when you’re like, okay. I have to tear out this bulkhead,
Scott Cowan [00:22:01]:
you know, like a wall. He’s like, oh, well, let me tell
Cosima Franchini [00:22:04]:
you about it. It’s 5 16ths ply with you know? And the fasteners are here, and their size tens in, like, oh, great. So I can just do it makes everything so much easier when you have the person there who built the boat. So it’s been a fun bonding experience for us. Cool. So, yeah, I from the get go, I was really pleasantly surprised. And then also, I had no expectations for Olympia Sailing Company. You know, there’s not that much around similar to it that I had to compare to.
Cosima Franchini [00:22:30]:
There’s there’s, you know, there’s a couple that have been around, but to the capacity that I was looking to do it, I wasn’t really sure. And, you know, I’ve sailed around, you know, a lot of areas around the world and so many of these cute little harbor towns. They just have these little charter boats going out all day every day. And, you know, they might not be packed, but there’s always a few people
Scott Cowan [00:22:49]:
on them.
Cosima Franchini [00:22:49]:
And Right. It’s just so funny to come home on one of the most gorgeous waterways. We’re surrounded by the Olympic Mountains. We have Mount Rainier right there, and just to not have that. So I I was hopeful, but I didn’t know what to expect. And I remember the day that we, opened the booking on the website and I, like, put some stuff on social media just announcing it. The bookings came in so fast. I kind of freaked out.
Scott Cowan [00:23:13]:
I was like, oh my gosh. We’re not ready for this.
Cosima Franchini [00:23:15]:
Has the insurance even completely gone through? I don’t have a bookkeeper. Like, did I do what am I this is, you know, this is too bad. But, yeah. So I I quickly kinda had to get my act together. But, yeah, it was a really pleasant surprise, how the community just showed up, and we’re excited to to go sailing.
Scott Cowan [00:23:31]:
Alright. Before we talk about the the the sailing company and all of that, we we we haven’t addressed the name of the of how what’s the story there?
Cosima Franchini [00:23:43]:
That’s pretty much our number one question when people get on the boat. And, honestly, I don’t know if this is a totally made up answer. This is what my brother tells people because my brother does run a lot of the charters.
Scott Cowan [00:23:53]:
Okay.
Cosima Franchini [00:23:55]:
So so pterodactyl is what we call a gaff rigged schooner, meaning she has 2, big mane sails that are shaped like trapezoids.
Scott Cowan [00:24:05]:
And
Cosima Franchini [00:24:05]:
the boat is also bright orange. But I guess my dad thought that gaff rigged schooners resembled pterodactyls. I don’t know. But at the same time, he’s an old artsy hippie guy and he loves to be different and stand out and is, certainly a nonconformist. So I think he probably, Scott a, you know, I don’t know. He got creative with it. But I will say when I bought the boat, there was two rules. My dad said you can’t change the name and you can’t change the color.
Cosima Franchini [00:24:35]:
Okay.
Scott Cowan [00:24:36]:
So those are those are dad’s
Cosima Franchini [00:24:37]:
So I’m honoring those.
Scott Cowan [00:24:38]:
Those are your dad’s requirements when you purchase the boat, name and color, not not touchable. He’ll let
Cosima Franchini [00:24:43]:
you Yeah.
Scott Cowan [00:24:46]:
Make modifications. Yeah. Well, because you’ve already just said, like, he was describing to you how the bulkhead was put together. Okay. Alright.
Cosima Franchini [00:24:52]:
I mean, I would never change either. I don’t like changing I mean, a lot of people say changing the name of a boat is bad luck.
Scott Cowan [00:24:58]:
Mhmm.
Cosima Franchini [00:24:58]:
But and I would also never change the bright orange because it’s actually super iconic and it really stands out. And I think it’s really fun. That’s kind of like our whole brand is built around.
Scott Cowan [00:25:08]:
K.
Cosima Franchini [00:25:09]:
Yeah. Yeah. Kind of being different. So it’s it’s yeah. Yeah. I wouldn’t change him anyway.
Scott Cowan [00:25:13]:
Your dad named the boat. You’re not sure the origin story. You should really, like, invest in creating a really funny tongue in cheek origin story for the boat.
Cosima Franchini [00:25:22]:
Just I know. I really should.
Scott Cowan [00:25:23]:
It’d be fun. It’d be fun.
Cosima Franchini [00:25:24]:
That’s a good idea.
Scott Cowan [00:25:25]:
It’d be fun. You know, and just get your dad on camera and have him like, well, back in ‘eighty two, I was thinking, you know, just whatever. Just, you know, totally make it up and just, you know, totally just like complete fabricating, a Saturday Night Live esque skit, you know, type thing, you know, just total life. I was had a vision, you know, anyway. Okay. Yeah. So you opened up the the booking, and you were rewarded almost immediately with with people signing up and you weren’t quite prepared for that, etcetera, etcetera. What months of the year do you sail? Because you’re not you’re not going you’re not taking people out.
Scott Cowan [00:26:05]:
I don’t think people wanna go out in November, do they? I mean, it’s kinda gray and dreary in the Olympia in November. So when
Cosima Franchini [00:26:11]:
when’s our season? Yeah. May through late September is generally what we sail. I think, you know, down the road, if we expand, I would love to have a boat that could take people out in the winter here because it actually has its own immense beauty here. You know, the snow capped mountains and the fog, I think it’s gorgeous. But for right now, with how we’re operating, I yeah. We just do the the the summer months, the warm months.
Scott Cowan [00:26:36]:
The warm months for the fair weather sailors?
Cosima Franchini [00:26:39]:
Yeah. Exactly. Okay.
Scott Cowan [00:26:41]:
So when you when you opened, what sort of, words can be hard sometimes for me. What what sort of services? I mean, like, how long could people book it? What what and has that changed? You know, are and are you modifying it to what you are opening when you for this year, for 24?
Cosima Franchini [00:27:01]:
So, basically, we do private charters, meaning that, you have to book the whole boat. So we’re a 6 passenger vessel. So when you book the boat, you could just bring yourself, you can bring up to 6 people. There’s always 2 professional crew on board, so you can just relax. But if people want to get involved, help hoist sales, take the helm, they’re more than welcome to. And that can be a really fun part. Or people just wanna have a glass of wine in their beanbag chair and relax, which, you know
Scott Cowan [00:27:27]:
k.
Cosima Franchini [00:27:27]:
Totally understand. So, yeah, we offer 2 hour, 3 hour, and then a full day sailing option. K. There’s rarely a destination. You know, it depends on the conditions. We literally go where the wind blows. And, yeah, just kinda get people out on the water. For the full day sail, we do often go to an island called Hope Island, which is a little state park outside of Olympia, which is actually where the people who started the Olympia Beer Co, they originally owned it and it was, a vineyard back in the day.
Cosima Franchini [00:27:56]:
Now it’s just a gorgeous little island. There’s barely anyone, you know, oftentimes there. There’s a really cool cabin, a historic orchard. There’s all their cool historic, like native grapes growing up the fir trees. It’s a very cool place. So we try to take people there.
Scott Cowan [00:28:11]:
Okay.
Cosima Franchini [00:28:11]:
And, yeah, go, go exploring. People love to swim and all of that. And, you know, it’s we we’ve added a couple other little, you know, niche sales here. We sometimes do a full moon cruise, where we go out at midnight on the full moon, but no sales go up. It’s an adult only sale. Yeah. Just get people out, you know, to experience something most people wouldn’t have the means to. So there are a couple little things we’ve added, but for the most part, we kinda stick with that program.
Cosima Franchini [00:28:39]:
You know, it’s just a nice little taste for people and sometimes they come they start on the 2 hour and then oftentimes people book the full day next time.
Scott Cowan [00:28:47]:
So I know I know you just said you don’t have a destination or anything, but I wanna like like, my brain doesn’t work that way. So if it was a couple hours and it was good sailing weather, where give me an idea of where that might take me.
Cosima Franchini [00:29:00]:
Well, we sail, out of a little marina called Boston Harbor Marina, which is outside of the Cowan area. It’s a gorgeous little
Scott Cowan [00:29:07]:
historic marina. Mhmm. And the water is a lot cleaner there. You know, you’re not
Cosima Franchini [00:29:08]:
in the town. So we sail out of there. If it’s a good sailing day, we’re gonna be going about, you know, 6 to 8 knots, which is, you know, nautical miles. So 1.1 regular miles. So, you know, we’re not screaming along, but we’re moving.
Scott Cowan [00:29:25]:
Right.
Cosima Franchini [00:29:26]:
We’ll generally sail all the way across to the other side of, you know, the the the west side of the of the Puget Sound, which is a few miles. And we generally just kind of tack back and forth. Tack is, you know, basically turning the boat. So we kinda go back and forth a couple times because, you know, Wenatchee you’re on, you know, you can see different views from different Right. Different areas. We sometimes go up but and let, you know, people Cowan see the Capitol building and then sail back towards the Marina. But, yeah, we usually cover, you know, a fair bit of miles. But, you know, if there’s no wind, we’re, you know, I I I like to use the motor to a certain extent.
Cosima Franchini [00:30:03]:
But also, I think just the calm of the water even if you’re not moving quickly is a nice experience for people. So sometimes, you know, we don’t go that far.
Scott Cowan [00:30:11]:
Is Anderson Island ever within a range that you could do during a a sailing?
Cosima Franchini [00:30:18]:
Not for one of our 2 or 3 hour sails. We could get there in that amount of time, but not necessarily to get back. Right. Especially with the currents around here Cowan be quite strong. But I would love to do some sales to Anderson Island because it’s really a gorgeous place and it’s not that far.
Scott Cowan [00:30:34]:
Yeah. That’s why I always you know, it’s always a mystery on water how how far we can go and things like that. So I’ve never been to Hope Island, and that’s a state park. Yeah.
Cosima Franchini [00:30:45]:
It’s a little state park. It’s it’s pro a lot you can rent kayaks actually from Boston Harbor Marina and paddle there. It’s probably, I wanna say, like, 2 and a half, 3 miles. You know, kind of a bit of a ways, but it’s totally worth it. You can camp there. I think there was like 10 campsites. There’s, the island is, the circumference of the island is only a mile. And it’s a lot, it’s partially wooded and then part of it is an old orchard, where there’s a little caretakers cabin and a bunch of old apple trees.
Cosima Franchini [00:31:19]:
And the whole island is also overrun by raccoons. So definitely protect your food. But they’re also the most adorable little raccoons you’ve ever seen. They just, at low tide, they go down and just, like, crack open all the oysters, and they’re just feasting. But, yeah, it’s a very cool place.
Scott Cowan [00:31:35]:
How on earth did raccoons get to an island? I mean
Cosima Franchini [00:31:40]:
They’re swimmers.
Scott Cowan [00:31:41]:
I yeah. I know. I I I heard I’ve heard stories of deer swimming to Vashon Island. And so, I mean, I know, but I so it just baffles me. It’s like little raccoon ferry farm or something. And and they stay there.
Cosima Franchini [00:31:53]:
We, Yeah. It’s it’s interesting. We, we go there a lot just on the boat. We call them our overnighters, where we just go and anchor and have dinner, go to bed, you know. And we can be there in like 30 minutes from the arena. So we end up going there all the time. And yeah, a lot of times, I’m just having my coffee on deck in the morning, and I just see this little deer head just like, do do do do do, just scooting across the the sound over there because
Scott Cowan [00:32:15]:
That’s cool.
Cosima Franchini [00:32:15]:
There is one part of land it’s it’s pretty close to. It’s, like, probably half mile. But yeah.
Scott Cowan [00:32:20]:
Still. That’s a okay. So Yeah. So the pterodactyl, you have 2 people crew. If you were to take this boat up to the inside passage, let’s say, okay, which is obviously out of Puget Sound, would 2 people be able to to run the boat effectively?
Cosima Franchini [00:32:39]:
Absolutely. Okay. Yeah. It’s you know, my partner and I have taken it. Excuse me. My, my partner and I have taken it, you know, pretty far north before just the 2 of us. Of course, we both know what we’re doing. But Right.
Cosima Franchini [00:32:56]:
Yeah. It’s it’s not hard. I mean, we do haul up all the sails by hand, so there’s no winches on board. So we do you get pretty buff in the summer taking people sailing, like, 4 times a day hauling these things up. But as long as you have one person who can just stand at the wheel and drive straight and the other person can haul everything up, It’s it’s pretty manageable. I would say in some ways, pterodactyl is a little trickier than some boats, to sail just because mainly because we have a bowsprit, which is a big piece of wood that it’s 15 feet long that sticks out over the water. So I’m always the person that’s running up there to take down sails or put them up. I do end up going to the very end, which can be dangerous.
Cosima Franchini [00:33:39]:
And there is a way I could rig something up so I don’t have to do that. But, honestly, I don’t mind it. I think it’s kind of fun. But if I was gonna go offshore, I would definitely rig some stuff up to make it even easier to sail with 2 people.
Scott Cowan [00:33:50]:
But I’m I’m looking at this. There’s a photos keep scrolling by on the website. I’m looking at that going, you you go out. Okay. Yeah. Alright. Good on you.
Cosima Franchini [00:34:00]:
My my dad my dad’s single handed the boat a lot too, which could be possible, but
Scott Cowan [00:34:05]:
Okay.
Cosima Franchini [00:34:05]:
I I don’t know. I actually that’s one of my goals this summer. I wanna take my brother someone on a windy day, but be like, don’t help me unless it’s an emergency. And then I wanna do it all myself just try to try it.
Scott Cowan [00:34:16]:
Okay. It’d
Cosima Franchini [00:34:16]:
be it’d be good to try. But
Scott Cowan [00:34:18]:
So Yeah.
Cosima Franchini [00:34:18]:
So far.
Scott Cowan [00:34:19]:
What would the top sailing speed on this thing be? I mean, I know it’s dependent on the wind, but but, realistically, where would it top out at?
Cosima Franchini [00:34:29]:
So that also technically comes down to design. There is a thing called halt speed, which is as fast as a boat can technically go.
Scott Cowan [00:34:35]:
Okay.
Cosima Franchini [00:34:36]:
I will say, pterodactyl’s faster than she should be. Every I mean, when you look at her, she doesn’t look like a fast Cowan. And she’s Scott. But, I’d you know, we’ve had her going at 9 knots before. K. It’s probably not comfortable. The boat heels over really far, which is just a natural part of sailing, but not always comfortable for people who aren’t familiar with it.
Scott Cowan [00:34:57]:
Okay.
Cosima Franchini [00:34:58]:
But yeah, the amazing thing about pterodactyl that I’ve always been surprised by is how well she does in really light air, meaning really slow winds.
Scott Cowan [00:35:06]:
Mhmm.
Cosima Franchini [00:35:07]:
Yeah, she does a thing pretty well. We call it ghosting where you’re like, you can’t even tell where the breeze is coming from, but somehow we’re moving.
Scott Cowan [00:35:14]:
We’re still moving.
Cosima Franchini [00:35:15]:
Not fast, but we’re moving.
Scott Cowan [00:35:16]:
But we’re moving. Awesome. So the sales canvas, what’s the what’s the material?
Cosima Franchini [00:35:24]:
They’re they’re they’re Dacron. They’re
Scott Cowan [00:35:26]:
Okay. Okay.
Cosima Franchini [00:35:28]:
Basically plastic, but still very traditional in their aesthetic and and and shape.
Scott Cowan [00:35:34]:
And how long what’s the life of a sail like that? Because it’s out in the it’s out with in water, wind, you know, elements.
Cosima Franchini [00:35:41]:
Mhmm. Yeah. We the main thing for sales is UV. Mhmm. Beats them up. We are if you Scott really good sales by a local sailmaker, which if you have the means to do, you absolutely should because they can last up to 40 plus years if they’re taken care of.
Scott Cowan [00:35:56]:
Wow. Okay.
Cosima Franchini [00:35:58]:
We the the company we get sales from but we usually expect 10 years from them. And we did just get new sales last year, which was exciting, as well as a new engine. So full new propulsion setup. But, yeah, really happy with this test.
Scott Cowan [00:36:13]:
When was the last time the new engine had an oil change?
Cosima Franchini [00:36:16]:
Oh, yeah. Well, lucky for me, my boyfriend’s a marine engineer. So that I just passed the baton. That is his department. But yeah. No. It’s, we do it pretty regularly.
Scott Cowan [00:36:26]:
Okay.
Cosima Franchini [00:36:28]:
The engine buying a marine engine, let me tell you, is a big undertaking. So I definitely wanna if I ever have children, their generation can get the next engine. My dad got 1. I got 1.
Scott Cowan [00:36:38]:
Okay. I
Cosima Franchini [00:36:38]:
don’t wanna have
Scott Cowan [00:36:39]:
to do it. What is the marine engine in this? What what what is this?
Cosima Franchini [00:36:44]:
It’s a beta, which is basically a marinized Kubota. They are really great engines. They’ve become a lot more maintenance and they’re really easy to get parts. A lot of these marine engines, especially for this kind of horsepower, you know, have a lot of, you know, they’re run by a computer or parts are hard to get. So we went with beta. They’re a little more expensive, but just because how much we use the boat Mhmm. We wanna make sure we have something that we can
Scott Cowan [00:37:12]:
And how many horsepower is the is the engine?
Cosima Franchini [00:37:15]:
It’s a 62 horsepower engine.
Scott Cowan [00:37:17]:
So that would be like something, like, in a tractor, if it was on land type thing? You said Kubota
Cosima Franchini [00:37:22]:
in the sense? Yeah. Yeah. It’s a Kubota block, basically. But, yeah, they they they it would be in a small tractor, and they do make them. My brother, we just put a new engine in his boat last year as well. Uh-huh. His is only 25 horsepower, and it’s you know, they’re cute little bright red engines. We just pretty much picked it up and plopped her in.
Cosima Franchini [00:37:40]:
But, yeah, they they have a kick. You know? They’re they sound like little tractor engines.
Scott Cowan [00:37:45]:
That’s funny. So so new propulsion on on the on on the pterodactyl right now. What’s next? What what are you gonna?
Cosima Franchini [00:37:55]:
That’s a good question. I would love to update the rigging. So the standing rigging are the parts of the rig that don’t move. So we call running rigging, like, all the lines of any, you know, running through blocks and pulleys. Okay. So the standing rigging are the cables that support the mast. Okay. I think they’re absolutely fine with or how they are, but aesthetically, they look pretty tired.
Cosima Franchini [00:38:15]:
Okay. And they’re not the most traditional style.
Scott Cowan [00:38:18]:
Okay.
Cosima Franchini [00:38:18]:
They’re basically galvanized cable. So I would like to update that. But really, you know, what we’re moving towards is just kind of expanding the business. We’ve had we’ve had such a great time and so much fortune to just have a great customer base here in Olympia. And there’s room for us to to expand. So that’s kind of what we’re touring with. We don’t know exactly what direction we’re gonna take it yet, but that’s kind of, you know, the next step. Because, you know, when I started the business, I just wanted to make sure I could provide and make pterodactyl, what I wanted her to be.
Cosima Franchini [00:38:49]:
And, you know, between the new engine and the new sales and just all the work we’ve put in, she’s looking pretty good.
Scott Cowan [00:38:54]:
Uh-huh.
Cosima Franchini [00:38:54]:
So now we can kind of start, yeah, turning to the next page and and seeing, how else we can can grow as a company. And, you know, the the best thing is that we’re a family business. My brother runs most of the charters now because I’m still, up until very recently, very involved in, in the yachting. So I wasn’t always here.
Scott Cowan [00:39:13]:
Mhmm.
Cosima Franchini [00:39:14]:
So between him and his partner who is an amazing sailor as well, she also does the charters. And then myself and my dad still being involved. Yeah, we have a capacity to to put some love into the right boat.
Scott Cowan [00:39:26]:
So Awesome.
Cosima Franchini [00:39:27]:
That’s kinda, yeah, where we’re going.
Scott Cowan [00:39:29]:
So during the season, how many how many times does the pterodactyl go out in a day? I mean, I know that depends on what people are an all day sail. 1. But but what how many how many bookings do you like to do? What’s what’s what works for you guys? What’s the what’s the sweet spot?
Cosima Franchini [00:39:49]:
The 2 hour is the most popular sale that we do. Just it’s also, you know, obviously, the most affordable and way to for people to check out if they like it. But we’ll oftentimes I mean, we sail from we’re open from 9 AM to 9 PM, you know, at the height of summer when the sun goes down, you know, at 9 something. Right. So sometimes we’re literally sailing from 9 AM to 9 PM. Wow. Long days for the crew. Those are the the weekends, the hot days.
Cosima Franchini [00:40:16]:
But I would say on your average Tuesday, we’re probably sailing 4 to 6 hours out of the day,
Scott Cowan [00:40:23]:
as opposed to, like,
Cosima Franchini [00:40:23]:
a 12 hour day. Yeah. We yeah. We do we do great. We we do great, and we’re so lucky to be at Boston Harbor because Boston Harbor has its own community around it. And, you know, if any of your listeners haven’t checked them out, they have awesome barbecues with live music and local breweries. And they have it every Friday. And they’ve really kind of cultivated a really cool, culture, you know, just fun times of being on the water.
Cosima Franchini [00:40:46]:
So we’ve kind of partnered with that. And we’ve, yeah, we’ve we’ve we’ve been doing well last couple of seasons.
Scott Cowan [00:40:51]:
So I’m on the booking page right now. I’m seeing 5 options plus a gift card. I’m gonna put you on the spot. You have to pick. What’s your favorite? Oh.
Cosima Franchini [00:41:00]:
Oh, easy.
Scott Cowan [00:41:01]:
Oh. Oh, that was no fun.
Cosima Franchini [00:41:02]:
Well well, sorry.
Scott Cowan [00:41:04]:
I finished. No. No. No. I was just it was like, what what’s, you know, if you were knowing what you know, if you were if you were booking and you weren’t gonna work, you were gonna go and just be a be a customer, enjoy yourself, what would you pick?
Cosima Franchini [00:41:19]:
Well, my favorite’s the golden hour sail, which is our sunset sail. It’s often from 7 to 9, so it’s the end of your day. Not only do we have amazing sunsets where we are, we also there’s something called a thermal breeze in Puget Sound, where as the sun goes down and the air cools, it generates a bit more of a breeze. So sometimes the wind can pick up a little bit. And we’ve just had so many beautiful perfect condition sales, for the golden hour. So for me and my friends, I would pick the golden hour. We do bring a lot of kids on board. And for those sales, I oftentimes recommend our quiet morning sale because it’s just quieter on the water.
Cosima Franchini [00:41:57]:
The conditions are calmer.
Scott Cowan [00:41:58]:
Mhmm.
Cosima Franchini [00:41:59]:
That’s June generally our 9 to 11 sale.
Scott Cowan [00:42:02]:
K.
Cosima Franchini [00:42:03]:
And
Scott Cowan [00:42:03]:
so on your I’m gonna at the time that we’re recording this, the prices that I’m saying are at the time recording. These may change at any given moment, so please visit the website. And there’s my disclaimer. So the golden hours the golden hour sale is $315. And that’s for up to 6 people, or is that per person?
Cosima Franchini [00:42:20]:
No. That’s for the whole boat. So 6 people, and it also includes a welcome beverage for everybody.
Scott Cowan [00:42:26]:
Okay.
Cosima Franchini [00:42:27]:
We can do cocktails or mocktails.
Scott Cowan [00:42:29]:
Very cool. And then so, like, all the way up to all day starting at 6:95. Yeah. K. Yep. When you say starting out, what what what other add ons could I add on to that if I, you know, if I was taking the boat all day type thing?
Cosima Franchini [00:42:42]:
Yeah. Exactly. People do do charcuterie, which we can actually add on to any of our sales. The reason we have the this that price there is because sometimes people, want the boat parked at a dock for an event or, you know, we actually do memorial sales where people actually spread ashes and we have the family on board. So there’s a lot of ways to get creative with it. But just if you’re just want to come on for 6 hours and go to Hope Island and go for a swim and explore, then, yeah, the 695 is where we’re at. And, we actually just lowered our prices last year.
Scott Cowan [00:43:14]:
What? That’s unheard of. Yeah.
Cosima Franchini [00:43:17]:
I know. I really it’s really important for me to keep this as accessible to people as possible. And, you know, it actually worked for us. We did even get more sales. Of course, it’s more wear and tear on the boat, but it’s just we’re we really do want to make sure that everyone or as much as we Cowan allow, we want to have a place where everyone can have a little, you know, experience on the water because it’s crazy. Even growing up in Olympia, like, the amount of people who’ve lived here their whole lives and never been on the water blows my mind because that is why I am here. That’s why I come back here. But and of course, that wouldn’t be for everybody, but I do like trying to to share that with people.
Cosima Franchini [00:43:53]:
So those are our prices. They will stay that way for this season for sure.
Scott Cowan [00:43:57]:
Okay.
Cosima Franchini [00:43:58]:
And again, it’s a flat rate, so that can just be a date night with you and your person or we can bring all your friends.
Scott Cowan [00:44:05]:
That’s that’s well, all all of your friends equaling 6. Yeah. Somebody somebody record. Yeah. Somebody’s gonna miss the list. Number 7, sorry. Stay on the dock Cowan just wave at us as we go off because you are
Cosima Franchini [00:44:16]:
Pretty much.
Scott Cowan [00:44:16]:
The boat has a fixed capacity of 6 people. That’s that’s
Cosima Franchini [00:44:19]:
So that’s a legal coast guard regulation number.
Scott Cowan [00:44:22]:
On when I was reading, that means, like, newborns count as a whole person. So
Cosima Franchini [00:44:27]:
Yeah. So the coast guard views everybody as a person, whether, yeah, it is a newborn or whatever. It does count towards the 6. That’s something we have to be very strict on.
Scott Cowan [00:44:36]:
K. The other thing is you guys love dogs, and they’re okay under some conditions.
Cosima Franchini [00:44:43]:
Yes. So dogs are welcome. We the one thing is that sometime I mean, if we’re really sailing and the boat’s kind of leaning over, it can make dogs nervous. Uh-huh. We as long as people are responsible and attentive to their dogs, we haven’t had any bad experiences with dogs. My brother and his girlfriend have brought their dogs sometimes. You know, he just kind of lays in the cockpit at their feet. No one even knows he’s there.
Cosima Franchini [00:45:10]:
But yeah, dogs dogs are welcome. We always we got a lot of dogs in my family. If we’re going sailing with my family, there’s at least 3 dogs that got their life jackets on.
Scott Cowan [00:45:17]:
I wonder how mine would do. I got a 100 about a £130 mountain duck. Oh, big boy. Yeah. He’s a big boy. He’d be be he should be a full person. I on one hand, I think he’d be, like, totally calm and just chill because that’s the way he is until he’s Scott. And then it would be the whole he’s not calm.
Scott Cowan [00:45:37]:
It’d be like, oh, boy. That would not be fun. Okay. So I think it’s really cool what you guys are doing in the sense that it’s and I’m also surprised that Olympia doesn’t have more more sailing options. So good for you on the from a business aspect. Good for you. That’s awesome. Couple of questions about you personally, though.
Scott Cowan [00:45:58]:
You said you went to college. Where’d you go to college at?
Cosima Franchini [00:46:00]:
I actually went to Evergreen here in Olympia.
Scott Cowan [00:46:02]:
Okay. And what was the major?
Cosima Franchini [00:46:05]:
Marine science.
Scott Cowan [00:46:05]:
Marine science. And does that apply to your daily life now?
Cosima Franchini [00:46:10]:
Not really. Okay. I mean
Scott Cowan [00:46:12]:
Nothing wrong with that.
Cosima Franchini [00:46:13]:
I I mean, I have people are like, what’s that in the water? I’ll be like, oh, it’s a ctenophore. You know, I can get kinda nerdy with it. My main study was plankton, like primary producers. So from that standpoint, I wasn’t studying whales and sharks. But, yeah, I mean, I have an extra awareness of how owning a boat can affect the marine environment, which sometimes you can see boats as a necessary evil to, you know, from an environmental standpoint, there’s can be some negative sides of owning a boat.
Scott Cowan [00:46:42]:
Mhmm.
Cosima Franchini [00:46:44]:
But at the same time, if you don’t get people out in the water and experience the water in this beautiful place we live in, then,
Scott Cowan [00:46:49]:
you know,
Cosima Franchini [00:46:50]:
what are we doing? So, yeah, I I try to be really responsible from that standpoint. Just considering that’s what I did study in school. But no, not a direct.
Scott Cowan [00:46:58]:
Not yeah.
Cosima Franchini [00:46:58]:
That’s okay. Tie.
Scott Cowan [00:47:00]:
Nothing wrong with that. I think yeah. Okay. So when you’re not on the water, what do you like to do?
Cosima Franchini [00:47:10]:
Well, yeah, from, like, a hobby standpoint, maybe? Just
Scott Cowan [00:47:14]:
you guys aren’t you guys aren’t on the water. It’s a day off. You’re you’re you’re not Yeah. You’re not gonna work on the boat. You’re you’re you’re taking a break.
Cosima Franchini [00:47:21]:
Yeah. What
Scott Cowan [00:47:21]:
you gonna go do?
Cosima Franchini [00:47:24]:
Well, we I do like to play music. I play a lot of music. I play the banjo and the guitar.
Scott Cowan [00:47:29]:
Okay. What type? What’s what’s your genre of choice there?
Cosima Franchini [00:47:33]:
The banjo, I play clawhammer. So, like, old timey kind of stuff.
Scott Cowan [00:47:37]:
Okay. Cool.
Cosima Franchini [00:47:38]:
I’m not a bluegrass gal. K. I mean, I like bluegrass. I just don’t play it.
Scott Cowan [00:47:42]:
Okay.
Cosima Franchini [00:47:43]:
Guitar, yeah. I guess you could say if if I’m playing, I’m kind of just more of like a strummer, but I can, you know, I still like to jam with people and hang out. But I’m not gonna whip out any crazy riffs. But, yeah, we play a lot of music in my family. My brother is an amazing drummer. My mom’s a musician. So we do play a lot of music. And yeah, my partner and I were also just getting really into like building stuff.
Cosima Franchini [00:48:06]:
We, after being on boats for so long in such tiny spaces, we just bought a house like 2 years ago here in Olympia and it’s been really fun. We’ve, like, been building all the furniture and, we just built well, mostly my partner, we built a cedar wood fired hot tub. So it’s been really fun just kinda having the space to explore. Yeah. New hobbies. So building.
Scott Cowan [00:48:27]:
Building. Yeah. Okay. You’ve mentioned coffee a couple of times. Mhmm. I I always I I think I prepped you for this, but I always ask this question. Where’s where’s your go to coffee place in Olympia?
Cosima Franchini [00:48:43]:
Go to coffee is definitely Olympia Coffee Roasters.
Scott Cowan [00:48:46]:
In which and okay.
Cosima Franchini [00:48:48]:
They’re in Olympia. They’re an amazing yeah. Obviously. Hello? OCR as we call it. K. Gorgeous setting. They roast all their own coffee. They’ve won a ton of awards.
Cosima Franchini [00:49:00]:
I think they’re kinda low key famous, honestly.
Scott Cowan [00:49:02]:
They’re more than low key famous. They’re they’re in the coffee in the coffee world, they’re they’re they’re well I mean, they’re not that large green mermaid, but they’re
Cosima Franchini [00:49:11]:
Right.
Scott Cowan [00:49:12]:
They’re they’re they’re the tier below that with
Cosima Franchini [00:49:23]:
is my other go to, and they’re an awesome little storefront too. They’ve got a ton of local products and, like, cool clothes and just, like, very Pacific Northwest, like, cabin chic, like, Instagram vibes, but, like, totally pulling it off. Like, beautiful plants, like, growing Cowan, and their coffee is also amazing.
Scott Cowan [00:49:40]:
Okay. So at Olympia Coffee Roasters, though, what’s your you and I are walking in. We’re gonna order we’re gonna order drinks. What’s your go to?
Cosima Franchini [00:49:49]:
I’m probably a cappuccino girl.
Scott Cowan [00:49:51]:
K.
Cosima Franchini [00:49:51]:
They always do it right, and they give you a little sparkling water on the side. Okay. They actually make it 6 ounces, which I hate when people get cappuccinos and they’re huge. Like, Like, they’re supposed to be, like, these tiny little foamy espresso drinks. So I love their cappuccinos.
Scott Cowan [00:50:05]:
K. Alright. So what about Amber Goods? I’ve never I’ve been to Olympia Coffee Roasters and I’ve had a fair number of their coffees and, you know, I’m I’m a pour over black coffee drink, you know, pretty straight espresso stuff. Very good. Mhmm. I’ve never been to Ambergoods. What’s what’s what’s your go to there?
Cosima Franchini [00:50:28]:
I mean, I’d probably do the same, but I will say both places have, like, some really cool stuff on the menu. I don’t really like sweet stuff in my coffee. Mhmm. But, you know, they’ve got all sorts of cool, like, high viscous and matcha and infused stuff.
Scott Cowan [00:50:42]:
Yeah.
Cosima Franchini [00:50:42]:
It’s a bit much for me, but
Scott Cowan [00:50:43]:
I will say
Cosima Franchini [00:50:44]:
it’s it’s,
Scott Cowan [00:50:47]:
I don’t know.
Cosima Franchini [00:50:47]:
They’re they’re they’re they’re they’re they look nice.
Scott Cowan [00:50:49]:
You may look at their product.
Cosima Franchini [00:50:50]:
I’m a cappuccino person or or sometimes a mocha, maybe if I’m feeling little little sweet with the dark chocolate.
Scott Cowan [00:50:56]:
Okay. So you’re making coffee at home. What do you what what you’re making cappuccinos at home?
Cosima Franchini [00:51:01]:
Oh, no. Okay. So We’re French press.
Scott Cowan [00:51:02]:
French press.
Cosima Franchini [00:51:02]:
We’re a French press family, and we do the we have, like, this old timey, like, German hand grinder that’s actually super cute.
Scott Cowan [00:51:09]:
Right.
Cosima Franchini [00:51:09]:
And you can actually adjust the grind. Usually, those old ones, you know, you can’t. But, Okay. It’s a little morning workout. Yep. Definitely wakes you up, but we hand grind them. We do a French press.
Scott Cowan [00:51:19]:
Okay. What’s the beans of choice at home?
Cosima Franchini [00:51:22]:
We will sometimes do OCR, although I prefer their stuff espresso style. For French press, I do, they were formally oh my gosh. Wait, hold on. Thinking, thinking. I think they’re called wobbly cup. They just changed their name. They were formerly burial grounds in Olympia. But they just changed their name.
Cosima Franchini [00:51:44]:
I think it’s Wobbly Cup and they sell it at all, you know, they sell it at the grocery store, but also all the little the little country corner store by our house. And it’s a really it’s not, like, too acidic, you know, sometimes.
Scott Cowan [00:51:54]:
Right.
Cosima Franchini [00:51:54]:
It’s like a nice full body.
Scott Cowan [00:51:56]:
Okay. Solid. Yeah. Bubbly cup. I’m gonna I’m gonna check that out. That’s not not one I’ve heard of. My next trek through Olympia, I’ll go look I always I always buy. My touristy thing is I buy coffee from wherever I’m at.
Scott Cowan [00:52:09]:
You know, I’m bringing home a drink.
Cosima Franchini [00:52:10]:
I love that.
Scott Cowan [00:52:11]:
Alright. So next question I always ask everybody. I’m getting to Olympia about lunchtime. I’m hungry. Where should I go for lunch?
Cosima Franchini [00:52:19]:
To keep it on the Bode theme, I would say Halyard’s Cafe. They’re I think they’ve only been around a couple years. It’s right downtown. They’ve got, like, actually amazing burgers among other things. K. And it’s also a very cool little diner aesthetic in there. It’s all old, like ship and sailing themed.
Scott Cowan [00:52:36]:
Okay. Cool.
Cosima Franchini [00:52:36]:
But not in like a tacky way. You know, it’s a bunch of, like, punks who work there and also, like, sail super hard on their off days. And it’s got a really cool vibe in there. They also have a record player with an awesome collection of records they’ve always got playing.
Scott Cowan [00:52:49]:
So, like, what? Drop drop a name. What what you’re walking in there and it’s on there playing. What are you liking? What do you like?
Cosima Franchini [00:52:54]:
I mean, I went there the other day. I think they were I think they was playing, like, Nina Simone or something old, but they’ve got all sorts of, like Okay. You know, depending on who’s there. They also have, like, you know, some, like, weird old Olympia punk band from the nineties could be playing. You really never know what you’re gonna get.
Scott Cowan [00:53:09]:
But Olympia had that nineties punk scene going on. I mean, there was Oh,
Cosima Franchini [00:53:12]:
for sure. Yeah.
Scott Cowan [00:53:12]:
Tell me.
Cosima Franchini [00:53:13]:
I mean, it’s alive. It’s alive.
Scott Cowan [00:53:14]:
Oh, it still is. Yeah. Absolutely. That’s fair. That’s fair. That’s that’s yeah. Olympia Olympia has kept that going. Alright.
Scott Cowan [00:53:20]:
Yeah. Last question I’m gonna ask you. You have to answer it. You have to give me an explanation. You can’t you you this this I’m sorry. All the other questions were optional. This is the the serious question that you have to answer. Are you ready?
Cosima Franchini [00:53:34]:
Mhmm.
Scott Cowan [00:53:34]:
Cake or pie, And why?
Cosima Franchini [00:53:40]:
Oh, this is actually a serious debate in my house, actually. I oh, I guess maybe pie because I like going to pick the berries or pick the apples off our trees and then also making a pie with it. That’s a full experience with the pie. I mean, you could do that with a cake, but I’m less likely to.
Scott Cowan [00:54:05]:
You’re not gonna grow the wheat and and and mill it. Yeah.
Cosima Franchini [00:54:08]:
You’re not gonna like yeah. I’m not grinding the wheat in my coffee grind. No. I would say pie because it feels like extra summery and fun. K. And I’m not talking pumpkin pie. I’m talking like blackberry pie or something.
Scott Cowan [00:54:21]:
So so what’s the what is the if you could have only 1 pie the rest of your life, what’s it gonna be? This is a very serious question. I mean, this is this is you know, I’m kidding. But
Cosima Franchini [00:54:32]:
Yeah. I might like, I love blackberry pie, but I might say strawberry rhubarb. I love rhubarb.
Scott Cowan [00:54:38]:
Interesting. Strawberry Rhubarb is making a comeback.
Cosima Franchini [00:54:41]:
Yeah. Rhubarb’s quite hip. It’s hearty.
Scott Cowan [00:54:44]:
Well, I’m saying that because every guest I ask this question. Right? And Mhmm. Every guest lately I’ve been saying, I’m gonna go back and listen to every episode and and catalog everybody’s up answers and and, like, keep the running score. I think pie’s in the the lead. Listen. But there’s really
Cosima Franchini [00:54:59]:
no way. Feels more grown up. It says more it feels more grown up to say pie. I mean, I love cake.
Scott Cowan [00:55:04]:
Okay. But there’s a wrong answer here, really. I mean No.
Cosima Franchini [00:55:06]:
I know. Actually, there is for me, personally,
Scott Cowan [00:55:08]:
there is a wrong answer, and that’s pumpkin pie. That is just that’s wrong. Just no.
Cosima Franchini [00:55:12]:
Yeah. I mean, I don’t mind pumpkin pie, but I, I also love peach pie.
Scott Cowan [00:55:17]:
Yeah. Solid. So the point here, though, is, like, strawberry rhubarb has been been mentioned by multiple guests recently. So it’s like it’s maybe it’s the time of year we’re recording. People are I don’t know. Okay. So you’re a pie person. That’s the pie.
Scott Cowan [00:55:32]:
Okay. I mean,
Cosima Franchini [00:55:33]:
I’m a both person, but if I have to
Scott Cowan [00:55:34]:
pick, I’ll say pie. I pick. There is no I mean, it’s you cast your ballot. Can’t vote for both. Okay. Alright. What didn’t I ask you? What didn’t we talk about with regards to Olympia Sailing Company, Pterodactyl Olympia?
Cosima Franchini [00:55:54]:
I think we really covered it. I mean, if I have to say, like, one little pitch about Olli Sail and Co that I really want us to, like, stand for and represent is we are really an inclusive community of people. We want everyone to feel welcome. You know, welcoming people onto the boat is like welcoming people into my family.
Scott Cowan [00:56:12]:
Mhmm.
Cosima Franchini [00:56:12]:
It’s a represent. It’s, you know, it’s an extension of my family, especially as we run it as a family. And it’s really important to me that everyone feels welcome and comfortable, and you don’t even know how you don’t have to know anything about sailing or the water or whatever when you’re going to join us. You know, it’s all inclusive. We’re going to look after people. And we also really love chatting with people and getting to know everyone. And, it’s amazing just, you know, how many people we’ve had come back and the little community we’ve created around sailing. And we’re super small.
Cosima Franchini [00:56:43]:
We just have one boat, but, you know, I think it really has Yeah. It’s it’s added to our lives and we’re, yeah, really grateful for everyone who’s come out and we just encourage everyone to experience this amazing place we are. So Okay. Yeah. I guess if I have to just pitch that, that’s that’s good good good place to end. But
Scott Cowan [00:57:02]:
Well, where can people find out more? They wanna where are you sending them on this in the social media world, where should people go live?
Cosima Franchini [00:57:09]:
Yeah. Our Instagram is at Ollie sailing co. That’s I we post a lot of stuff there, like, really, like, last minute deals and stuff. Like if it’s a gorgeous day and we don’t have anyone booked, you know, we’ll say, text us for a 20% off code. So it’s a nice place to kind of the last minute stuff.
Scott Cowan [00:57:26]:
Okay.
Cosima Franchini [00:57:27]:
But also just kind of get an idea of our aesthetic, what we do, what sailing looks like with us. We also do Facebook, but I’m say we’re more active on Instagram. And then we, yeah, also have our website, which is olympiasailingco.com. And you can do all of your booking there. All of our schedules up to date there, but of course people are welcome to give us a call or even text is fine. The number that we have listed there if you have questions or
Scott Cowan [00:57:54]:
anything. We’ll put links in the show notes to Instagram, Facebook, and the website for people too. So okay.
Cosima Franchini [00:58:00]:
Awesome.
Scott Cowan [00:58:01]:
Super cool. I think what you guys are doing the story of the boat is well, one thing we didn’t talk about is that on your website, there’s a a link for history, and there’s a video
Cosima Franchini [00:58:12]:
Yeah.
Scott Cowan [00:58:12]:
Of your dad. Mhmm. What we should have covered this earlier. Sorry. But there’s this video of your dad. Where did that come from? What was the story there?
Cosima Franchini [00:58:29]:
My someone knocked on my my parents’ door a few years ago, and it was my dad’s, like, good friend, a younger guy who, builds tiny houses. And he said, hey, this YouTuber guy is here. He does like portraits of places and or people in places they build and live, and he you know, I thought we could do one of pterodactyl. So it was completely on the fly. I mean, I was like, sure. Come in. They, like, rode out to the boat, and they
Scott Cowan [00:58:54]:
just did this full tour of the boat. And that is pretty much the state of the boat I built I I bought it in.
Cosima Franchini [00:59:00]:
Like, it’s floating, it’s working. It’s also kind of a catchall. And, you know, you just it’s a beautiful little portrait of my dad explaining what he built. And it, it, it’s a really cool video. And especially, you have your interested in trying to build your own boat or, you know, jumping into some sort of adventure. My dad definitely did it. And it’s a really awesome video. And Dylan who Dylan Magaster, who who did the video, did a good job of capturing that.
Cosima Franchini [00:59:22]:
But, yeah, there’s a link, for it on our website under history. Yeah. And, yeah, I encourage folks to watch it. It’s it’s it’s Scott, like, 600,000 views or something. I mean, my dad’s famous sometimes. I’m like, it’s so cool. Turtleneck. I know.
Cosima Franchini [00:59:36]:
That’s crazy. It’s really awesome.
Scott Cowan [00:59:37]:
You know, you always wonder, like, what makes something go, you know, you know, viral viral is such an overused word. But, you know, why did this video get that many impressions? I mean
Cosima Franchini [00:59:50]:
Yeah. I mean, I think we’re an eye catching boat to begin with, but my dad is such just a earnest person. He really is endearingly captivated. He’s just captivating to to watch and especially in his little world. So it’s a speed video. I really yeah. I recommend it to us.
Scott Cowan [01:00:11]:
Very cool. So I you know, what you’re doing is awesome. I love listening to people’s stories about their their project. Even, like, sailing’s not my thing. Right? And I’ve talked to people who are climbing right near. Not my thing. But I love it when people are, like, into what they’re doing, and it’s their thing. And if anyone wants to get out and experience Puget Sound, Olympia the Olympia area’s got beautiful water.
Scott Cowan [01:00:38]:
It’s it’s beautiful down there. They should absolutely come and check it out. And, yeah, I like the idea of the Golden Hour sale myself too. That that’s kinda like that’s that could be really very, very cool. So but you mentioned one last thing. You mentioned doing maybe, like, a a a full moon type thing. Are those Mhmm. How does one book that if that’s they’re looking for something a little bit off of the schedule, if you will?
Cosima Franchini [01:01:05]:
You can just contact us on the website. There’s a little contact icon. Last year, I did have the full moon sale just in our booking flow there. But it’s kind of a particular, experience, and it’s just kind of nice to always talk to people so that they know what they’re getting into and making sure we can meet their needs because it is at night, underway. But, yeah, absolutely. It’s a really fun sail. If anyone’s interested, you can just, yeah, shoot us a message and we can go from there.
Scott Cowan [01:01:31]:
Well, thank you so much for taking the time to sit down with me today.
Cosima Franchini [01:01:35]:
Yeah. Thank you so much. I’d love to have you sailing sometime. Next time you’re rolling through, you should, shoot me a message to get you sailing.
Scott Cowan [01:01:41]:
I’ll take you I will take you up on that. So thank you so much. Yeah.
Cosima Franchini [01:01:46]:
Thank you.
