About Us
Hello friends!
We are Weston and Becca Petty! We met growing up on the same street and have been together for a decade, married since 2019. We lived in Montana for a handful of years before moving back to Colorado for our careers and to be closer to family. We have an adorable four year old rescue dog named Holly, who is happiest with all four paws on land - preferably on a trail or a big open field. Weston works as a paramedic in a mountain county and as a part time ski patroller in the winter. Becca works as a registered nurse in a busy downtown hospital. We both find joy and comfort in the outdoors - skiing, hiking, biking, kayaking, camping, and sailing. We are both avid birders and amateur naturalists. If you join us for a hike you’ll likely experience us pointing out types of trees, flowers, and our feathered friends.
We created this space as a way to share our travels and adventures in sailing and beyond with our friends and family, and anyone who might be interested in listening to the call of the wind like us. We’re happy to have you along for the ride.
Our Sailing Story
You might wonder how we got into sailing since we have lived our entire lives in landlocked states. As kids we both attended a day camp that had us take little Sunfish sailboats on the local lake. That was the last time Becca sailed until Weston started to pick up the sport. Weston’s grandfather and dad had a sailboat long ago on Carter Lake named Pipe Dream. Sailing definitely runs in the family for the Petty men. Weston took a course through San Juan Sailing School to achieve his ASA 104 Bareboat Charter Certification in 2014. From that point on he was truly hooked. He then worked at a summer camp on Flathead Lake in Montana as their sailing instructor and camp EMT.
After moving back to Colorado, Weston found a Coronado 15 on Craigslist that was just way too great of a deal to pass up. Unfortunately for Becca, this happened three weeks before our wedding so instead of helping with wedding prep, Weston was rearranging our single car garage under the apartment to fit the new sailboat. Turns out, the C15, named Groundhog Day by Weston, has been a blast for the both of us. She’s sailed on Steamboat Lake (on our mini moon), Dillon Reservoir, Reudi Reservoir (Weston and his buddy Mitchell won first place in their division at the Aspen Regatta), and at home on Chatfield Reservoir. Weston taught Becca to sail on her and we will always love our first little sailboat. Sailing became something we did every weekend and we even bought a house ten minutes from the Chatfield Reservoir Marina. We sail there with the Colorado Sail and Yacht Club - dinghy racing Tuesday nights and we started to crew for the keelboat racing on Wednesday nights in the summer time. The keelboat races had us both hooked. While we loved the fast pace and exposure of our dinghy, there was something powerfully alluring in the big boats, not to mention the bonus fact you could actually have more than two people on board.
Once again Weston found himself on Craigslist in the early fall of 2021. If you ask him this story he will make sure you know about the “search all” feature where it searches the entire country instead of just your local area. He found a beautiful 1977 Ranger 23 currently living in Salt Lake City. She was up for sale because the Great Salt Lake is drying up and they had to pull all of the boats out of the marina as it was becoming too shallow. While heartbreaking for her previous owners, we were ecstatic to give her a new home. She had been very well taken care of, upgraded and outfitted for racing. This was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up. Weston flew out to SLC, purchased her, and did a complete trailer refit (trailer brakes, bearings, hubs, electrical, and tires) in the marina parking lot before we could safely bring it back to Colorado. He and his dad drove out to bring her home and she now lives in Chatfield State Park. Weston camped out on the marina dock overnight just to ensure we could get a slip for her (competition is tight around here). The 2022 season was spent racing every week we could, learning a lot, winning some races and losing others. We were stoked to have many friends and family aboard for dinners grilling off the stern, hot summer swims, battling through unpredictable mountain thunderstorm squalls, and relaxing in warm starlit anchorages. We named her Meadowlark after the Western Meadowlarks we heard every time we drove to the marina. And because we love birds. We have grown to love her so much. While she is small she is mighty, and we can’t help but think of her as a fast, floating, tiny home, and the possibilities she holds. Meadowlark has been in some ways a catalyst to realizing a long held dream of Weston’s: the Inside Passage. So here we are, on the cusp of great adventure and many a nautical mile traveled aboard our tiny, mighty, Meadowlark.
