Nirvana Loves Karl

Nirvana is beautiful and strong.  Long and lean like a great cat.  Her feline features are a powerful form with subtle curves.  A bendy flexible frame with plenty of muscle. In the context of her age, she is part victory girl, part pin up. Rita Hayworth.  44 feet with more than 10 feet of overhang, is something you can really only do right with wood.  Her wine glass underbody makes her a true vessel for both holding, and repelling. Her tones are warm aged mahogany with rusty red and purple blushes.

Karl is, well, at best a 70's industrialist.  Squat and short ended.  Aluminum and boxy.  An engineer's pride with stubby double keels and hard chines.  37 feet abruptly ended.  Welded, ridged strength.  Sturdy as a tank. Flat white paint all around.  Karl is derived from the old German word "karal" which means "husband" but also "the free one."  

So what's the attraction?  

Karl has soul.  Wrought back into him by Nike Steiger, who has been video blogging her adventure via Youtube, and her website Whitespotpirates.   I've been following Nike's vlog for a while now, drawn in by the honest emotional transparency of her experience with Karl and her efforts to turn her dream into a real thing.  Anyone who takes on a project boat, or an old boat, or a dream of doing something adventurous will immediately identify with her.   

She is into season 2, and starting to venture out and about.  Season one was mostly about her struggle to get Karl into sailing shape and hang on to her dream.  Her episodes are short and easy to watch.  I haven't yet come across a lot of good content about the emotional journey of owning a boat.  You hear the war stories everywhere, but not the stories of transformative journeys.  That's what makes Nike and Karl special.  That's why Nirvana loves Karl.