Flicka ENSO

Dan Nathan wrote about Enso in Flicka Friends #25 (Spring 2002), in a piece titled “A Recovering Large Boat Owner” that had first appeared on pocketcruisers.com. The registry note printed with it records her as Pacific Seacraft hull #149 of 1980, a marconi sloop with factory outboard power and no factory head, in very good condition, and previously operated and owned in Ohio, Florida and Tennessee. At that time she lay at Dowry Creek Marina on the Pungo River at Belhaven, North Carolina, off Pamlico Sound, and was listed as liking 10 to 25 knots of wind on any point of sail.

Nathan had sold a larger inboard-diesel boat to buy her, keeping her simple with a 10 hp outboard and a stout trailer. He sailed her single-handed in up to 25 knots, described her working through three- and four-foot Pamlico Sound chop close-hauled without slamming, and recounted the day the outboard quit and he brought her alongside under sail in dirty weather to an audience of onlookers.

Before Lisa and I bought Enso (#149) we thought the name sounded like name segments from a partnership; maybe an abbreviated pair of names like "Endicott & Soames" - perfect for a marmalade company, but not my boat. When I finally asked the owner, he explained it was (literally) circular Buddhist imagery for a greater concept of harmony. It is explained poetically by Amie Zorns: 

"Enso means "circle phase."

in its emptiness, it is absolute fullness.
completeness, endlessness, perfection.
the brightness and roundness of the moon.
the ultimate reality.
unity; everything is as one.
no more, no less; precisely this; it is enough.
the eternal cycle of nature.
no life, no death; just the spirit.
These are my thoughts on enso.

Big concepts for a little boat. I like it. It stays.

Best Regards,

Dan Nathan

s/y ENSO