Giving up the luxuries of a life on land for Lizzy Belle

by Lee Mylchreest on 21 Jun 2014 This is a short whimsical documentary about David Welsford, who has done something that many cruising sailors have done, and many others long to do but just haven't achieved it yet. He gave up the luxuries of land in search of happiness and adventure on a 50 year old wooden sailing ketch called Lizzy Belle, which he restored 'from a scrap heap'.

As Ivan Kander (Lucky 9 Studios) expressed it: In today’s culture, success is intrinsically linked with busyness. Stress is equated with status, material objects a sign of purpose. Yet, when I get caught up in my own personal neuroses, biting my fingernails to nubs over all the stuff I have to do, I often harbor a secret little fantasy: what if I just stopped? What if I quit…ditched all my stuff and jetted off to the Caribbean. It’d be just sand, cerulean waters, and my wife by my side. Wouldn’t that be easier? Wouldn’t my life be better?

Well, director Kevin A. Fraser has captured my impulsive, Kerouacian wish in documentary form with Twenty Eight Feet—a profile of David Welsford, a young man who exited the grind in search of paradise. He found it in the form of an old sailboat.

This is a simple film, with a simple message: go out and live life…do what makes you happy. Yeah, it’s a maxim we’ve heard time and time again, but how often do we see people actually do it? It’s one thing to like a generic motivational post on facebook, quite another to abandon comfort and convention and live on the sea. To use a cliché, over the film’s entrancing 8 minutes, we watch as Welsford 'lives the dream.'

Director Kevin Fraser befriended David a long while back when they both attended film school. Ultimately, they became close, living together and traveling the world on various sundry adventures. But, as happens, they grew apart. David purchased Lizzy Belle, Kevin went on a more conventional path—you know, girlfriend, pet cat, steady paying gigs. Luckily, they were able to reconnect in Martinique to shoot this film. Kevin spent the better part of a month on the boat with David, capturing the little interesting facets of his stripped down life.

Watch one sailor's 'dream come true', and admire!

Twenty Eight Feet: life on a little wooden boat from kevinAfraser on Vimeo.

Director & Cinematographer: Kevin A Fraser kevinAfraser.com
Featuring & Additional Photography: David Welsford TwentyEightFeet.com
Editor: Shawn Beckwith postbeckwith.com