Aurora is a cutter-rigged ketch
designed by renowned yacht designer Bob Perry, and
built by the likewise renowned Taiwanese boatyard Ta
Shing in 1982. It's one of only possibly three Baba 40
ketches that were made.
In April 2008, I was in San Francisco for a family
gathering when I saw the new listing for Aurora in my daily
internet check. I immediately called the broker with a
barrage of questions and found out that I had competition,
a guy who was on the scene and had already spent 4 hours
inspecting the boat that day. I anxiously asked what he
thought of it, and the broker replied that the man had
liked the boat but wasn't convinced it was the right size
for him....too small. I breathed a nervous sigh of relief,
started some quick research, and made an offer a few days
later. I ended up accepting the counter offer, which was
still a good price.
Initially, I travelled east to
Essex, CT, where Aurora (originally "Gannet") had been
in storage for several years. There's a saga behind it
all, but the short story is that the boat yard where a
lot of work was being done on the boat ended up owning
her, and wanted to get rid of its white elephant.
That's where I stepped in. I could see the potential
in the boat and felt that once the yard put back
everything that had been removed for rebuilding and
upgrading, I would have a fine vessel. The downside
was waiting for all the pieces to be put back
together. That's where patience and living on the
other end of the country (so I couldn't hover over the
workers' shoulders and bug the crap out of them) paid
off. The deal was set.
"Gannet" cleaned up nicely. The
plan now is to head back to CT in late July/early
August to outfit Aurora (renamed after the first boat
we had when I was a kid), do some shakedown cruising
around the Long Island Sound, and depending how things
go, maybe mosey farther. Then, either truck her back
to Seattle from CT, or sail to Annapolis (via New York
City) from where she'll be staged home.
More pictures:
The Buying Stage:
•
On The Hard and
On The Water
The Shakedown Cruise - Fall ‘08:
•
Long Island Sound
•
Shipping Aurora to her new home
•
Arrival in Seattle
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Acknowledgements
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