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
Links
Acknowledgements
Boat Blog
