Part 16.5: Building Our Trailerable Dreamboat

Sorry About the Interruption, But We’re Almost Back on Track

This isn’t another regular installment in the series—merely a note on why we’ve been missing in action for more than a month.

During the absence we were focused almost daily on a big refinish of RAVEN, our 30-foot cruising boat, designed by John Alden in 1930 and built in 1933 at Todd Shipyards in Seattle, for the then-president of the yard.

We’d accomplished a major restoration of the boat between 2019 and 2021, before cruising her a lot and living aboard full-time for almost three years. But as we continued aging, we realized it was time to spend more time cruising small, trailerable boats…and ease away from the costs of moorage, maintenance, haulouts and all other things attached to larger and older motorboats. (We’ve always been involved in building, restoring and cruising little boats , but now we’re back for good in the wondrous world of small craft.)

So, with work on RAVEN finished, we’ve found a new custodian who as a child cruised aboard the boat with his uncle, who owned RAVEN in the 1970’s. He learned navigation at the dinette table, was inspired to join the Coast Guard and has enjoyed a life of maritime assignments with the Alaska State Ferries, Washington State Ferries and in recent decades the Washington Sea Grant program…overseeing environmental awareness at about 100 private and public marinas in the state.

So, we’ll be at home for the coming week, after which we’ll attack our trailerable dreamboat project with renewed vigor. And it won’t be long before Part 17 appears in your inbox.