A Call from an old friend of Kotuku's

I got home last weekend and there was a message on the answering machine.  It was a stranger, with a bit of an accent, and I had to play the message a couple of times to get the whole thing right.  Sometimes serendipity takes a while to puzzle out.

Apparently, at a race last fall Alex had been chatting with one of the guys in the Bay area who did the Transpac on Kotuku in 1991, and they told stories and one thing led to another, and somehow word trickled back to her first owner, David Thompson that the old girl was back in the game.  David was calling to say hello, invited us to visit him in San Francisco, and he and I had a wonderful chat while I absolutely blackened the food that I was cooking for the girls.  (Good think Savai likes Ketchup!)

It was great fun talking to David, and learning about Kotuku's early years.  Certainly I had the sense that Kotuku was as good to him and his family and crew as she has been to us.  I was curious how he had come to choose a boat like this, (2 young boys, a desire to "race a bit") and he was able to tell me about McDell, and that the boat was delivered in a cradle to San Francisco when she was brand spanking new, with the big bold KOTUKU already painted on her side.  The girls liked that bit and maybe even forgave me for burning their chips.

Long story short, Kotuku is heading back to the Bay the second week of July and we are making plans to meet up with David and would love to see any of her old crew who might want to stop by and visit.

I also promised David that I would write a short history of everything I know about Kotuku since she left the Bay Area.  What follows is pieced-together heresay, based mostly around brokers comments, and the three surveys I have copies of from when she sold.  I can't claim much accuracy with any of this, so if anyone out there knows better, we would love to hear it.  Add a comment below, or email me.

Kotuku's History:

• She was purchased new from McDell in Australia by David Thompson, named after a Kotuku because he has a passion for birds.  (He later had two other Farrs, a Mumm 30 and a Farr 40, both called Peregrine because he got tired of hearing Americans butcher the name Kotuku.  Can't say as I blame him.)  Bruce Farr designed her in 1986, and suspect that she was commissioned in 1987.  I am guessing that she was hull 17, and that perhaps 60 were built?

• In the mid 90s, she was sold to another owner in San Francisco although still maintained in part by David. In May of 2003 it looks like she was sold to a Brit named Nick Bacon who sailed her across the Atlantic and into the Med, starting in either late 2003 or 2004.  Cruised in the Med for awhile.  Had a bad trip across the Bay of Biscay heading back to the UK (Wales, Swansea I think)  Had some serious refitting done after, including keel work in 2006.  
• Ownership at that point goes a little muddy, but it appears that Kotuku was sold at an "estate sale" according to our broker to another Nick, Nick Ragghianti, who put a new engine in her, and maybe a new set of sails on (with big red birds) and then he sailed her to down to Spain, Portugal, and on to the Caribbean in 2009.

• We saw her for sale in Trinidad in February of 2012.  Didn't know much about Farr 1220s at the time, but I know a lot about how to get information about sailboats, and managed to get on Rascal, a Farr 1220 that belonged to the Watkins family and that had been raced and cruised successfully in the PNW.  People would not stop talking about what a great boat Rascal was.  Turned out the Watkins had gone down to San Francisco to look at Kotuku before ordering Rascal.  
• We made an offer and flew out with the family to sail and survey her.  Needless to say, she passed with flying colors.  At that point she was truly a cruiser, decked out with wind generators, watermaker, Inmarsat, dodger, bimini etc.  Her racing pedigree was somewhat buried under all this.
• She arrived in Seattle July 14, 2010 after being trucked up from fort Lauderdale.  She went into the yard dirty, but came out stripped of 20 years of bottom paint, barrier coated, painted, with her mast stepped, sans cruising gear, ready for battle.  We did our first 100 mile race on the 27th.  It took three days, but we finished 3rd in an absolute drifter with cruising sails and several near mutinies.  It was a memorable start.  

• Since coming to Seattle she has cruised for weeks at a time with kids, uncles, aunts, friends, grandparents, crab pots, salmon gear, and various dogs with nautical names like Scuppers and Milkshake.

In our minds, there is no finer boat for our family and for the crew of Kotuku that has become her extended family.  Thanks David for bringing such a fine boat to the States!