Terra Nova

As many of you know Connie and I lived on sailboats for about 25 years. Our son Zach was raised more on boats than he was on land. I know that some of you that are reading this have never seen the last boat that we lived on for 21 years. The name that Connie and I gave her was Terra Nova; which is Latin for new lands or unexplored lands. Terra Nova was our love and joy because not only did we build her from the hull up but she took us to many new lands here in Southeast Alaska. She gave us much joy and it was very bitter sweet to us when we put her on the market. But, we figured taking care of a yacht and a house was too much.








Terra Nova sits at anchor at Baranof Warm Springs on the outer coast of Baranof Island






A couple of the great students who attended Sheldon Jackson College while I worked there and before the school closed in 2007









Terra Nova on the hard as they say getting a new bottom painting.






Looking aft out the companionway. We sometimes felt guilty about all the teak we used inside Terra Nova, but we got a great deal on it when a large yacht manufacturing company on the east coast went out of business. The teak we used when we built our house was left over teak from Terra Nova that we had stored for over 20 years.







The all electric galley of Terra Nova

We built Terra Nova for cruising the waters of Southeast Alaska, so an inside stearing station was a must when you consider that many areas of the Alaskan Panhandle get over 200 inches of rain a year.

As mentioned Connie and I built Terra Nova from the steel hull up. She was designed by Grahame Shannon and built by SP Metal Craft of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and we launched her in the spring of 1986. After motoring an almost empty hull north to Alaska we spent the next 4 + years years doing the wiring, plumbing, mechanical and woodwork in the interior. Connie and a good friend from Ketchikan also did all the canvas work including making the sails