how we chose our boat

In response to a recent comment about boat specs...

Our boat is a Canadian built, 1981 J.J Taylor Contessa 26. We bought the boat in the Spring 2008 with this trip in mind. Our criteria for a sailboat revolved around three things: seaworthiness, accessibility and affordability.

Finding a seaworthy boat is easy, as there are lots a great boats available. Accessible was a bit more tricky. I've been paralyzed from the chest down since I was 20 as a result of a motorcycle accident, and have used a wheelchair ever since then. The thought of customizing a boat for my chair seemed financially out of reach, but more importantly, not having done this, I wasn't sure what I'd want and it seemed crazy to build a boat without first hand experience. So, we chose something simple and are essentially customizing as we go. It isn't perfect, but it works for us, and if we ever do have another boat, we'll have a lot more knowledge about what we want.

What we've done to make the Contessa work for me is make the space down below all one level. This allows me to simply crawl around and it gives us a bit more storage. In this regard, a small boat is nice because it is a shorter distance to crawl from A to B. A big concern was how Alex would do with this set-up, but it seems to be fine for him ever since he started doing yoga. The transition between below and above deck is less than half a foot, so it is just a matter of lifting myself in and out.

At this point, the boat is not set up for me to singlehand, but there is a lot I can do to share the work load. In the cockpit, I have a trapezoid shaped seat that spans the benches, providing a platform to sit on the high side while driving when the boat heels over. Additionally, just about all of the lines, including the roller furling run back to the cockpit. We've not made the modifications for me to raise the main or set or raise the anchor. But for now, we have a boat that is very manageable between the two of us.

While affordability is relative and taking a year or so to travel about for the simple pleasure of it is nothing short of extravagant, we kept the budget under control by living well within our means the past couple of years, finding a boat we could afford and doing 98% of the work to get her ready ourselves. It was also to our fortune that Alex's father recently ended his own 10+ years of cruising and generously donated a tremendous amount of gear. I scoured Craigslist and sale bins for used and discounted gear. Alex, with much appreciated help from our fathers, re-did the wiring, installed our SSB, VHF, watermaker and solar panels. We also re-did the plumbing so that when we are at sea we can flush into the ocean instead of the holding tank. The amazing thing, when I look back at it, is that the work, including a haul-out, bottom job, installing new thru-hulls and moving out of our apartment, happened within three months.


Also thought I'd share the artwork on the back of our SSB radio. These pieces were commissioned for $1 each by Tristan, a renowned SF artist. The bottom piece is our boat. The moose was a gift from my dad and is a tribute to the boat name's Fjordmus, which is Norwegian for Fjord mouse. But since it's pronounced fjord"moose", we thought the grog drinking elk was appropriate. How we got the name is the subject of a later post.