The Thielmans moved quickly to purchase this famously well built boat back in October 2011 when they got a heads up that the boat was about to come onto the market. The only catch was that the boat was located in Trinidad, an island off of South America approximately 4200 miles away from the Bay Area.

After seriously considering sailing the boat to the US themselves, the Thielmans decided to hire one of the largest shipping logistics companies in the world to let the supposed experts handle this potentially complicated delivery. Unfortunately, they would later regret that decision.

The first sign of trouble was in November when the boat was held up for 2 weeks by customs officers in Trinidad because the mast was packed in a wooden crate that needed to be treated with pesticides before being allowed to leave the country. The next issue arose when the boat arrived in Houston where it sat in a shipyard for 3 weeks while the Thielmans waited for US customs officers to conduct an “intense inspection”.

After much consternation the boat was finally released and loaded onto a truck bound for the Bay area and on January 6th the boat arrived at Berkley Marine Center. She looked beautiful coming in on a big tractor trailer truck except for a few small missing items like a 7500lb keel, a 70’ mast, and a 7’ steering wheel. The keel and mast were quickly located back in Houston and dispatched on another truck, but the custom steering wheel was never recovered.

The final incident came when the keel showed up a week later. Prior to this point, everyone was working feverishly to get the boat ready for the CYC mid-winters. Then the keel showed up heavily damaged and that was the end of their chances to race the boat in January.

In total there was $40k worth of damage and lost items for the insurance company to reimburse. With the repairs to their new boat now complete, the Thielmans were happy to be on the race course for the February mid-winters.