No More Projects!

Following an extensive restoration and customization of our Albin 25, my wife made it clear that while she'd be happy with a larger vessel, project boats were off the list. Of course, residing in Calgary also made it difficult to undertake a boat restoration on the west coast.

With this in mind, I settled on a heavy displacement diesel trawler, with good sea-keeping and comfortable livaboard conditions. Though I had my heart set on one of those salty little Willard double enders, I was not able to locate one in the pacific northwest in acceptable condition. Thus that I opened my mind, started looking at Grand Banks, and other Taiwan trawlers, and finally settled on the layout of a Lien Hwa Seahorse that I'd been aboard in San Francisco.

I set out to find a pristine version, and looked at boats from Clear Lake Texas, to Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho, Sausalito, & Seattle. I was surprised to find the right vessel sitting in a boathouse in Sidney BC. A little more expensive, but it eliminated the extra cost of transport, duty, GST and refurbishment that accompanied a US vessel. So in July 2008, only a month after Vagabond was delivered to Campbell River, we took posession of Intrinsic.