SV HAWA

This was the first boat I named 'Hawa', a Compac 16-2 that was a great experience.  The simplicity of a small vessel is a great training scenario.  She now lives on a lake in NY.

Fairuz, a Lebanese musician and cultural icon, created a song called 'Ya Hawa', translated in this context to 'Oh Wind'.  In my interpretation as an American Lebanese, an artist, and displaced person, Hawa means Home.

This is how I first saw her.  By the time we figured everything out, she was one day from being scrapped.

The vessel was custom built in 1994 in Portland Maine. She is a 40 ton steel sailboat, 56 feet long and 14 feet wide. Originally a sloop rig, we are converting her to a twin lateen. Our first donor bought the boat literally one day before she was going to the scrap yard, thus we got her with just the hull, engine, and pilot house.

Since then, with the help of many amazing friends, I've built out the shop/studio below and am completing the living quarters above. I also installed a large solar bank, pulling 1kw/h from the sun into a 14.3kwh 24v LiFePo4 battery bank. We have enough power to do everything but heavier welding.