ORION AND THE SEA

This is our boat, Orion. We love her. She is a 41 ft. Tartan T.O.C.K (Tartan Offshore Cruising Ketch) and was designed by Sparkman and Stephens. She was born in 1976 so, being from the same generation, we have a lot in common... Other than our 13 ft. Flying Junior sailing dinghy, Orion is our first sailboat. We did lots of research and spent a year exploring tons boats all over California before we found her. We wanted a sound offshore cruising sailboat made by a reputable company that could be safely sailed shorthanded yet large enough to bring friends and family along on trips (and perhaps to use as a charter boat)… not too tall an order, right? We looked at boats in the 35-40ft range and were leaning toward the stable/solid/slow school of thought rather than fast/light/nimble. We found Orion conveniently close to us in San Francisco Bay. She was a bit larger than we were looking for, but the first time we stepped aboard her all of the other boats we had seen felt like vacation...