Oborea is a forty foot catamaran
She is a Narai Mk II, designed by James Wharram and built in our back yard in East York, Ontario, Canada,
over a period of seven years. She was launched in 1984 at the Toronto Multihull Cruising Club (TMCC) in
Toronto.
Her overall length is 40' (12 m) beam: 18' 6" (5.6m) and draught 2' 10" (86 cm) There is a deck plan and an
accomodation plan at the bottom of this page.
Apart from innumerable day-sails and weekenders on Lake Ontario and the annual trip to the Polycat Sail-In
in the 1,000 Islands, Oborea made three lengthy cruises. All these voyages were written up in approximately
monthly episodes for the TMCC Newsletter, and these I have collected into some sort of narrative form.
Remember that these were written for a specific audience and please excuse references to boats and places that
would have been familiar to those people.
The First Cruise was down Lake Ontario, through the 1,000 Islands and St Lawrence Seaway and down the
St Lawrence River past Montréal to Sorel, where we turned south to Lake Champlain by way of the Richelieu
River and Chambly Canal. At the south end of Lake Champlain we entered the New York State Barge Canal
system which took us to the Hudson River, New York and the Atlantic. From there we headed south on the
Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (ICW), a protected route that runs almost the length of the American East
Coast. We ended up in West Palm Beach, Florida for Christmas, and shortly after New Year we crossed to the
Bahamas where we spent the rest of the winter. In the spring we returned north in a number of off-shore hops
before re-entering the ICW south of Cape Hatterass. On the return trip we took the New York State Barge
Canal system direct from the Hudson to Lake Ontario and thus back to Toronto.
This first voyage was in pre-computer days and was written up in longhand and mailed to the TMCC; I no
longer have copies however I am attempting to re-construct the narrative from the log-books which I still have;
when I do I shall post it here.
The Second Cruise went again by way of the New York State Barge Canal system from Lake Ontario to the
Hudson and New York and south down the ICW to Florida and the Bahamas for the winter. From there I sailed
north single handed direct to Bermuda and Lunenburg, Nova Scotia where I picked up a friend who sailed with
me to the Azores. From there I was single-handed again to continental Portugal and Spain, then south to
Madeira and the Canaries. From there I made a trade-wind passage to Barbados and on to the Granadines.
North then through the Lesser Antilles to the Virgin Islands and from there direct to New York and again up
the Hudson and Barge Canal to Lake Ontario and home.Click the link to the left for an illustrated account of
this cruise
The Third Cruise, like the first started down the St Lawrence Seaway and River, but we continued on past
Sorel to Gaspé and the Gulf. Then by way of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island through the Strait of
Canso to the south shore of Nova Scotia. From Shelburne we sailed across the Gulf of Maine to Maine and the
New England States. From Cape Cod we sailed through the Cape Cod Canal and Long Island Sound to New
York and south down the ICW again to Florida.
We spent the next couple of years exploring the Bahamas, both coasts of Florida and the Keys and having a
tussle with Hurricane Andrew before heading off across the Atlantic again to Bermuda and to the Azores for
the second time and where we decided to make our home for a while.
Over the next couple of years we made a trip the continent and back but Oborea was getting very little use and
in 1997 we reluctantly sold her. I sailed with the new owner as far as Madeira from whence he sailed on to the
Canaries, across to the Caribbean and up to the States where he sold her to a couple on the Gulf Coast of
Florida who later re-sold her. Since then she passed through several hands and I last heard of her in the
Florida Keys and the Bahamas
I have also posted an account of an Atlantic crossing as crew of the raceing trimaran Pacific Challenge.
Deck Plan
Accomodation Plan
OBOREA
