Gypsea is owned by new members Mark Harper and Maria Szabo. She is a Nantucket 33 built in Taiwan in 1984 and was purchased last month by Mark and Maria as a part of their future retirement plans. Mark has some sailing experience having raced at Royal Victoria in a friend’s boat over 20 years ago although he admits he hasn’t set foot on a yacht since. Maria is a complete newbie. At this stage we’re mainly concentrating on completing the work begun by her previous owner who undertook an extensive restoration project and learning how to sail her. It’s probably accurate to say we’re more interested in cruising but let’s not count out doing a bit of racing once Maria’s confidence grows! We fell in love with Gypsea’s classic lines, fit out and timberwork. The quality of the restoration work done and the fact that she’s a solid, safe and easy boat to handle ticked a lot of boxes for us, especially for where we’re at in our sailing journey. We’re excited to be part of the RMYS community and look forward to catching up with fellow members around the club.