The Strange Journey of the Formosa 51 ‘Fair Seas’
Every boat with a few miles under the keel has a story to tell — of storms endured, long passages made or dreams realized. The Formosa 51 Fair Seas has likely known its share of those sorts of tales. But the most unique part of its story seems to have happened after the boat was hauled out of the water — never to return — more than 30 years ago.
We first heard about Fair Seas in a note from Changes in Latitudes contributor Jim Yares of the Catana 472 catamaran Roam. Early last month, he and wife Pam dropped anchor in Neiafu, Vava’u, Tonga, and dinghied ashore to have a look around. One of the first things to catch their eye was a brand-new waterfront bar/restaurant called The Kraken, which is built around the hull of … Fair Seas! In addition to being the centerpiece of the place, the boat serves as a storeroom and divider between the restaurant and kitchen.
They got to talking with the owner, an Australian expat named Andrew Jones, but he didn’t really know that much about the boat’s backstory, only that it had sailed from California sometime in maybe the late ’80s, and was hauled out in about 1991, and the owners (or perhaps new owners) lived aboard while on the hard.
Jim did what many do who run across such maritime mysteries: He wrote us, noting, “If anyone knew the story of this boat, it would be Latitude 38.”
Or not. While we appreciate the vote of confidence, nowhere in our archives could we find anything about a Formosa 51 (or any other boat) named Fair Seas. None of our usual “C.I.s” knew anything about the boat, and no amount of Prevagen or electroshock could break anything loose from the cobwebbed minds of our most senior personnel.
It was easy to look up the general history of the Bill Garden-inspired Formosa 51 pilothouse ketch. The design was one of dozens of heavy-displacement, “traditional”-looking cruising boats built in Taiwan in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Beyond general specs, we could find no specifics on how many were made, or on one called Fair Seas.
So we turned to the most dependable source of all — our readers. We ran the basic story Jim relayed in the June 2 ‘Lectronic Latitude — and got a reply! It began:
“My name is Stephanie Torres, and my partner is Alekisanita Halahingano Coleman. He is the landlord of the property and he grew up in the boat. His father salvaged that boat and built their childhood house around it. Later when the family relocated to California, The Kraken was built on their family land and the sons insisted on saving their father’s boat and the history along with it.”
