About a boat
1977 Clark San Juan 30 #87
Swirl! She's a 1977 Clark San Juan 30, made in Renton Washington, about 300 miles from where she is currently anchored. However, this boat has many miles under her keel. McKayla is only the 3rd owner of this boat. One person, David, owned her from 1977 to 2011, and she came with a ton of paperwork, including a Panama Canal Clearance from 1982 and receipts from a boat yard in Maine in 1986. With in just a few years, she was back in Seattle winning races in 1993. One can assume she was shipped back across the country, but it is not fully known.
In the 1990's this was the boat to beat on the west coast in the Half-Ton IOR Class. Sadly, in the early 2000's, David got divorced, moved on to his boat, and lived on Swirl until he physically no longer could in 2009. At this point she sat until Ryan bought her in 2011 after David's passing. He planned to fix her up and race her aggressively once again, but, for unknown reasons, this never happened. While he kept up basic maintenance, he hadn't taken her out sailing since 2013 when McKayla bought her January 1st, 2020. Because of the decade of neglect and her recent liveaboard focused refit, Swirl will likely never seriously race again. However, just because she's retired from racing, doesn't mean she doesn't have a long life left as a cruising boat.
When McKayla first bought Swirl, she did some critical maintenance, a quick and dirty refit of the interior to make her more livable, and then took off to cruise around Puget Sound. From May to September of 2020, she put 1000 nautical miles on the boat, she sailed like a dream! The summer was spent on anchor for free, all of the power came from solar, most all propulsion from the wind. It was wonderful. McKayla zeroed in on exactly how she wanted to boat and its various systems to function.
After 44 years, almost all of the interior wood needed to be replaced. So, last fall McKayla sailed to Point Roberts, Wa, found a cottage to live in, pulled Swirl out of the water, and ripped almost everything out. Now, after rebuilding for the last 6 months, she's ready to be a home once again. Almost every piece of plywood that's gone into the boat is encased in fiberglass, so it will be sturdy and waterproof.
Swirl is an incredible vessel, filled with love, purpose, and history. McKayla considers herself fortunate to be her current keeper and captain.
