I just found this blog, and am transferring the entries from the Olivia so that there is a continuity from the start. I purchased the vessel, a Westerly Centaur Ketch in May in Rockport Texas.

I had been looking for a small cruiser for some time, and had sort of settled on a 30' Mark 2 Islander just north of  Rockport. We had made a weekend of going up there to see look at a number of boats since there is a general shortage of good seaboats here in Port Isabel.

After looking at a number of other boats, we checked out the Islander, which was at the top of what I wanted to pay. Additionally, it had no maintenance since the owner had purchased in some five or six years prior, and for sure would need a bottom job, could use some topside work, and the rigging looked a little funky. And it had an atomic 4.....soooo, I figured well, it looks like the best in the radius that I wanted to deliver anyhow.

We were driving back here, when the phone rang and the owner of the Islander called just to let us know that the annual Rockport USCG-Aux swap meet was going on at Rockport Harbor, and we should check it out. So we did.

Taking the first parking place we could find, I got out of the rental and started over towards the swap meet, when my wife, Dee stopped me and pointed at a ketch just in back of the car. "That sure is a pretty boat" she said. I immediately realized that it was from a listing I had seen the morning we left, but had only been able to print out a picture with no contact information. She was insistant, "let's look at it anyway"...."looks like it has a lot of room for the size".

I wondered over to the dock, just then a man and his young son were approaching the boat, and Dee asks; "Do you own this boat?"

He replies "yes", and so we ask him if it is for sale. He seems a bit surprised, saying that he'd thought about listing it but.....

Turns out the marina listed it without him knowing. By now though the ice was broken anyhow. He proudly showed us all of it's unique qualities, including a Westerbeke 27, which turns a massive 16" prop, all upgrades he had done.

The little yacht, documented formerly as "Kitten", and now as "Olivia" (after Arts daughter) had an impeccible pedigree. The first owners had sold everything, picked her up in England in 1974 when she was commissioned, and embarked on a circumnavigation of the world. The next owner lived aboard, and she resided for a few years in the Bahamas, weathering hurricanes, even making a cameo appearance on a Bahamian postcard, proudly riding out a hurricane.

Then like many good old boats, she fell into a state of disrepair, and finally ended up in dry storage for almost two decades. My now-friend Art "drug her out", and refitted her keel to mastheads, paying loving attention to every detail. We had stumbled on her at about the 75% restored mark, with just a little interior restoration left to do.

I fell instantly head over heels in love with the vessel.

Art sent me home to do my homework, find out about this unique and special twin bilge keeled boat, and I dug out every source I could find about the Westerly Centaur. The more I learned, the more I was convinced that this was the boat to handle a cruise to the shallow waters of the Caribbean, Guatemala, Belize and Mexican west coast.

We made one more trip to Corpus to test sail the Olivia, and that very day I purchased her. I had found the boat.