Step One - Bought the Boat!

After six years in Canberra we have decided its time to move on.  We moved to Canberra from Fremantle with the objective of preparing to go cruising.  We arrived on the east coast with a beautiful boat but soon realised we'd have to sell her to meet our objective.  That was tough, but five years later we have another great boat and are nearly ready to go!

We bought Zen in March 2010.  Zen is a 34' (10.4m) cutter rigged yacht.  She is a Yamazaki Yachts ST10.4.  The ST10.4 was designed by Japanese naval architect Ken Hayashi and about 6 were built.  Zen was launched in 1986 as Shirahae ("Great South Wind").



From 1988 to 1992 Shirahae's first owners sailed her from Japan to the US west coast, south around South America (including Cape Horn), west through the Panama Canal, and back to Japan via Hawaii.

From 1995 to 2001 her second owner renamed her Zen and sailed single-handed from Japan to Canada, south to the US, and across the South Pacific to New Zealand and Australia.  On 9th August 2000 Zen ran aground south of Torres Strait and was badly damaged.  She was repaired but then put up for sale.

In 2001 Zen was sold and subsequently used to (unsuccessfully) import A$127M of drugs into Australia.  Between 2002 and 2010 Zen was based in Brisbane.  She was raced successfully at RQYS and completed the 2007 Brisbane to Gladstone offshore race.

In 2010 we sailed Zen south from Brisbane to her new home at Batemans Bay, NSW via the Gold Coast, Port Stephens, Sydney and Jervis Bay.  Since then we have been refitting her for cruising.

Our blog is named for our yacht's likely name "Zen Again" after we register her as an Australian ship since a Zen is already on the register.