Turning the Page

Two weeks before our departure to Queensland we sold Stolen Kiss!! With 5 days between getting off the hard at Spot On, signing the contract, settlement and packing up our personal items, we were quite busy!

Strange as things happen, we had had her on the market for over a year to see what might come of it. (It was too good to think that we may have sold her when we were almost at parity with the USD!) No interest what so ever. Within one hour of receiving a cheque for the deposit from the new owners in Darwin, a chap from Fremantle called and desperatly wanted to buy her. On the same day as signing the contract, I had a call from Perth offering me work!

The name..of course we keep!

As one door closes, another opens. We are looking primarily to purchase the new Stolen Kiss in the States. Good time to buy over there. We are weighing up the ideas of East Coast V West Coast. East Coast allows us to do the ICW, Panama, Cuba (my choice) and San Blas Islands (Peter's choice). West Coast, primarily Seattle allows us to go to Vancouver and cruise up to Alsaska. As yes, the next boat will have heating.

As far as designers go, Peter is following those what he knows (which is quite extensive). Of course S&S are at the top of our list, as are Frers. We have found a centreboard yacht the same configuration as the old Stolen Kiss, but not an S&S. That is tempting!

Peter has also found a possible purchase in Ipswich (his old home!) which gives us the option of not being in a hurry to move out of the UK or the Med!

However, if our boat purchase is anything like our property purchases, it will be totally impulsive and unexpected!

We have not been without a boat for 20 years. Being boatless is far worse than being homeless! However, a new adventure awaits!

History of Stolen Kiss

The first Stolen Kiss was built by the American Yacht Association under the license of Irwin in Clearwater, Florida in 1972. Only 7 hulls were built from this Sparkman and Stephens design, two as ketch and five as sloop. Her design features, coupled with being a centerboard makes her very sea kindly. She draws 1.2m with the board up and 3m with it down.

The hull is constructed of high impact fiberglass reinforced polyester resin. The structure consists largely of woven roving. The thickness of the hull varies according to structural demands, ranging from approximately one inch in the keel section to 3/8ths at the sheer.

There has been no talk from her previous owners or any evidence of osmosis.

The deckhouse, deck and cockpit are molded in one piece of fiberglass reinforced polyester resin with molded-in colours. End grain balsa wood is used as a core material to save weight and increase rigidity.

We are only the 5th owners. She was built to order by an American couple who planned to travel around the world. Plans changed and they sold her to a Brazillian couple who took her on their dream sail through the tropics and around the globe. She was then sold to another Brazillian couple who sailed her around the Carribean. We purchased her in Mooloolaba, Queensland, Australia from a French man who found her in New York and sailed her across the Pacific 3 times. Since our ownership we have sailed her up the west coast of Australia, around SE Asia, across the Indian Ocean and back.

She was launched as ‘Brasileirinho’, canary yellow in colour; her namesake. From there she went to a bright green colour, then the stunning awlgrip Royal Blue and named Wallaby.

With lots of rum, we christened her ‘Stolen Kiss’. As a boy, Peter’s father had a small dinghy called Stolen Kiss. We can only assume, as an English gentleman he thought it very risqué to steal a kiss from a woman, undoubtedly, Peter’s mother. Stolen Kiss sails with grace and dignity. The photo of the original Stolen Kiss, a small dinghy, is on our bulkhead.






In the Hermitage Gallery in St Petersburg, there is a painting of ‘The Stolen Kiss’ by Jean-Honore Fragonard.

The second Stolen Kiss was purchased in San Carlos, Mexico in October, 2009. She is a Hylas 47, built at the Queen Long Shipyard in Taiwan in 1989, designed by Sparkman and Stephens (of course!!).  The typical trade mark of these vessels is their incredible attention to detail and impeccable joinery. The S&S design makes for a fast, sea kindly, stunningly beautiful yacht. Colour??? Of course had to be blue!

She had one owner and was never under charter. Her only sailing had been from Florida to San Carlos via the Carribean. From the Baja, Mexico, we will cruise her down to Central/South America (not straying from the tropics!) and then across the puddle to Australia.

Track from April 2003 to May 2008

April to August 2003: Fremantle to Darwin

Mostly Day Sailing with a few overnight passages.

August 2003 to January 2004: Darwin to Phuket via Indonesia and Malaysia/Malaccan Straits.

Mostly day sailing with the exception of two longer passages. Darwin to Kupang: 4.5 days and Kumai(Kalimantan) to top of Riau Straight (near Singapore) 4.5 days.

January 2004 to Dec 2005: Cruising Phuket/Langkawi

All day sailing. Survived the Tsunami, Dec 2004.

January 2006 to September 2006: Cruising the Indian Ocean. Phuket, Andaman, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Chagos, Seychelles, Maldives, Phuket.

Longest Passages: Seychelles to Male, Maldives: 10.5 days and Male to Phuket via Great Channel 11 days.

September 2006 to October 2006: Phuket

November and December 2006: Langkawi

January 2007: Langkawi to Sebana Cove (Near Singapore)

All day sailing

February 2007 to March 2007: Singapore to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

Mixed passages. Singapore to Sarawak: 3 days. Mostly day sailing to Brunei and Sabah, except for two overnight passages.

March 2007 to January 2008: Sabah

Day sailing along the north coast of Sabah and exploring some rivers.

February 2008: Kota Kinabalu to Singapore. Some great sailing but alas some very slow motoring. Light winds, 1 short lived squall, not many ships and no more than 1/2m sea.

March 2008 to Early May 2008: Singapore to Darwin via Indonesia. Some great sailing but also a lot of motoring. Great weather, calm seas. The last week in May the SE winds filled in to 20 - 30 knots from Darwin through Indonesia. We made it by 9 days! Some short passages interspersed with day sailing. Maximum wind gust 20 knots apparent, maximum swell 1m.

May 2008 - October 2008: From Darwin, cruised the Kimberley/King George River for 2 weeks. The rest of the time we have been in Tipperary Waters Marina, primarily undertaking a refit.