Mark and Christy along with their family love their sailing life.
Early on
Mark first began sailing as a Boy Scout. He learned on small craft and eventually worked up to larger sailboats. In 2003, Christy helped Mark find his first boat on eBay. She was a Neptune 24 and a perfect trailerable vessel that we were able to first sail in North Carolina on the Atlantic while Mark served in the Marine Corps. Later we moved her to Lake Michigan after Mark’s final contract with the Corps expired.
Mark and Christy married in 2005 and tough years followed. In 2006, we were forced to sell our sweet Neptune. It would take a few years before we purchased our next vessel. In 2010, we rescued a Siedlemann 299 from a shipyard in Chicago after she had been on the dry for some time. We worked to bring her beauty back and named her Reality Escape.
Current
Reality Escape was made to sail the Atlantic but wasn’t quite big enough for us. Also, Christy is not a fan of IOR-style vessels and how sailing feels on them. So, in 2019 when a gift from Mark’s mom arrived, we chose to look for a vessel we could fulfill our dreams on.
We had dreamed for years about what we wanted in a vessel and knew that we would need to purchase a fixer-upper to make it work in our budget. So, we started looking for a vessel with good bones and the potential for great beauty. This led us on a trip to Connecticut where we found a neglected Whitby 45 previously named Wisp.
She wasn’t gorgeous (yet) but she was sturdy and had those great bones we wanted. So, we bought her and sold Reality Escape. Learn more about our Whitby 45 here: S.V. Vagari.