A web log of the sailing vessel "Gyatso"

Home
Sailing Logs
Photo Gallery
Refit
Recipes
Links
Updates
About Us
Contact



























































About Us

The Boat

Gyatso is a 1985 Tayana 37 sailboat that we purchased in Yarmouth, Maine in October 2005.  We are the fourth owners.  

Designed by American naval architect Robert Perry and built in Taiwan by the Ta-Yang Yacht Building Company, the Tayana 37 has a classic look with its bowsprit and canoe-ended stern.  This sturdy double-ender was originally designed as a couple's world cruiser -- a boat that could be taken anywhere in the world. Our T37 is hull number 452 out of more than 600 built since the 1970s.

Gyatso has a cutter rig (pictured left) with a fully-battened mainsail and two foresails: a self-tending staysail and a Yankee.  Both are roller-furling.  Our Tayana is outfitted with a 30 hp Yanmar diesel engine.

 

The Owners and Crew

David Barker and Lisa Borre have been boating and sailing for most of their lives.  From 1997 to 2005, the husband-wife team logged 4,500 miles together aboard their previous boat, About Time, a 32' Endeavour sloop, on the Chesapeake Bay, the Atlantic Coast from New England to Georgia, and all five of the North American Great Lakes.

After purchasing Gyatso in Maine in October 2005, David and Lisa moved aboard and began cruising full-time.  They sailed the 20-year old boat back to their homeport in Annapolis, Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay and then to Florida, the Bahamas and back again -- an extended "shakedown" cruise while completing a major refit.

In November 2006, they joined the Caribbean 1500 rally and sailed offshore from the Chesapeake Bay to Tortola in the British Virgin Islands.  They spent six months cruising in the Eastern Caribbean and went as far south as Grenada before turning north to Antigua and then crossing the Atlantic to Europe in the summer of 2007 with the ARC Europe Rally.  They wintered-over aboard Gyatso in Lagos, Portugal while they prepared for the next phase of their voyage.  In 2008, they sailed from Portugal through the Strait of Gibraltar  and into the Mediterranean, visiting Southern Spain, the Balearic Islands and Sardinia before arriving in Gaeta, Italy.  In 2009, they visited Southern Italy, including Sicily, Tunisia, Malta, and Greece on their way to Turkey for the winter.  Gyatso was hauled-out at Yacht Marine in Marmaris, Turkey while David and Lisa returned to the US for what turned out to be a four month visit.  In 2010, they plan to re-launch Gyatso in March and sail north through the Aegean Sea to Istanbul and then into the Black Sea.

David and Lisa have logged 20,000 miles while sailing together.  The couple met while working together in Indonesia in 1996 and were married in 1998.  Before setting out on their current voyage aboard Gyatso in 2005, they lived in Annapolis, Maryland and co-founded LakeNet, a world lakes network.  They are currently cruising full-time in the Mediterranean.

Biographical Sketches of the Owners

 

The Name

Gyatso (pronounced "ghi-yah-tso") is the Tibetan word for "ocean." The most common question we get asked about this name is, "What do the Tibetans know about oceans?"  This gives us the opportunity to explain that the term is also used by Tibetans to describe the concept of vastness.   For example, Gyatso Rinpoche is the title that Tibetans use for His Holiness the Dalai Lama.  It means "vast or precious ocean of compassion."

While trying to create positive thought forms about cruising full-time, David always attached the name Gyatso to the boat we would sail away in someday.  When we bought our Tayana 37, we decided it was just the right name for the boat of our dreams.  This is why after renaming it, we invited two senior monks at the JaLing Tibetan Buddhist Cultural Center in Baltimore, MD, to perform a naming ceremony and give blessings for safe passage in December 2005 while we were docked in Annapolis.

The manufacturer of our boat is Tayana, a name which coincidentally is derived from the Mandarin Chinese word for "ocean."  Under previous owners, our boat was named Cleartime and Wayward, neither of which held much meaning for us.  

 

 

© Copyright 2006-2010 s/v Gyatso.  This page was last updated on 04/27/10.
Opentracker: Web Site Analytics