In the preface of William Gardens first book “Yacht Designs” there is a copy of a letter he received from a couple who were then in New Zealand. They had sailed from California to the Marquesas Islands then on through the South Pacific to Tahiti. Finally, arriving in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand they were working to replenish their cruising fund when they wrote Garden. Their boat, Puffin was one of his designs and this was her second trip to New Zealand. Just over 26 feet on deck with a water line length of 22feet 6 inches she had ample beam of 9 feet 6 inches she was designed in Bill Garden’s words “as a small oceangoing vessel”.
One of three built in 1967 at the Y. Chen boatyard in Taiwan, Puffin and her sister ships were framed in Yakal and planked with Cypress (Port Orford Cedar). Their cabins, decking and hatches were built of teak. However, while under construction two changes were made to Puffin at the request, I believe, of the soon-to-be-owners Roy and Tee Jennings. Her cabin was extended one frame bay aft and a bridge deck added, but otherwise she remains true to the original “Vashon Cutter” design. Roy and Tee Jennings took possession of her in 1967 in San Francisco and sailed her down to southern California. From that time until 1975 there is little information about her owners or travels, except I’m told that during that time she made her first trip into the South Pacific.
Garden published his first book in 1977 and by then he had altered and renamed the design. He replaced the almost straight stem with a clipper bow and fiddlehead then added stern davits. These changes visually lengthened the boat. The altered design he called a “Spice Island Cutter” (which is how the design is presented in his book). However, when I bought Puffin, she was introduced to me as a “Vashon Cutter.” Why the different names? The explanation maybe in a spiral bound booklet “100 Yachts and Vessel Designs” by Bill Garden that pre-dated his first book. There the design is called a “Vashon Island-built cutter, Andy Goodwin’s boat”
The couple that wrote to Garden didn’t continue much further than New Zealand. They sold Puffin and she passed through a succession of owners. She sailed the Tasman Sea and South Pacific with one owner then was sold and sailed via Hawaii to Port Townsend. There she was again sold and transported to San Francisco. Puffin sailed for a few years on San Francisco Bay. Then once again she was sold and the new owners began getting her ready for a trip North. Work was done to renew her teak decks. A new interior was designed and built by Bob Darr at the Center for Wood Arts (now the Arques School of Traditional Wooden Boatbuilding) in San Rafael. The work was finished by 1983 and Puffin was off again on a new adventure. This time by barge. She was shipped to Seward Alaska.
Over the next several years her owners sailed her between Alaska and Seattle finally settling in Juneau.
Perhaps their lives became too busy and Puffin began to be neglected. To their credit they didn’t leave her on a mooring to rot. In the hands of a delivery captain she sailed South to Port Townsend. There a bit of work was done before once again she was put up for sale, this time on Bainbridge Island. That is where I found her twenty-three years ago.