26
My Boat
FARR 50 Great Expectations THE STORIES OF YOUR BELOVED BOATS FROM AROUND THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST When you’ve got a solid background in sailboat racing, it stands to reason that buying a thoroughbred race boat to live aboard would be an appropriate option. Enter Jake Newton and Molly Howe’s 1985 McConaghy-built Farr 50 Great Expectations (GE). Before meeting, Molly and Jake were raised racing and cruising on the coast of Maine with their parents. Jake owned various boats growing up including an Islander Excalibur and an International 110. They met in 2011 while attending Maine Maritime Academy where they were both on the sailing team and raced on the dinghy, keelboat, and offshore teams. Since moving to Seattle for work in 2015, they have been sailing and racing as often as possible—most of which has been on Moore 24s and their Melges 24, Millennial Falcon. Molly and Jake bought Great Expectations in 2016 and have been living aboard and cruising her since. They have slowly been getting GE back into casual racing trim and will hopefully be mixing it up soon from their homeport of Shilshole Bay Marina. 48º NORTH
ABOUT GREAT EXPECTATIONS Tell us about your boat’s name. She was launched as Great Expectations in 1985. In 1988, she underwent a refit and was renamed Yeoman XXVII. She retained that name until 2016 when we purchased her. For two 20-somethings buying a boat this big, the name Yeoman 27 didn’t resonate, but her original name did. Tell us the story of how you found your boat and what makes it special to you. In 2016 as our lease ended, we were looking to move out of West Seattle. We quickly realized buying a house in the area was beyond our level of commitment. We joked about buying a boat and living aboard. Jake, a serial classifieds browser, got right on it. While at work, he would send Molly multiple ads a day, most of which could be filed under “outlandish and unreasonable”. The Farr 50 in Lake Union somehow found its way out of that folder and we went to take a look. Jake grew up racing on a mid 80s Farr 43, so this era Farr spoke to him. Despite the four
26
J U LY 2 0 2 0
