Gaia’s dream

WHEN my husband announced he wanted to get another boat, I was not surprised. He had been trawling the internet for weeks during the Covid-19 lockdown, this time in search of a big catamaran at a bargain price.

When we sold our previous vessel six months prior, a Peterson 43, I knew it would not be long before sea fever would set in. “Nothing challenges you like the sea does”, he says. As an infamous water rat once announced, “…there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats”.

However, the boat chosen is a very different type. A one-off design built in Urunga from Queensland plantation pine in 2009 by Yvette Wijnin. At 21.6 metres long and 11 metres wide Gaias Dream is currently the largest modern proa on the water in the world.

After many years as an affectionate landmark off Scotland Island in Pittwater New South Wales, she has finally slipped her mooring and headed north. While Gary first started sailing in Fairfax Harbour Port Moresby, and has been sailing for over 40 years on mono and multihulls both recreationally and as a commercial master and engineer, a