Champagne is an old-school Dufour 35. We don’t know much about her history, but there is evidence that she has traveled far and been well-loved. Originally built in La Rochelle in 1972, she comes with an impeccable French sailing pedigree that includes three separate wine racks; a sail inventory from Germany including multiple “sturmfocks”; and we bought her with a Maori name from New Zealand–try to say Aotearoa over the radio a few times…and then wait to hear if anyone can say it back. At any rate, there’s reason to believe that she’s probably got a circumnavigation under her belt already and she’s showing no signs of slowing down.

In the few years that we’ve owned her (or is it her owning us?), we’ve modified, updated, or refitted just about every system on the boat. I could go into nauseating detail and show heaps more photos, but our story is no different from that of other Good Old Boat owners rearing for adventure. We get our hands on a worthwhile fiberglass hull–preferably one with a decent rig to boot–and then go about bringing everything else into good working order, leaving no stone unturned.

This is a very slow and labor-intensive method towards blue-water sailing, but it does provide the benefit of truly knowing your vessel inside and out. And considering that you can’t call for help when you’re out in the middle of the ocean, a good case can be made for learning how to Do It Yourself. Am I proud of what we’ve accomplished? Sure. Would I do it again? Not so sure.

But alas, we’re grateful to be here now, and our main task in life is simply to keep our bottle of bubbly halffull and floating!