About the Boat ...

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'Camara' - a new name for a new era of this 80ft beauty, the first of 10 Ocean 80's built by Southern Ocean Shipyard and designed by David Alan-Williams and Doug Peterson.

She was built for the 1981/1982 Whitbread RTWR, then called 'Ocean Greyhound' and renamed to 'FCF Challenger' before the race finished. In 1989/1990 she raced as 'Creighton's Naturally' in her last appearance in the Whitbread RTWR. Over the years she appeared not only in the Whitbread RTWR but also served many years as a charter yacht.

We rescued her in late 2015, spending the following 3 1/2 years on a major refit, which saw us taking her right back to the bare hull, re-glassing where necessary and starting again. It was a mammoth project for us, especially considering we had no outside funding for the refit. We spent thousands of hours of hard labour, just the two of us, lovingly restoring her and breathing life back into her. In return we now have a fully refitted and serviced comfortable cruiser with a racing pedigree that we know every single inch of and have touched and inspected each and every system onboard.

ABOUT US ...

We are a family of four (Peter, Christina, Cameron and Tara) who have previously been sailing/cruising for about 16 years on our old yacht, a 42ft monohull. Our family loves all types of water sports and the outdoors and you'll never see us running out of things to do in an anchorage. Depending on the weather condition you either find us surfing or kitesurfing, or perhaps we are out enjoying what Mother Nature has to offer kayaking, paddle boarding, spearfishing or exploring the island. Of course we love sailing and are thrilled with our new sailing 'machine' - but it is the whole package of this cruising lifestyle that suits us in every way!

Peter has been born and bred in South Africa and developed a love for the ocean and passion for surfing at a young age. Introduced to sailing in his youth, it had always been his dream to sail away one day looking for the perfect wave and he did so in 1998. Christina grew up by the mountains and the idyllic Chiemsee in Bavaria, Germany. A love for travel and backpacking lead to a trip to a stunning little island in the Caribeean called Tobago, where I met Peter just one year into his journey after leaving South Africa. Together we have sailed a fair few miles and have had our kids 'along the way', with our son crossing his first ocean at the tender age of 11 months and our daughter living aboard since she's been 3 hours old.

With Peter having worked in the boat building/marine industry for over 20 years, we have always had a look out for a project boat but had never expected one of this magnitude to come our way. Saying that, we both love a challenge and certainly have the determination, drive and skills to tackle a project like this. We launched Camara on Christmas Day 2018 and are now cruising the South Pacific islands with only one plan in mind, to sail from one slice of paradise to another looking for the perfect wave and kitespot!