"Big Sky" formerly "Lady R" is a 515 - 9 Nauticat sailboat, built as all Nauticat's in Turku, Finland by inventor and designer Kai Gustafsson. She's a 51.5 cutter-rigged sloop sailboat, which means she has one main, a genoa and a cutter sail and stretches 51 1/2 feet long and 15.2 feet wide and is the nineth 515 built.

There are only 25 515's, Big Sky is hull #9.



Custom built in 1999, she saw very few nautical miles before being stored in dry dock in the Nauticat yard in Turku. Con found her for sale on the internet. The search for the "exactly right" boat was a two-year task. We toured about two dozen boats in person from Tampa, Miami, Seattle, Boston, Holland and finally found her in Turku, Finland. On the internet, Con researched hundreds of boats.

Karen, my girlfriend says "what a way to start your adventures, with the Finnish!"

The former owner took great care to ensure the boat was outfitted with the "best" and most sophisticated gagets and instruments always keeping in mind safety and having duplicate systems of critical items.

It took 6,500 person-hours to complete construction and finishing.

Naming "Big Sky" was a major undertaking, requiring the consultation of our four daughters, their spouses, friends, thesaurus checks, language checks, definition checks, and then finally availability checks.  When we both moved to Calgary, we were overwhelmed by the size of the sky in Calgary, and that it's always blue. It catches us off guard and always amazes us. "Big Sky" reminds us of home.

For a inside tour we invite you to open the photo album.