38' Gartside Pilothouse Cutter (2020) - RAIN BEAR

RAIN BEAR is the culmination of a dream that took seed in 1975 to build a large traditional wooden sailboat suited to cruising and live aboard in the Pacific Northwest. It took until 1998 before we had in place access to the time and money to start building from a design from Paul Gartside. The design we asked Paul to undertake needed to incorporated all of the features that Estelle wanted to feel safe and comfortable on the water. The main qualities she wanted was a galley that was above the waterline and windows that allowed her to see where she was and lots of fresh air, so all of the side windows needed to open. She also wanted a boat that felt solid in the water and went through waves rather than bouncing over them.This gave us a full keeled hull form of moderately heavy displacement with a wheelhouse. I wanted a boat that was able to move in the light airs that are most common in the Gulf of Georgia where we intended to cruise. So, in the end we have a rig that went from the original 646 to the current 1,000+ sq. ft. I also wanted the ascetic of the work boats that I grew up with here on the west coast which suited the full keel hull form. At the beginning of the project we had enough to pay Paul for the design and from that point on we worked with no budget and therefore no schedule. As we eccumulated the money we bought more materials. It took 22 years of dedicated building before we were able to launch RAIN BEAR in 2020. For us the build was the journey and we’re thrilled with the result. We have put RAIN BEAR up for sale as we are not ready to give up our journey of creativity and will use the sale to invest in the next project. Until then we have the pleasure of using RAIN BEAR as she was intended, cruising the Gulf of Georgia.

RAIN BEAR is also featured in our WCBS Classifieds, along with scores of other great classic boats for sale. You can find that link in the details on the right.