We became smitten with Kadey Krogens at our first TrawlerFest in Solomon’s Island, Maryland in 2007. We lived in the mountains of Western North Carolina at the time, and as former “Michiganders”, never could quite get the water and boating out of us. I was constantly researching boats and exploring options for getting a boat to keep in Charleston, SC, just a few hours drive from our home in Asheville. My research kept pointing to trawlers as the ideal boat for us. We wanted to coastal cruise economically, maybe cruise to the Caribbean and probably do the Great Loop. So we packed up for a long weekend in Solomon’s to crawl around on boats, and chat with cruisers and dreamers.
A couple years later, circumstance and opportunity took us to Houston, TX. We bought a big Houston style house in Kingwood, but within a couple years found ourselves hanging out in Kemah, on Clear Lake, looking at boats. We eventually found and bought a beautiful Islander Freeport 38′ sailboat, naming her Cirila, after my grandmother. Soon, we spent every weekend in Kemah on the boat. Loving the life style and many new friends we were making, we sold the house, sold and donated a bunch of stuff, and bought a condo on Clear Lake, right across from NASA.
The rigors and challenges of sailing meant that I was still surfing Yachtworld, looking for a cruising boat that would better suit our long term plan… still looking for that trawler… maybe even that Kadey Krogen. Then one morning, one showed up on Yachtworld, in Houston, on Clear Lake. I was aboard Anastasia III before noon, and urging Dawn to leave work early to meet me at the marina that afternoon. We made an offer the next day, and closed a month later. Thankfully, some terrific folks were looking for an Islander Freeport at this same time – we sold the sailboat in a week.
It’s only fitting that we start with this line drawing of a Katey-Krogen 42 Flybridge Trawler. We named her “Cirila” again, not Cirila II. She’s hull #99, and was built by Chien Hwa in Taiwan in 1986. I found this great illustration of our “venerable trawler” on Pinterest and can’t take credit for it.
This is Cirila at the brokerage dock on the day we closed on her. There were a few items of concern on the survey, some fixed immediately, and a few that price concessions allowed us to deal with later. A gent by the name of Keith Emmons owned her and unfortunately, passed away before realizing his cruising plans. The initial owners cruised her extensively off the east coast and Caribbean – back then she was named “Bride of the Waves”.
