About Us

She is from the ancient capital city of Xi-an, he is from the historically industrial city of Pittsburgh, neither city is close to the ocean, both share the dream of being on the water. She, with a memorable trip to the seashore prying mussles from the rocks at low tide, he spending summers with his grandparents on the Great Lakes catching perch and cleaning them for dinner, the experiences shape the desire to explore by water. From a chance meeting and sailing trip in San Francisco Bay to a commitment to build a life together, they start their adventure ...

About GrayMatter

After 10 years with our Swan 40 Blue Moon, and two multi-day passages down and back up the coast of California, we realized for any longer distance passagemaking safety and comfort would significantly increase with a bigger boat. The comfort considerations included additional fuel, water and power not to mention after 60+ hours living in foul weather gear in damp fog ; inside steering was a new requirement.

When we returned, we took a slip in the south part of San Francisco Bay which had a limited number of liveaboard slips and after a year on the waiting list our name came up. Moving from a 3 bedroom home to a Swan 40 seemed more than challenging, so we started searching for “a cheap powerboat”.

Hours and hours on yachtworld, blogs and cruising forums, we concluded we didn’t want to give up our passagemaking dream.

Our cruising dream was modest, maybe Mexico and/or Caribbean, however living in San Francisco, where significant winds and waves appear in a matter of hours, and “sailing outside The Gate” is equally challenging, we started to look more toward ocean going trawlers.

Formerly m/v Feeling, Gray Matter was commissioned in 1997 with a Catepillar 3306 main and Lugger L984D wing engine. Our refit objectives were to completely go through the mechanical systems, engines, generators; the hydraulics needed attention, but had just had new hoses and main engine pump replaced; steering rams needed rebuilt and autopilot replaced. In our boat search the biggest differences we noticed in the new builds were the galley, so we designed a modest galley refit (new appliances), and ultimately decided to replace 2 of the 3 vacuflush heads with the Tecma electric heads. Our refit cost about 15% of the purchase price and we were very satisfied with the work at Raven Marine in Sidney BC.

With confidence in the systems, and our own touch to the comforts, we settled down for our life in the Bay. We still debate whether we would have considered the opportunity in Australia had we been living on a Bayliner, but having one dream enabled, certainly allowed us to consider the other dream. We appreciate how lucky we are knowing we have a boat that can go almost anywhere in the world, and most certainly anywhere we want to go.