Alani was built in 1960 in Denmark. Her design, by Alan Gurney, had won a competition in Yachting World magazine in 1958 and two boats were built simultaneously in the Hinrichsen Boatyard in Hamelbaek, Denmark. Theme, purchased by an owner from the US East Coast , was delivered to the Chesapeake Bay. Theme Song, so Alani´s original name, was sold to an unknown owner in San Francisco Bay, California. She lost her original wooden mast in an off-shore race in 1963 which was replaced by the aluminum one she is still carrying today.
Her hull is planked with Honduran mahogany on rock elm and white oak frames, her original deck was teak. She displaces 14 256 pounds with 5300 pounds of lead in her keel. Her length over all is 36 ft, with a 25 ft water line, a beam of 9.6ft and a draft of 5.5 ft.
Alani was sold to Oakland, California and renamed Vaga, short for vagabondo, in honour of the new owners frequent visits to Mexico. She was then sold to Sausalito, where she stayed under different owners until 1990. In 1988, her fourth owner changed her name to Alani, the Polynesian word for “A day in Heaven” or “A day with the Gods”.
In the early 1990s, numerous repairs and upgrades were overseen by her current owner, Mr. Heckman in Sausalito. A new mast step was installed, the mast was rewired, the keel bolts replaced, the deck re-caulked, an anchor windlass was installed, a refrigerator added and two extra custom made water tanks built. Heckman also had new laminated white oak sister frames installed from the mast to the stern on both sides, he replaced most of the standing and all running rigging, added a roller furling system, placed climbing steps on the mast and installed new primary winches. After several other upgrades, Heckman took Alani cruising. He sailed her south through the Panama Canal, through Colombia, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands and Florida. In Key West, she changed owners again twice. Casey Brooks, who purchased her in 2003, brought her first to Rhode Island and later sailed her south to the Rio Dulce, Guatemala.
Casey Brooks sold Alani to his friend, Gary Smith, who owned her when I caught my first sight of her in spring 2016 in Fronteras, Rio Dulce, Guatemala – and immediately fell in love.
On May 5, 2016, the papers were signed, and Alani and I started out into our new journey together.
