Exclusive: West Bay SonShip’s Kataluma — By Diane M. Byrne — May 2005

Keen on Kataluma

Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way

More of this Feature • Part 1: Kataluma • Part 2: Kataluma • Where There’s A Will, There’s a Way • 20 Years Ago • Ketaluma Specs • Ketaluma Deck Plan • Ketaluma Photo Gallery
Related Resources • Megayacht Index
Elsewhere on the Web • West Bay SonShip

Take the all-wood, 42-foot trawler yacht that was the first to emerge from the newly formed West Bay Boat Builders’ shed in late 1969, for example: She’s still cruising today. Remarkably, Ben Vermeulen, who founded West Bay in 1967, got the order for the boat before he’d even finished building the shed. A local contractor arrived on his doorstep with a set of plans from Ed Monk, Sr. and asked him to build her. The contractor enjoyed nearly three decades of cruising aboard Aquaknot II, as he christened her, until his death. The couple that purchased the 42-footer still owns her, having renamed her Longboard; you’re apt to see them cruising the Pacific Northwest.

But more than any of the yachts that West Bay has delivered under the watchful eye of Ben Vermeulen or his sons, Bas and Wes, who currently run the yard, Ben himself best epitomizes making things last. A tool and diemaker by trade, he arrived in Vancouver, Canada, from his native Holland in 1959 with all of $52 in his pocket. —D.M.B.

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