How Vitruvius Came to Be 

Stepping back in time; we have always been boating people, often owning several boats at the same time.   Before we met Robert had done some hard-core offshore sailing in Michigan and the Caribbean and had actually built a 38’ sailboat from scratch.   Since 2012 we have spent each spring and fall cruising on the canals of Holland, Belgium, and France.  Prior to that we had almost 3 years in the Mediterranean on a Beneteau Swift Trawler.  One might consider us to be a bit obsessive when it comes to boats, as we currently own a small trawler, a vintage 33’mahogany IOD race boat, both on San Francisco Bay, as well as, our beloved 11-meter Dutch Barge, “Amico”.  If you are interested, here is a link to a blog about our 1st trip with Amico from Holland to France, circa 2012:   https://pamgarant.blogspot.com/    

We, Robert and Pamala Garant are now in our 70’s and had been talking about a larger, more comfortable boat for several years which might constitute our retirement home.  We are both suckers for beautiful, traditional style boats and loved the idea of a new Dutch barge replica, not wanting the maintenance of an ancient barge.  We had checked out a few builders but found issues with their work and/or their reputation. 

In Auxerre, I met a lovely lady named Cindy from our neighbouring hometown of Napa, California.  She was quite gracious and allowed me to tour her Piper 49m named “Emily”.  I knew I wanted one.  People say what a generous wife I am “allowing” my husband to buy so many boats but actually, I am the boat hoarder.  Robert is always quick to agree.   

In September 2019, we took a trip to see “Piper Boats Limited “annual boat show in Henley, UK.  Piper owners graciously opened their boats for people to tour and talk about their experiences and design choices.  We wrote a contract to build our “dream boat” that day.  We spent the following day making quick design decisions with Joe at the Piper Boats location in Biddulph, UK then back to France to pack up our old boat for winter and head back to our home in Sonoma, California.  Our winter was spent concluding Robert’s engineering business and divesting of most of our worldly goods.  Once those things were gone, it was hard to remember why we had to have so much “stuff”.

Over the next months, we periodically received progress updates about our 49M and our excitement mounted.  We packed and shipped some personal things, purchased our mattress, dishwasher and washer/ dryer from Amazon and shipped such directly to Piper.  Spring finally arrived, we landed in Paris on March 13, 2020, and headed to Auxerre, France to recover from jetlag.   News reports about COVID started to sound alarming so we decided to head on to Britain earlier than planned on March 16.  We learned France had closed its borders while we were in the air, so we just barely got out in time to avoid being locked down in France. 

The morning of March 17, we met our dream boat, Vitruvius, with the expectation of spending the weekend on her, checking things out, then being transported to the river a couple of days later.   The world quickly changed in those next few days, not just for us but for multitudes of people due to COVID 19 lockdowns.  My plan to collect household goods slowly and carefully was replaced with 1 big shopping trip to Ikea the day before they closed.   Their housewares are serviceable and will do for now.  The following day we chose groceries from the few remaining things left on the shelves, which did not include toilet paper.  Andrea Piper was gracious to share with us.  (A friend in need is a friend indeed)

Our weekend in the parking lot turned into a 3-month stay because of the COVID lockdown.  An industrial park parking lot

 is a peculiar place to live but we counted our blessings and enjoyed our cosy new boat/ home.  We did have one opportunity to be transported to the

 river, but the marinas were closed, and we certainly did not want to be floating on an unfamiliar river without services for an undetermined length of time.  Gratefully, Piper agreed to keep us on.  Robert did occasionally survey the parking lot, looking for a way to2the water but for the most part, we were content.

We were incredibly pleased to finally have neighbours arrive to live on their boat during the last few weeks.  How civilized to enjoy cocktails and conversation on our respective, and socially distanced aft decks.  We will forever consider Tracey and Antony of Axiom our lovely friends and” littermates”.

So, we lived in a boat, in a parking lot from March until June.  Vitruvius finally got her belly wet on June 10th, 3 months later than was planned.  We will forever be grateful to Piper Boats for hosting us in their parking lot.  We have enormous praise for both the quality of our boat’s finishes and Piper’s responsiveness in completing our small checklist.  

Piper Boats Limited has exceeded our expectations.  A huge thank you to Simon, Andrea, Nick, Joe, Josh, Vinnie and all the Piper staff.   We enjoyed having a ready-made family of other Piper Boat People who have been both informative and supportive.  What a helpful, fun and clever group Piper People are!  We anxiously await the end to this COVID problem so we can be on our way again and meet more Piper People in person.