Before Ama Mama, I lived on Adia, a Lagoon 37' catamaran. It all started in 1997 when a friend, said, "Let's go down to the Corinthian Yacht Club and see if we can get picked up as crew for the Friday night beer can races." I had been living in Marin County and working in San Francisco for three years, and every day I was going back and forth across the Golden Gate Bridge looking at all of the sailboats on the Bay thinking to myself, "I should be out there on the water!" So, my friends suggestion was well timed, and we picked up a ride that first night out!
That first night on the beer can race, Skipper Dan was telling us how he'd just gotten back from Mexico, and he couldn't wait to go back in the fall. "Want to come along as crew?", he asked. "Absolutely!", I said. I had really know idea what I was signing up for, but I knew I'd better learn what I was doing on a boat if I was going to sail from San Francisco to Cabo. So, I signed up for several ASA classes at Modern Sailing Academy in Sausalito, CA and learned everything I could before we headed south in October. That first coastal cruise was eye opening and ignited a desire in me to dive deep into sailing.
After returning from Mexico, I took more training, raced on many different boats, and started thinking about getting a boat of my own. After much research, I decided a catamaran was the way I wanted to go. I purchased Adia in May of 1999 offshore and proceeded to Ensenada where I was a commuter cruiser until the fall.
In October, I pulled a bunch of friends of mine together to do the Baja Haha. This experience was incredible!
After spending New Year's 1999 in La Paz, Mexico, my Dad, Brother, and a few friends helped bring the boat back from Mexico to California.
Soon after our honeymoon, we were pregnant with our son, Alex, and it was time to sell Adia and move back ashore. However, I craved a boat to sail regularly. I had been racing Corsair F-27 trimarans, and I really loved how trimarans sailed. I didn't have the cash at the time for a big trimaran, so I starting looking around for something that I could afford. Ian Farrier's first production trimaran, The Tramp, was coming up from time to time on the "boat for sale" lists, and I found Ama Mama in Southern, CA for under $10,000! We drove down to Southern California when Alex was 3 months old, bought the boat, and drove home through a torrential, December California rain storm.
Kinda hard to read the boat plat above, but you should be able to make out that the boat was made in Bribane Australia in 1982 and has a max capacity of 6. Read on to find out how our Little Yellow Tramp That Could story evolves.
