She is a Grieg-class Romsdal, a towering pilothouse yacht inspired by the North Sea trawlers made for deepwater fishermen in boatyards in Romsdal County, Norway. Designed by Knute Hagen, she was built in the Hagen shipyard in Hjelset, Norway. Records indicate that 22 Romsdal yachts were launched: half the fleet was of wood construction, and half was of steel. All those exported to America came on their own bottoms and were imported and sold by Peter Varaney's Lido Yacht Sales in Newport Beach, California.

Last winter a friend lured me to Mexico, promising warm-weather cruising on her yacht, swimming, snorkeling, and Mexican food and beer - as well as an opportunity to spend some time with Bill, who now lives aboard Ocean Quest in La Paz. I would also have a chance to check out the fully restored trawler.

Not many days later, I walked from the customs area of the La Paz airport terminal and heard a voice calling. I recognized Bill instantly. After a couple of years in Mexico, he was sun baked, salt cured, mostly bald, wiry, and smiling in recognition. He was wearing the uniform of U.S. cruisers in Mexico: a T-shirt, shorts, and floppies.

My hostess was Joyce Gauthier, owner of the 65-foot Malahide trawler Ursa Major, another North Sea-style yacht. I would be staying aboard Ursa in La Paz with other friends of the owner and crew, and we would cruise north in the Sea of Cortez with Ocean Quest.

I tossed my bag aboard, changed into the proper cruising garb, and headed down the dock to see Ocean Quest. She was on the next mooring float over and looked great from a distance. I stopped a few yards short of her bow, literally stunned by the quality of Bill’s restoration. She looked better than new.

I saw plenty of Bill in the next few days, aboard both boats, on grocery shopping trips, over dinners, and while walking the island beaches north of La Paz. I sued his Romsdal’s on-deck shower (hot, cold, and a soap dispenser) after swimming and snorkeling, drove one of his two WaveRunners, explored every inch of the boat, and – best of all – spent a day cruising with him in the Sea of Cortez.

The Ocean Quest story emerged bit by bit, day by day, whenever an anecdote was recalled, as one discussion spun off another idea and finally my notebook was full. It was an easy job: Bill is proud of his accomplishments and, while not boastful,

BOATER POSSESSED

All good stories begin long ago. As a youngster, Bill was in love with boats and boating, and he walked the docks at the yacht clubs and marinas on Alamitos Bay in Long Beach, California, admiring the craft moored there.

Sometimes, he putted around in his 8-foot pram, powered by a rope-start 3hp Elco outboard.

One day, probably in 1960, a new, huge yacht appeared, and Bill stopped to look. "I sat there in awe," he recalled. "The owner invited me over, and I offered to wash the boat" The boat was Mindy, one of the first Romsdals to reach this country.

Bill remembers climbing ratlines to the crow's nest on the mainmast that rises from the foredeck of the large Romsdals. 

That doesn't end the story, however. In 1995, Bill was aboard his unfinished project yacht at Catalina Island when he saw a sistership motor past. A radio conversation identified the yacht as Dansi. Months later, Bill met the owner, Mike Price, and told his story. During their chat, Mike retrieved an engraved wine glass that had been found on the boat after he'd bought it. The name on the glass was Mindy.

After Mindy had cruised away that summer day nearly 50 years ago, young Bill had been left with a lifelong itch for Romsdals. He moved on serving in the Army and earning a degree in engineering. His career was all about boats, which probably made the renovation of Ocean Quest possible; he was a civilian employee of the Coast Guard and then the Navy, managing their small-craft fleets and participating in accident investigations and surveying in the San Diego area for 27 years. He supervised the construction of a fleet of aluminum Coast Guard patrol boats and was sent to Taiwan for nine months by the USCG to advise CHB, a major builder of pleasure boats, on how to comply with U.S. safety standards.

Bill owned some "ordinary" boats and watched for Romsdals for sale, but on the rare occasions when one appeared on the market, he found them too costly.

During the early 1980s, a 65-foot Romsdal named Tiki was having hard times. Although her first West Coast owners had cruised widely and successfully for many years, a subsequent owner had financial troubles and began using her to smuggle marijuana into the United States, according to Bill. He said the story goes like this: The smuggling crew brought a load of grass back from and, high from sampling the cargo, rammed a dock while attempting a landing in California and damaged the moorage. The marina owner called police, and investigating officers arrived with a drug-sniffing dog. Police found the boat loaded with bales of marijuana. The federal government seized the boat, and the crew went to jail.

Now federal property, the Navy took title of the Romsdal and, because of her nonmagnetic wood construction, used her to train minesweeping crews. The