About Ellipsis
Ellipsis is a Westsail 32, Hull #692, built from a kit and launched in 1981. She began life on the Great Lakes, and was sailed for a relatively short time by her builder. She was purchased at anchor by her second owners, who kept her in Saugatuck, Michigan. That's where she was when Ken and I bought her in the Fall of 1997.
Ken and I were sailing a Pearson 26 around the west end of Lake Erie, and one day spied a Westsail 28 in our anchorage at Put-in-Bay, South Bass Island, Ohio. We dinghied by and the folks on the Westsail 28 showed us around. When we said we loved the boat but it seemed a little small, they told us that most Westsails were 32 feet long, not 28s. We knew then what kind of boat to search for.
We walked down the dock the day before our appointment to see Ellipsis to take a sneak peek (her previous name was "Big Deal"). We thought she was gorgeous and we imagined how cool we would be if we could sail a boat like that! The minute we walked back in the door at home at the end of the next day, we were making an offer.
The day was windy, cold, rainy, blustery when we took her for a test sail - perfect for a Westsail 32.
We completed the purchase at the end of the season after she was already put up for the winter. When we got her back in the water, we (mostly Ken) sailed her around all of Lower Michigan to what was her home port for the next two summers, Toledo Beach.
By Summer 2000, Ellipsis tasted salt for the first time when we hit the brackish water of Hudson River and finally the Atlantic. sailing through New York Harbor and out. Ellipsis was in her glory during our first three day passage from Sandy Hook to the Chesapeake.
Since then, she has put up with day sails when she's had to, and gritted her teeth through long stretches at the dock as we added more cruising gear. But every night she dreams of sailing endlessly through sunrise and moonrise with the saltwater splashing on her decks. She knows that the next cruise will justify the time tied up.