Chris and Marissa Neely may be young boat owners, but the love the 20-somethings have for their old boat is rooted in its old soul.

The couple found their boat, a 1979 Cheoy Lee 41 sloop in 2018, in their home state of California after a search geared more toward living aboard than any particular sailing goal.

Chris was immediately drawn to the boat.

“Chris felt right at home, comparing the warm cabin sides to his family’s Mason 43 that he grew up sailing in the bay,” Marissa said. “I was not charmed as easily, mostly due to her interior being unlike any other I had ever seen, and to my own faults I wrote it off as atrocious instead of unique.

“‘Just give it a minute,’ Chris begged, as he invited me to partake in his daydream where he shared all of his ideas on how he could make the boat home. Although he won me over in the end with his big picture planning, it didn’t excuse the fact that the boat was a bluewater cruiser and we had been looking at plastic fantastics that were in our humble fresh-out-of-college budget.”

After an initial lowball offer was declined, Chris wrote a letter to the seller explaining that the young couple loved the boat and would be honored to buy it. The letter apparently worked, and a deal was struck.

Years of refitting followed as the couple turned a well-loved but in-need-of-work boat into a home and now the boat on which they hope to fulfill their bluewater cruising dreams.

“The galley is one of my favorite features, even more so now that we have remodeled her to fit our taste,” Marissa said.  “Her large fridge and freezer are a gold mine on this size and year of boat, it is truly what won me over. Her large dinette fits up to eight people comfortably making game nights and dinner parties a blast.”

The couple also undertook other projects, some of which have been detailed in SAILING Magazine, to get their boat, many years their  senior, up to snuff. Between projects the couple got a feel for how Avocet sails on mini cruises and daysails from their home port of Ventura.

“Of course her traditional build is also a lovable feature,” Marissa said. “The new-at-the-time radical design of her keel was a 6-foot deep cruising fin in which the forefoot is a cutaway and the rudder is attached to a skeg. The boat was described by designer Ray Richards as being ‘stiff as a church,’ which we have found to be very true.”

While most sailing on Avocet has been a pleasure as the couple learns the intricacies of what the boat favors, a middle-of-the-night scramble at Catalina Island ranks at the top of the most memorable onboard experiences. Although they were prepared for a weather system to come through their anchorage, the wind came from the opposite direction, pushing Avocet within a stomach-churning two boat lengths of a dangerous shore.

The couple had lots of scope out in preparation for the weather, and relied on the boats powerful windlass to take up scope as they worked to claw their way off a lee shore. They fired up the engine and quickly raised a reefed mainsail and unfurled a small bit of the genoa to make headway away from the dangerous shore.

“After about two miles we hove-to, reducing the aggressive rolling and regaining a small sense of comfort,” Marissa wrote in an account of the night. “We were able to reconvene, layer up and figure out a plan.”

Late last year the couple threw off Avocet’s lines to cruise south, bound for the warm waters of the Sea of Cortez.

The couple continues to uncover more of Avocet’s history, and have connected with some of the crew who sailed with the boat’s previous owners, who lived aboard and cruised extensively for more than 20 years. After the previous owner’s wife died, he enjoyed singlehanding the boat, and according to one of his crewmembers, never used the engine to go in or out of a slip.

“He rigged a light line lead to the dock that helped insure that Avocet would point the right way after blowing downwind from the slip,” the crewmember wrote in an email to the couple. “He was an expert at it.”

The couple was charmed by the boat’s legacy and the previous owners’ love for the boat, deciding to keep the name Avocet, chosen because it was the previous owner’s favorite shorebird.

It’s a legacy the couple embraces, and a big part of why they love their boat.

“She has proven time and time again that she is stronger than we are, and inspires us to become better sailors,” Marissa said. “She is a part of our family and we look forward to making memories that will last a lifetime.”