Wally Elsmore's Aurora, 1965 O'Day, Hull #76, Peaks Island (off Portland/Casco Bay), Maine

November 23, 2011. We first found out about this boat on February 13, 2009, thanks to Fred Gougen, whose Thankful was, at that time, also home ported at Peaks Island, Maine. We knew we had discovered a missing Dolphin but did not know exactly where she was.

From my mostly unreadable notes, your webmaster spoke to Wally about that time and he gave us the following story about meeting Aurora - it goes like this. About 10 years ago, in the Fall, he was alone at his cottage on Peak's Island looking out at the boats swinging on their moorings. As the weeks went by there were fewer and fewer, until finally, there was only one left. He watched that boat - pretty lines, all alone....

A couple of years later Wally decided he needed a sailboat and friends told him there was one at a marina not far away that he might check out. He went there to see it and, well, there she was, waiting.

We reconnected with Wally by phone yesterday. Aurora has been out of the water at his cottage on Peaks' Island for about 3 years. A new stainless steel rudder is on order. Aurora has a spruce mast, teak cockpit seats, a teak coaming, main hatch and hatch cover, and a 9.9 hp outboard in a transom well. The hull has been painted black, but may have been blue at some point in her past. When Wally bought her some 12 years ago her name was Aurora.

We are hopeful that more history and pictures are on the way. Stay tuned