S/V Agora – Our Home on the Water

A drone photograph of S/V Agora in the Strait of Georgia, with Bowen Island, British Columbia, Canada in the background. This photo was taken shortly after we repositioned from the Caribbean, and before our extensive upgrades. | Photo by Dugg Steary licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Our home on the water is a 2007 Fountaine Pajot Lavezzi catamaran. Constructed in Aigrefeuille, France, hull number 172 is 12.8 metres (42 ft) long, including the bowsprit, and has a beam of 6.5 metres (21.5 ft).  Agora spent most of her early years in the Caribbean island of Martinique.  When we bought this vessel in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, she was named “Virus”.  Obviously, the name had to be changed before we started our repositioning of the boat to Canada.

We chose “Agora”, which is Greek for a “gathering place”, as it represented the central public square where community members would meet socially to discuss politics, philosophy, and education. As educators, the name resonated with us for its significance to community, open discourse, and civic engagement.

After following the sailing traditions to rename our boat, we departed La Marin, Martinique.  We spent several months at the end of 2020 relocating Agora to Canada. This journey included transiting the Panama Canal and spending almost a month in Costa Rica waiting out a hurricane.

An early rendering by Gemini I of S/V Agora with a red asymmetrical spinnaker. We used AI tools to visualize sail designs during the upgrade process for offshore sailing.