frontplate
WELCOME
co-captains
 
We are the Grafs, Sharon and Michael, of Springfield, Illinois, proud owners of the Larabeck, a 42-foot yacht. Sharon is an ethnomusicologist at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Michael is an engineer who can build or fix just about anything and who caught the sailing bug at a very young age.

Read more about us
--More about the Grafs
--How the Larabeck got its name
--land-locked friends

Sailing to the South Pacific is a big adventure and we spent years planning for it. Read an in-depth interview of Michael and Sharon about how our dream became a  reality.

bora-bora

 
We left Florida in early May, 2010, sailing to the Panama Canal, the Galapagos Islands, and our longest trek--3000 miles--to the Marquesas Islands! We have meandered through French Polynesia, Niue, the Cook Islands, Tonga, and the eastern shore of the north island New Zealand. We toured NZ's south island by car with friends, then stayed in Auckland where Sharon researched south pacific music and culture at the University of Auckland.  In late April, we returned to Tonga, spending the summer exploring it and the islands of Fiji.

Sharon returned to Springfield in  August to resume teaching. Michael sailed with a crew member  from Fiji to Vanuatu. From there, he and two crew sailed to Ile Huon and Chesterfield Reef in northern New Caledonia. They arrived in Bundaberg, Australia in mid-November where Michael prepared the boat for sale--an Australian buyer now sails it. Michael flew from Bundaberg to Chicago, arriving in Springfield December 16. This has been the adventure of a lifetime!






WHERE WE ARE


 

Springfield, Illinois
 

Where the NEW Larabeck is now
Larabeck's past route


Harbor point yacht club
 



Sinews of Peace excerpts (YouTube)
Howard Marshall & friends ( YouTube)
Fiddling Missouri (Marshall & Williams)



 
        CONTACT US
                         *follow us on Facebook
                         *read our blog
                         *email our webmaster

 




hpyc
 


Past Webpages
 

October 27, 2012
February 14, 2012
December 19, 2011
November 2011 webpages
October 2011 webpages
September 2011 webpages
 


 


A New Larabeck   

Hello Everyone,
We have exciting news—the new Larabeck is alive and well in West Alton, Missouri.  “How could this be?”  you might ask, for the Larabeck was sold last January in Bundaberg, Australia.  Alas, we could not stay “boat-less” for long.   In August we purchased the 1985 Passport 47 center-cockpit, cutter-rigged sloop “Aquamanda” and rechristened the boat “Larabeck.”   The sailboat was dry-docked for several years at the Deltaville Yachting Center in Deltaville, Virginia, just waiting for us to come to its rescue. 

Passports are sturdy boats, and this one would take us practically anywhere we might decide to venture.
  Alternately, it is a spacious vessel offering a comfortable weekend respite on the west shore of the Mississippi River at our old haunt and main port, the Harbor Point Yacht Club, and it would do nicely as a summer retreat on Lake Michigan.  We had to patiently wait our turn for the Larabeck to be delivered by semi-truck, as fall is a busy time for seasonal boat shipping.  It arrived in early October of 2012, where it remained on the dry until we completed a few below-waterline improvements.  The Larabeck is now back in the water at the HPYC.  

 
We’ll keep you posted on our progress.
 
Best regards,
Michael and Sharon
S/V Larabeck




new hatch prep



sail cover