This is the vessel Encore, a Lapworth designed Islander 44. She was built in 1966 in Costa Mesa, CA by the Wayfarer Yacht Corporation and then trucked across country to be launched from Plymouth, MA in March of 1967. She is hull #6, meaning the 6th Islander 44 to ever be made, and she was the first on the East Coast. She has the classic Islander planking lines along her fiberglass hull. My father, Charles F. Goepel had her built to specification and raced her all around the Americas.

My brother and I were both born onboard Encore and lived aboard her our entire childhood. She was docked at Old Town Marina in Alexandria, VA in 1974 when I was born. Then, in February of 1976, when I was just over a year old, my parents sailed her down to Daytona Beach, FL, where she remains to this day (in the very same slip at the same marina). We sailed her regularly until I began school, at which time she became rather sedentary, being a bit too large for a quick day-sail or weekend jaunt. My brother was born shortly after, in 1979, in the very slip that she resides in today.

My father has passed away, and my brother and I now live up in Massachusettes (not too far from her home port), so Encore is now in the care of our mother, Louise Goepel. The years of inactivity and neglect have taken a toll, but I'm currently beginning a restoration project to hopefully bring her back to life. There is much to do, but there is a beautiful yacht hidden under all those years of weathering and neglect. Perhaps one day this site will contain updates of Encore's new trips and adventures.

For more information about Encore's restoration (including pictures of her various stages of recovery) click here.
For more information on Islander sailboats click here.