About Sailing Avemar

I’m Bill Blevins. I first saw Avemar in 2000 when she pulled into a slip next to my new 1966 Alberg 30 #156 Sabrina in Dahlgren, VA. I had cruised with Avemar many times but never sailed her. She wasn’t a racing boat. She was a lovely ‘“bluewater” boat with huge anchors that secured large raft-ups. Those types of boats didn’t win races.

In 2020, I recruited a friend, convinced the owner, and then took the helm of Avemar for the Potomac River leg of the Governor’s Cup race, arguably the premier sailing race on the Chesapeake Bay.

Avemar won that race!

The truth is that all of the racing boats dropped out after sailing for six hours because the wind died, and they floated down the river away from the finish. Avemar had sailed so slowly that by the time she drifted to the turning mark, the wind had built, and the tide had turned favorably, allowing her to cross the finish line at sunrise to claim the trophy.

I moved aboard and, a year later, purchased Avemar – a 1987 Liberty 38 (she’s hull #6 of 6 that was built in Riveria Beach, FL) medium-heavy bluewater cutter-rigged sailboat – four days before Thanksgiving in 2021. I’ve singlehanded Avemar almost 6000 miles since then.

April and I are living aboard and doing an extensive refit in 2024. We are exploring the Florida coast until May, and then we will sail to the Chesapeake Bay and northeast for a few months. In the Fall, Avemar will head southbound again.

My first blog post on the “Coming Soon” page explains the beginning of this adventure. On this site, I’ll share tall tales from the sea and other interesting things that show up in front of my camera.

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