This is the story of "By His Grace". Many people have either known or heard of Earl and Ardis Sexton. And maybe you know of Sexton's Chandlery on Hayden Island, Oregon. They started the store to actually supply many of the parts for the boat, and we still buy parts there for this same boat!

In 1970, Earl and Ardis purchased a hull kit from Yacht Constructors in Portland, Or. The sailboat began as a 42' bare fiberglass hull with an 11'2" beam. Earl altered the beam to 12 feet, cut off the stern, spliced in a section and remolded the stern in place to lengthen the boat to 44 feet. These alterations to the shape of the hull in all directions required Earl (Research & Development Engineer) to recalculate the new shape to make sure that the boat would float, sail and handle correctly.

This work was done in a pole building that Earl fabricated himself around the boat hull while living in Gresham, Or. Many items were built into the boat while it was "dry docked" in Gresham: decks, fiberglass keel containing 8000 pounds of poured lead, 40 horsepower diesel engine, some cabinet work and exterior paint.

It was then decided that they would trailer the boat to Hayden Island on the Columbia River and continue work while it was in the water. This proved to be much harder that anticipated and the boat was then moved back to Gresham after 6 months. Earl took ill and it sat unattended for 20 years.

Sadly, Earl died before ever finishing his dream for this boat. His wife Ardis, after 10 years decided to sell the boat. She shared their dreams with us and took consolation that Mark (Field Engineer) could see & understand what had been done & needed to be done to this sailboat......