Designed by Lock Crowther for Cathy Hawkins and Ian Johnston, they built her on the banks of the Tweed River in 1985 and launched her as Balena. They compaigned her as Bullfrog Sunblock and Verbatim in the major short handed yacht races in the next five years. In the time that they owned her she won just about every race she was entered in. Here’s a movie clip of her as Verbatim
She was later raced as Pacific Cranes and Australia’s Child and was then bought by Jeff and Lorraine Schionning with a view to refitting her as a cruising boat.
Jeff is the designer of fast cats, and has a great eye for creating sleek looking boats – and this refit is no exception. He relaunched her in 2004 as Aero. Here’s an aerial shot of her as Aero.
As part of the refit she was lengthened, the cabin raised and the cockpit enlarged.
As a racer she was flush decked to minimise windage but that of cource also minimised her accommodation. To make her more comfortable Jeff raised the main cabin floor and added wing berths. In raising the roof the structural elements for the aft beam had to be raised as well. The top of the beam is a tension strap made of uni-directional glass fibres – and this strap had to be reconstructed over the top of the new cabin shape. The original construction was strip plank balsa and western red cedar.
The new cabin work was done with end-grain balsa and using West System epoxies to match the original construction.
As well as improving her appearance outside the new accommodation is really well laid out and makes a really nice home. The main cabin is really comfortable and the settees are at just the 
right height to look out at the passing parade. This is one her most endearing features and is way better than the typical monohull cabin where you are indeed “down below”, and quite detached from the outside world.
I’ve now called her Current Sunshine to reflect my wish to run her entirely from the sun…
