1963 Custom Migrator 41

California Yacht Company and Long Beach Yacht Center are proud to be representing the seller of Migrator, a one-of-a-kind 40-foot classic wooden ketch custom built in a purpose-built shed on the shore of Yokohama Bay, Japan, by master craftsmen. 

For its first 15 years, Migrator was based in Japan where she participated in local and international ocean racing, surviving typhoons in two different Tokyo-to-Okinawa races. In 1978, Migrator’s original owner, Ryan Berkely, with two companions, sailed Migrator to THE USA. The original logbook remains available for their 57-day voyage. Migrator then resided at San Diego’s Southwestern Yacht Club for the next 19 years, until 1997, when its second owner took possession and moved the vessel to its current location in Long Beach’s Shoreline Marina. 

The vessel was designed with open ocean crossings in mind. Custom plans, inspired by Herreshoff lines and Lloyds’s Rules, were developed by an American naval architect. The original signed blueprints remain available. Unique in her construction and choice of materials, Migrator’s hull is copper-fastened double-planked, Hinoki-over-Teak. Hinoki is the material of choice for hot tubs because of its wet-dry providing a dimensional stability without the use of caulking. With no caulking, the hull has an appearance often mistaken for fiberglass. Structural elements are of Kaoki, a strong dense wood similar to oak; the transom, deck, cabin trunk and interior are of teak. Metal parts are either stainless steel or bronze; aluminum is avoided. 

An article about Ryan Berkely, Migrator’s original owner, appeared in the April 26, 1985 issue of The Log. “Hoping to fulfill a life-long dream to sail around the world, Berkely, an Air Force major in the Office of Special Investigations stationed in Japan, hired three carpenters to construct the boat near Yokohama in 1958.” Due to various delays, it would be five years before the vessel’s construction was completed.