The name “ORIA” has several meanings, depending on the language: Greek – From the Mountain; Latin – Golden, Wind, Sunrise, Soft Breeze. The name can also mean excellent, magnificent, beautiful, shining. Hey, they are all positive happy meanings, so I figured that’s a good thing! There is also a village in Italy by the same name. I wanted a short, unique name and I pronounce it as Or – Eye – A.

She has big shoes to fill because my previous Beneteau 40, KARMA was a special boat that always kept us safe served her crew well. So far, I could not be more pleased with ORIA. She was actually built in France (according to her Hull No.) not South Carolina like KARMA was, and she is two years younger in age. Previously named Impulsive, she was used very little by her previous two owners, with less than 400 hours on the engine when I bought her.

Projects to Get Ready for Long-Range Cruising: To do some serious cruising from the Caribbean up to Canada, I had plenty of projects to complete. Since I’m more or less retired, this keeps me occupied and I do enjoy doing this type of work. Other than the normal maintenance, bottom painting, waxing, wood finishing, winch servicing etc, I needed to add or upgrade these items: Holding Tank modification, New Plotters, AIS, Radar, VHF, Stereo, IridiumGo, Battery Monitoring, Inverter, Solar Panels on the Bimini, new sails, spinnaker, in-mast furling unit, new dinghy and outboard. Also, let’s not forget the most expensive item – a new Gori Folding 3-Blade Propeller. Fortunately, the canvas was new when I bought the boat.

I am very pleased with how everything turned out. The photos that follow speak for themselves. By the way, another big reason why I go to the trouble of making this web page is for the future when I decide to sell ORIA. These photos along with the other pages showing all of the places she sails to will help ORIA sell herself to her next lucky owner, without the need for a broker.

Just a few months after the above photo was taken, ORIA was sailing in the Bahamas!