“Most owners will agree, a feeling of home is down to a boat’s usable space. There are a lot of sailors out there (we are cruisers!) who want a racing boat and will sacrifice a lot of things for a night or two. We will sacrifice a night or two for livable space. This is a very livable boat. We have a lot of grandkids – four in one family – and we can bring up to 6 guests aboard. We can sleep them all, and not on top of each other – it’s a very comfortable boat with a great use of space.”

“And the thing about the hull is that they’re the same height all the way through. We’ve got two very tall sons-in-law and it’s the first time they’ve been on a cruising boat and not banged their heads!”

“We loved sitting on our back deck in our house in Queensland, and this is where we are sitting now – on our back deck. That was a must for us and the Lagoon had that. There’s nothing to trip over. When we have guests and children about, there are no hazards and it’s easy to work on… And the sails come back to the helm – ergonomically, it’s very sensible. It’s an excellent boat for a couple. And it can be sailed single handed easily. We’re not experts but we manage ok. It’s the Ideal size for us – big enough but not too big.”

Casablanca has a hard bimini. She is fitted with plenty of solar panels and batteries – 95% of their power is solar, which means no burdensome electricity bills. And a washing machine and little herb garden aren’t luxuries, they’re just the comforts of home.

“Along with trips on the east coast as far north as Lizard Island and past Cook Town, we’ve been as far south as the western side of Tasmania, to the Southern Wilderness area. We explored Macquarie Harbour near Strahan and went right up Gordon River where, for those old enough to remember,  the Franklin Dam protests were. 30 miles inland on the river, we were kayaking with platypi. Further south, we went to Port Davey, and Bathurst Harbour, which is another wilderness area. We’ve seen places where nobody lives, you can’t drive there, there are no roads.”

“We’ve done New Year’s Eve on Sydney Harbour four times now – you can have so many people on a Lagoon, and you can always find people to join you for New Year’s Eve. The Harbour is beautiful, but it’s the wilderness areas that are amazing and most memorable – they’re very privileged places to be.”