So I love history and knowing the story of our boat was definitely of interest to me! The only information we had at purchase was her name and the year she was built. The broker shared she had a few owners before the person we were purchasing her from and said that she had previously circumnavigated. I wanted to learn more but it was hard to know where to start for sure!
We knew that only 56 of the Stevens 47 models were built. We were not sure what number build Meraviglia was but I really wanted to know! We knew her name was Destiny at purchase but were unsure what other names she may have had. We learned early on that there are Facebook groups for specific boats so we quickly joined the Stevens/Hylas 47 owners group. This is a group set up for current/prior Stevens/Hylas 47 sailboat owners to share anything and everything about our boats! So who is Hylas??? In the early 1980’s, Stevens Yachts built 56 Stevens Custom 47’s at Queen Long Shipyard in Taiwan before selling the molds to the yard, which continued to build it as the Hylas 47. Back to the Facebook group, I was reviewing some previous posts and saw another new owner ask about how to find out more about their boat. The response was to reach out to the CEO, Andy at Hylas yachts. Okay. The CEO of a yacht company based in Taiwan is going to respond to me. Sure, why not. I sent an email on July 1st, Andy responded on July 3rd and copied various members of his team. Wow, I was impressed. Meraviglia (previously Destiny and Tela Ru as I later learned) was number 48 of 56 Stevens 47 built. The first Stevens they built was in 1981 and the last one in 1991. They shared some other great information like the original specs and marketing material but unfortunately they didn’t have any information on the previous owners. It felt like a stopping point but I was still curious.
With changing the name of a boat comes a lot of tradition/superstition. One of the important ones is to make sure all traces of the previous name are totally removed from the boat prior to the new name being installed. As we prepared for the new boat graphics being installed, I was on a mission to remove all paperwork that had the name Destiny on it. As I searched through the nav station I found the original bill of sale along with some other great info!! We learned that Meraviglia has had 3 owners previous to us. The first owners bought her in July of 1986 and her name was Tela Ru. They owned her until 2005 when they sold her to her second owner in December of 2005. They changed her name to Destiny in March, 2006. The second owners sailed her until 2015 when they sold her to the owner we purchased her from. The third owner kept her name as Destiny and then sold her to us in June of. 2022. Because some of the documentation included names, we were able to learn that the first owners are both deceased but likely did not circumnavigate. We know the owner we purchased her from also did not circumnavigate so that leaves owner #2. I am writing a letter to them to see if they are willing to talk with us a little about her history, hopefully they will be willing to share.

“A people without knowledge of their past history, origin, culture is like a tree without roots.” – Marcus Garvey

Destiny when sold by owner #2
Destiny when repainted by owner #3
Destiny with owner #3 getting ready to go back in the water.
Destiny after surviving Hurricane Matthew in New Smyrna Beach
Our Meraviglia!
Meraviglia going back in the water!
Hylas-47-Color-Brochure-1Download