What's the connection to M/V TAUTIRA specifically?

One of the vessel's previous owners, Dana Hayden, was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in 2018, months after falling in love with local sailor and boat neighbor, Lauren de Remer (our Founder), whom he met organically on the docks. Hayden was a general contractor who believed deeply in creating meaningful spaces for the families he built homes for. M/V TAUTIRA, where Hayden lived for 25 years, became a special place that provided him peaceful, barefoot rejuvenation after a long workday.

Unfortunately, cancer isn't something that comes new to the Hayden family (evidently, neither are wooden boats). Having watched his father, Sterling Hayden - a world renowned mariner - suffer through prostatic carcinoma, the vessel acted as a undeniable beacon of comfort throughout his final days.

Having spending many months onboard living with and caregiving for Hayden, our Founder became undeniably interested in helping other families rattled by cancer (coincidentally, she also tragically lost her 11-yr old cousin Nathan to a rare, melanoma brain tumor that same year). As a maritime and outdoor industry professional, she felt an undeniable sense of responsibility to shift gears and connect the dots between her personal interests and lived experience.​ Through Tautira Foundation, de Remer aspires to combine her love of wooden boats with what she believes to be the future of personalized, outpatient care - care that not only approaches patients needs holistically, but values the wellbeing of their caregivers.​

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After selling her sailboat, de Remer formerly purchased M/V TAUTIRA from the Hayden family for $1 (a dollar she found onboard, “Dana’s dollar” to which she jokes he owed her after losing a bet). ​She since has accomplished significant restoration milestones, investing over a hundred thousand into the hull alone in hopes to buy time to fully rebuild the vessel. Once funding is secured, she will pay it forward to the San Francisco Bay Area community by placing M/V TAUTIRA into a public benefit nonprofit (e.g. charity), restore the vessel to better-than-new condition, and run palliative programs onboard for those who have been thrown unfair curve balls, particularly those facing terminal outcomes.