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ravity works well in Oriental. This town tends to have an invisible force that attracts unique people from all over the stratosphere and gets them to drop down here.

However, it also has a propensity for repeatedly pulling those people back here if and / or when they try to leave. There have been more than a few town residents that have successfully moved away, only to be found moving back a little while later.

Some of those most affected by this force are Katy Burke and Taz Waller.

Katy Burke and Taz Waller.

Katy Burke was a Naval Architect designing boats for Columbia Yachts in Southern California throughout the late 1960s and mid ’70s. The job demanded long hours, 70-80 per week, indoors at a desk conceptualizing boats other people would get to cruise or live aboard.

It was through this occupation that she met another Naval Architect, Bruce Bingham, who had his own yacht design company nearby and was keeping the same sort of hours. Together they decided to leave the drafting tables behind and move onto a two masted schooner named At Last, located on the other side of the country, in Gloucester, MA.

That first year and 3,000 miles aboard was the subject of a New York Times article “From Office to Dream Boat.”

Once aboard Katy and Bruce focused on writing. Katy wrote articles for Cruising World, Sail and Outside magazines while starting work on her first book The Complete Live-Aboard Book, which Bruce, already known for his nautical sketches, illustrated.

Several of Katy’s published books.

Instructions from Katy’s books on how to stay fit while living aboard.

In 1978 the couple downsized to Sabrina, a brand new 20-foot Flicka. Bruce had previously designed the vessel to be home built in ferro-cement. But Pacific Seacraft began commercially producing in fiberglass.

Katy loved the Flicka, as can be sensed by the frequency with which she wrote so favorably about it. Her material, including “Flicka: Comfort for Two in a 20-Footer” was used as promotional literature by Pacific Seacraft. Many believe it was Katy’s genuine enthusiasm for this stout, go-anywhere, little vessel that helped develop its cult status, not to mention help Pacific Seacraft sell over 430 of them.

After two years and over 6,000 miles aboard Sabrina, Katy and Bruce parted ways, but Pacific Seacraft made sure Katy stayed aboard a Flicka. They gratuitously produced one for her, precisely to her specifications.

A picture from the original ‘Flicka: Comfort in a Two-Footer’ article shows Katy at her typewriter down below.

This one was named Gypsy Rover. While waiting for delivery of the new Flicka, Katy stopped in to visit ex-beau, Taz Waller. He designed electronics and was living aboard an old 40-foot ketch in Southern California. That visit rekindled a fire that continues to burn.

Once Gypsy Rover was delivered, the couple moved aboard, living at a marina in Newport Beach, California near where Taz worked. They didn’t live there long since, as Katy put it, “this area got a little uppity and started to ban liveaboards.” Taz was more direct, “They kicked us out.”

They decided to take the boat somewhere that was a little less uppity: Washington, North Carolina.

The move was influenced, in part, by Pacific Seacraft wanting Katy and her Flicka to make a showing at their east coast dealership, which at the time was located in ‘little’ Washington (where the current incarnation of Pacific Seacraft continues to exist). To help all parties involved, the company had Gypsy Rover trucked across the country to Washington, NC.

Shortly after arriving, Katy, Taz, the Flicka and a fleet of other Pacific Seacraft vessels were transported to the Raleigh Boat Show. Katy promoted both the boat and her books. By then she had written a second one, Managing your Escape, which Taz had illustrated.

Katy and her Flicka Gypsy Rover outside Pacific Seacraft in Little Washington.

While signing books and meeting the public in Raleigh, Taz and Katy met a couple of people from the town of Oriental NC: Elizabeth Gresko (who started DownEast Canvas) and Grace Evans (who was at different times a town commissioner, a co-founder of the History Museum and founder of two sailing schools).

These two ambassadors convinced Taz and Katy that once Gypsy Rover was done working the show, Oriental would be worth the visit. The couple took them up on the invitation, and a few months later (around 1985) they bought their first house here; a two story home across from the playground on Mildred Street.

Taz sits in front of the first of the couple’s Oriental homes: the Mildred Street house.

The author of this article knew about Katy Burke, as she and her husband were Flicka owners, long time cruisers, and owned an original copy of Katy’s Complete Live-Aboard Book. However she first met Katy in early 2024, when Katy and Taz moved into the house next door.

This author felt quite excited and privileged to have them as neighbors, though she soon learned there have been more than a few people around town who have claimed the same. Over the 40 years since Taz and Katy first showed up in Oriental, they have bought or built nine different homes in the area.

The one signature change they consistently made to all of their homes was to install at least one of Katy’s stained-glass window creations.

Katy had always been interested in learning how to make stained glass. However she didn’t complete her first piece until moving to Oriental and visiting a glass studio on Broad Street, in the building that currently houses a yoga studio.

Katy’s work can often be found in the bathroom windows of the homes she once owned.

She walked into the studio with a complex drawing asking if they could sell her the materials she needed to make the design. When the proprietor realized Katy had never done glass work, she refused to sell her the materials until she proved she could do it.

That afternoon, Katy was given instruction on how to cut and fabricate stained glass, along with a bag of colorful scrap glass shards, a simple design of a triangle with rounded scoops on top, and a mandate to go home and practice. She should return only when she had a finished piece.

The very next morning Katy arrived with a beautifully executed ice cream cone. Satisfied with her work, they sold her what she needed to make her first installation: a parrot that they built into the downstairs bathroom of the house on Mildred Street.

From then on, every house they renovated or built would have at least one stained glass piece installed. If you live in a home in or around Oriental where there is a creative glass piece, especially in the bathroom, there’s a high probability Taz and Katy may have lived there before you.

One of Katy’s creations: a dual pane underwater scene.

They lived in the Mildred Street house “for about two years,” – a repeated phrase in their story of living in Oriental.

It was during their “about two years” on Mildred Street that they traded their Flicka back to Pacific Seacraft as a deposit for one of the company’s larger boats, a Crealock 37, named Harmony. They sold the house and moved aboard, cruising up and down the Waterway from Chesapeake to Bahamas before returning to Oriental in 1987.

Katy & Taz’s boats.

Upon their return, they wanted a house on the water where they could dock their boat. Elizabeth and Gary Gresko’s house on Tosto Circle was for sale and since it was built on pilings actually in the water, it was perfect.

A boat could nestle right up against the house’s back deck. Taz and Katy bought it. And although they undertook some major renovations, like closing in and expanding the screened porch to make more living space, they also started another project … the building of a 44-foot wooden power boat named Duchess.

Taz designed and built the strip-planked hull at Dawson Creek. As soon as it was closed in, they tied her up to their house so he could fit out her show-piece interior.

Duchess tied up to the couple’s second home on Whittaker Creek.

Duchess, a gentleman’s yacht. Built by Taz Waller.

As soon as Duchess was completed, which took “about two years,” Taz and Katy sold the house and moved aboard this gentleman’s yacht. They motored her up the ICW to the Chesapeake, spending some time there before realizing that simply driving a sail-less boat was not for them.

So they turned around and headed back to Oriental. The time spent building and cruising in Duchess was not lost. Taz absolutely loved the project and Katy gained the insight, info and street cred for her 4th book, Cruising under Power, published in 1991.

On this return to Oriental, they bought an undeveloped piece of land on Mills Road, about 8 miles out of town on Gideon’s Creek. The first thing they built was a 90-foot dock, where they were able to safely tie off Duchess.

Some of Katy’s contemporary glasswork.

Their original plan was to live aboard the boat while constructing a house. The plan was cut short by winter weather. The first morning they stepped off the boat, it was 8 degrees and ice on that 90-foot dock. After 3 days of the same, Taz and Katy traveled to Chocowinty and drove home with an insulated camping trailer they parked on the building site.

First build was a garage workshop with an apartment above it. Katy and Taz moved and went to work constructing the house.

Taz and Katy’s passion for plants was the focus of this home’s design. The entire front third of the building was a two story greenhouse. A balcony off their second-story master bedroom overlooked the space, which was continuously stocked throughout the building project.

Since it was only the two of them building this ambitious home, Katy admitted that they had to tackle it in pieces: “we couldn’t push up anything bigger than an 8-foot section.”

It took them “about two years” to complete the project. As soon as they moved in, they found just living in it was a bit boring. So it went up for sale. When questioned about moving out so soon after completing it, Taz responded, “What do you do when you finish a book?”

The third home started as an empty lot. Katy & Taz walk the property.

It appears that you close that book and pick up one that offers a new adventure. This time the adventure was moving to Vieques, Puerto Rico where, you guessed it, they lived “for about two years.” They loved the climate and lifestyle of Vieques, safety issues sent them back north..

They heard stories of friends and neighbors being robbed. After their house was broken into and they lost several sentimental treasures (including a family ring that had ties back to the 1100s) they decided it was time to move back to “a place where they had lived before, where nobody even locked their doors” … Oriental, NC.

On this fourth return, they bought two lots in Neuse Winds, resulting in homes four and five. One on the Neuse River, where they built a smaller house and one on Brite Lane where they built the one and only house that Katy expressed real regrets about leaving. “I loved that house.”

It was built around an interior courtyard, with wrap around interior and exterior decks. She sketched the home as we chatted about it.

A sketch of Katy’s favorite home, complete with two story greenhouse.

A look at the interior courtyard from Katy’s favorite home, at the time Katy and Taz lived there.

Cold weather finally convinced the two to leave Katy’s dream home in search of warmer climates. A newly purchased motor home took them south to Sebring, Florida.

Taz, who previously had been a “Formula Junior” driver, got a job at the International Raceway. And “for about two years”, they lived in a Spanish influenced home that had been built for a 1926 expo.

Taz and his Formula Junior racing cars.

They continued to seek heat after leaving Florida, moving to Arizona, New Mexico, and California, before driving the motor home back east around 2015 to visit friends in Oriental.

While visiting they bought a derelict house on Mainsail Point that hadn’t been lived in for seven years. After “about two years” of renovation, they bought their seventh home in Oriental: a two story modular on Vandemere Street.

The house on Vandemere didn’t need much work, they simply added a sunroom and an extensive garden with raised pond, before selling it and moving back to Katy’s home state of Texas.

Another of the several Oriental homes owned by Katy and Taz, circa 1990s.

The idea was to reconnect with people from Katy’s past. But two days after they arrived, COVID closed in everyone. Those hoped for reconnections were not possible. Whether it was the place or the circumstances, Taz and Katy felt too isolated. They returned to Oriental, where they had extensive roots and friends.

Their eighth home was a little house on Freemason Street that needed remodeling. Friends came to visit them after they had been living in it “for about two years,” expressing how much they loved the house and the community. Katy and Taz immediately sold it to them, before having a clue where they would go next.

They landed in house number nine, on Audubon Street and next door to the author of this story.

It’s been “about two years” since they moved in, and the timing seemed about right for this writer to walk over to record their stories and log all of their moves before they once again started packing. Especially since temperatures have dropped and Katy has been overheard talking about wanting to be somewhere warmer.

Taz and Katy, 1985.

Katy and Taz have lived their lives on the move, leaving each place they landed better than they found it. A few lines from the first chapter of her first book – published in 1982 – perfectly encapsulate Katy and Taz’s philosophy on life.

“It’s unlikely that your first boat will be either your last boat or your ideal home,” Katy wrote, and “the only way to know what boat will keep you happy and satisfied is to live aboard one for a while and discover what works best for you.”

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Story by Jennifer Smart. Photos provided by Katy Burke and Taz Waller.

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Posted Friday January 23, 2026 by Allison DeWeese