It's a decision Penny has never regretted. For a start, the position of her Westmere home, just up from the corner of West End Rd and Fife St, is perfect, being close to Westhaven where her yacht, Endless Summer, is moored.
"I pride myself that I can go to work without going through one set of traffic lights," says Penny, who was awarded an MBE for services to sailing in 1993.
There's a bus stop across the road. "At Christmas, when I get invited to all these flash parties in the city, the bus picks me up from one side of the road and it drops me off home on the other."
The solid concrete home was built for a family with three children under the age of 5 but Penny says they sold, she speculates, because it's not really a home that works well for small children. But it has certainly suited Penny's lifestyle. It's across the road from West End Tennis Club and just a few metres from Coxs Bay, with a view to the harbour, the skyline and the distinctive SkyTower silhouette. "You can't be built out because of the tennis club."
The home's northerly aspect, the high ceilings, its easy flow and large outdoor areas are ideal for Penny. "I love the way it all opens out to the deck for indoor/outdoor living."
She brings her sailing students here for navigation lessons "and they see my lovely house and they all go 'ahhh'. It really is a fabulous house for entertaining." She hosted her parents' 50th wedding anniversary celebration here and many other social gatherings.
At street level is the covered parking area, a workshop and Penny's painting studio. Steps from the street entrance, or internal stairs, take you up to the open-plan living area, two bedrooms and bathrooms.
Penny especially loves the kitchen. "It's just like a galley on a boat; it's compact but you can do anything in it."
Indeed, there are many nautical touches, a barometer by the front door, porcelain bowlines on the wall, cedar detailing on the ceiling and the sail shade over the balcony. "It is like living on a boat, with the curves ... and the balcony is like going out on a deck."
Other features are the cedar-framed bifold glass doors, the plunge pool and the spa pool a few steps up.
Back inside, stairs takes you to Penny's office ("my nerve centre"), which started out as a bedroom, then to the master bedroom with en suite and private balcony.
After 11 years in her beautiful home, Penny has decided to sell and downsize. Her children have their own children now and every year from May to October she is on the east coast of the US working on friends' boats.
Who does she imagine buying her lovely home? "I think it would suit a gay couple down to the ground. Or a single person or a couple on their own who don't have their kids living with them all the time.
"But I will miss it and I know I will never replace it. I'll miss everything; I love the outlook, the skyline and the vistas."
