A bit about the boat

A friend suggested that I describe the history of the boat, its design, original equipment and intended use.  I think that's an excellent idea.  Today’s entry will be it’s design and construction. 

The boat is a 1980 Cheoy Lee Long Range Cruiser.  It’s 46’ long, 15’ beam, drafts 4’ 10” and displaces about 50,000 pounds.  It cruises at 8 knots and has a top speed of 9.5 knots.  It holds 800 gallons of diesel fuel, 400 gallons of water, and (I think) a 67 gallon holding tank.  All tanks are fiberglass.  The boat has two 120 HP Ford Lehmann diesels with approximately 2500 hours (very low), two generators (one 15 KW and one 7.5).

Its design is somewhat unique in that the helm station is on the main level of the boat, along with the galley and main saloon.  The lower level has an aft master stateroom with head, a walk-in engine room next forward, and then two staterooms with one shared head.   The forward stateroom originally had two single berths.  At some point, this was modified to a queen sized berth.  I needed a store room, and removed the queen berth modification.  Both staterooms have private heads with showers. 

The uppermost level is the flybridge.  The original trawler style mast and boom was removed and an electric hoist installed.  This is used to lift the 13' Boston Whaler with 40 HP outboard on and off the upper deck.  An 8 man liferaft also lives up there.

The boat has an impressive list of equipment.   Naiad roll stabilizers were installed by one of the two previous owners, which keep the boat from rolling from side to side in seas.  Niceties include three zone air conditioning, refrigerator and freezer, trash compactor, ice maker, washer and dryer, and central vacuuming.   A previous owner replaced all the windows with polarized ones.

The helm’s electronics wre all very dated.  It had a Wagner autopilot with rudder angle indicator, a Magnavox satellite navigator, Radio Direction Finder, Alarm system, Clearview centrifugal windshield wiper, Furuno 48 mile radar, Datamarine depth and speed, VHF, and SSB.  Except for the Datamarine depth sounder, this was all replaced with state of the art Simrad electronics- 12" touchscreen in the main helm with an 8" unit in the flybridge, VHF, 3G broadband radar, and class B AIS transponder.  The radar and AIS overlays the charts.

In its day, this was an outstanding example of what a mid-sized cruiser could be.  With a 1,200 mile range, it can cover large distances and could conceivably travel as far as South America if one wanted to.  With its two generators, it could spend days at sea or at anchor without even the ice cubes melting.

In a later entry, I’ll describe its condition as we bought it, why we bought it, and what we will be fixing and replacing.