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From: Steppe Williford (no email)
Date: Tue Nov 01 2005 - 19:41:09 EST
This is just too cool not to share with the list. Last Friday my wife and I
toured a "for sale by owner" boat in Anacortes, WA that really epitomized
the trawlering dream. For those of you familiar with Anacortes the boat was
on the hard at the north end of O Avenue for years while the builder
completed it. We found the ad for the boat hanging in the window of a local
hardware store.
This is a home built 52 foot, single Detroit Diesel 671 trawler with an Ed
Monk, Sr designed bottom. The builder is a retired USCG Master Chief Petty
Officer who started construction in 1983 and launched the boat in 2004. She
has a wooden hull, 2 inches on the sides and 3 inches on the bottom. The
hull is cold-molded AB marine plywood encapsulated with Smiths CPES and
painted. Both the bow and the keel have 1 inch steel plating added for
protection. Ballast inside is poured concrete. She is built like a
battleship and was designed with Alaskan waters in mind. The builder used a
marine architect to advise and modify the hull and to add fixed stability
strakes amidships and a bulbous bow. He designed the house himself. The
boat displaces around 30 tons
Designwise she looks like a Fleming or an older Ocean Alexander 50 without
the Portugese bridge combing. She has a raised pilothouse, large salon and
a working boat deck above the salon with radar mast and hydraulic crane for
the dinghy. No flybridge. On the downside she has only one queensize
stateroom and one giant head complete with a full size bathtub. The boat
will sleep six, two in the pilothouse on an oversized watch berth and two in
the salon. Most people would expect at minimum two staterooms on a boat of
this size. The salon is still unfinished with no floor coverings but plenty
of space for a foldout sofa or corner unit. There is a four place settee
for dining and a large U shaped galley with a propane stove/oven and a
large, homestyle refrigerator.
The thought and planning this gentleman put into the boat is amazing. You
would die for the engineroom and the space available down below for tools
and storage. I am not kidding when I say you can eat off the engineroom
floor. It is spotless. Every hose is labeled with both purpose and
direction of flow. Maintenance access is excellent on both sides of the
single engine. Top of the line dual Racors, oil changing system, filters
etc. The electrical distribution panel is magnificent and behind it every
wire is labeled and all the wiring runs are in looms and bundles with right
angle turns etc. Made my eyes water with envy when I think of the twenty
year mess of spaghetti under my own steering station. There is a master
warning system to monitor fluids, temperatures, pressures and fumes. He
even has fiberoptic monitors of the navigation and anchor lights.
He has used every available spot for storage and has given much thought to
access on hoses, wires and equipment behind bulkheads and panels. You
access the engineroom through a hydraulically assisted hatch in the middle
of the salon floor. The hatch has a built-in ladder that unfolds and locks
in place . The interior is high gloss varnished cherry and Corian
countertops. The boat is insulated and heated for PNW weather. There is no
genset or watermaker but he has already plumbed and wired for both. For
electrical power he has eight L16 6VDC batteries for the house plus separate
batteries for engine starting and the bow thruster.
I think he is selling her because he is one of those people who relish the
voyage and not the ultimate destination. He spent 22 years creating his
dream and now he really doesn't want to sit back and just relax and enjoy
this thing of beauty but needs to move on to another project. This is a
perfect liveaboard for a couple with only occasional guests. The ideal boat
for cruising the inside passage to Alaska. What is kind of sad is that he
has put so much time, money, thought, love and devotion into this project
and now, when it is time to move on, he is having difficulty finding the
right buyer for his baby. The boat is certainly not perfect...there is
still some work to be done like adding carpeting, radar, genset and maybe a
watermaker but she is a whole lot of boat and priced far, far below what a
production fiberglass boat of the same or even smaller size would cost you.
I have no financial nor fiduciary interest in the boat just wanted to share
the experience of looking at a true labor of love.
Steve Williford
M/V Saratoga Sue
Oak Harbor, WA
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