Gypsy

2022 June 1

Bob Perry designs a custom 53-foot motorsailer with a Pacific Northwest aesthetic

For the details of the rig and deck gear I asked my old pal Tim O’Connell to join the team. Tim has worked with me on numerous projects. Tim combines an accountant’s skill for details with experience sailing in just about all the major offshore races in the world. Tim has an encyclopedic knowledge of the latest deck and rig gear. At this stage in the design project I am confident in my team choices. We have biweekly zoom meetings with the client. They are fun and productive. And, no, we don’t always agree but we work through it with mutual respect.


Let’s take a look at the hull. This is a beefy boat, a true motorsailer with a D/L of 235. I was given an LOA limit of 52.5 feet so the boat would fit in the client’s existing slip. There are always design issues that can easily be cured by adding LOA but that was not an option for this project. I wanted a 9-plus-knot cruising speed so that meant minimal overhangs and a high prismatic coefficient of .56. The L/B of 3.5 is smack in the middle by my standards. I needed volume for tankage and a roomy engine room. The captain restricted draft to 6 feet so he could cruise his favorite places where he now cruises his Valiant 42.


You are probably wondering where this “look” came from. I’m not sure. The aesthetic approach to the boat combines lots of elements of workboats of the Pacific Northwest, commercial fishing vessels mostly. Have you ever seen a halibut schooner? They are not really schooners. They have a plumb stem, a sweeping, stepped sheerline, low freeboard and the pilothouse is located well aft. There is debate over why they are called “schooners.” These are majestic workboats that fish for halibut in the worst weather at the worst times. For some background just Google “halibut schooner.” You may have to squint a bit to see the aesthetic connection. Call my design a “variation on a theme.”

This is indeed an unusual layout. One prime requirement was that the boat be dog friendly. Captain and Mrs. Puget have a Portuguese water dog like my Ruby, and need the boat to not have any obstacles to their dog’s mobility around the boat on deck and below. With the raised pilothouse this layout is closer to what you would find in a trawler poweryacht than a sailboat. 


Where does the owner and his wife sleep? Forward in that large double V-berth that is 6 feet 9 inches wide at the head. They wanted room for the dog to sleep with them. I can sure relate to that. There is an adjoining head with a generous shower stall. There are large hanging lockers. Aft of the forward cabin is a small guest cabin with a double berth. A second head is to starboard. 


The pilothouse is designed to be comfortable for two people with the steering station to starboard and sliding doors both port and starboard to access the side decks. Engine room access is behind the stairs leading down from the pilothouse. The main cabin features a large galley to port with refrigerator, freezer and a pantry locker to starboard. Aft of this are a settee and a large U-shaped dinette. There is a wet locker all the way aft to port and a domestic-size compact washer/dryer to starboard.


The deck plan features a flush deck forward so the dink can be brought on board for offshore passages. The deck steps down adjacent to the pilothouse to allow for the full height sliding doors. There is a cockpit of sorts aft but no provision for outside steering short of an autopilot remote. This area aft will be for relaxing. There is step down to the cockpit sole forward to allow for full height doors to the main cabin. The center portion of the transom hinges down to form a dog friendly boarding platform with a deep swim ladder that stows in the flip down transom section that is lowered and raised with gas shocks. The davits are by FEM in Italy. They are carbon fiber and they are removable, they rotate and they fold. We want to be able to take one davit forward to load the dink onto the foredeck for long offshore passages. We need them to rotate so they don’t project past our LOA limit imposed by the client’s slip.

 

The rig is very simple. This boat is not designed to sail to weather. It does not have the draft needed for good upwind performance. This rig is an off-the-wind rig and a steadying rig. The main will be an in-boom furling main with a wide traveler on the aft house top. The jib is self-tacking with a wide track on the deck. Sail control lines are led to powered winches on that box right in front of the pilothouse. Primary winches will be powered Harken “in-and-out” winches for push button control. The SA/D is only 11.4. I would have liked more but the client asked for intracoastal bridge clearance.


The rig is small but the good news is that the engine we have chosen is a Cummins QSL9 diesel with a continuous duty rating of 286 horsepower at 1,800 rpm. At our projected 9.5-knot cruise speed this engine will burn 8.4 gallons per hour for a range under power of over 1,000 miles. We have tankage for 1,000 gallons of fuel and 210 gallons of water. Steering will be Kobelt hydraulic. There will be a bow and stern thrusters.


So, there it is. This has been one of my most challenging design projects. Now we need to find a builder.


LOA 52.5’; DWL 48.47’; Beam 15’; Draft 6’; Displ. 57,971 lb.; Auxiliary 268 hp; Fuel 1,000 gal.; Water 210 gal.; D/L 235; L/B 3.5; SA/D 11.4


Our best estimate of the sailaway price: $2.5 million


Robert H. Perry Yacht Designers, Inc.

11530 Tulare Way West

Tulalip, WA 98271

360-652-7771

www.perryboat.com


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