The Perfect Cruising Boat

After 10 years of cruising aboard their 53’ Amel Super Maramu, S/V Delos, YouTube sailing celebrities Brian, Karin and a rag tag crew circumnavigated the world and then some. After recently having a baby, this famous cruising couple has no plans of slowing down. The Delos crew holds a special place in my heart. I was around the water almost my entire life, but ten years ago, Delos videos first exposed me to the sailing lifestyle. Their videos made this lifestyle feel attainable to me. Brian and Karen recently published a super detailed video that lays out the requirements for their next cruising boat that I thought touched home on so many requirements that make a good long-term, and for that matter, any term cruising sailboat. I liked this video so much, that I decided to summarize the major features of a sailboat they touched on in their video, and offer my own thoughts. If you’re considering buying a sailboat for any type of cruising purpose, it’s worth listening to what these veteran, forward-thinking sailors have to say about living aboard a sailboat comfortably.

A quick side note before I begin: Nowhere in this article but here will you see me mention the term “bluewater boat”. It’s my belief that the legend of the “salty, bluewater boat” is just that, a legend. Search the internet for the term “bluewater boat” and you will likely run into a list of very capable, for sure, but also heavy and aging sailboat designs. These sailboats could be considered boat designers and builders first cracks at offering burgeoning world travelers 40-60 years ago a sailboat that would take them around the world. These are great boats, but the world of sailing, approaches to boat design, construction methods, and understanding of the science behind sailing has continued to evolve since that time. RCD A-rated boats are extremely capable sailboats, and many - if not most - are fully capable of traveling around the world. The question is, what niceties to we have along the way that increase safety and comfort even further.

Brian begins the video with laying out their basic approach to their next boat.

General Cruising Boat / S/V Delos 2.0 General Thoughts:

The swing keel OVNI 450, built by French yard Alubat, is able to be beached at low tide. A very cool and practical feature for any sailboat.

Purpose

• A Rugged, expeditionary-style cruising yacht.

  • Make no mistake, Brian and Karin love to detach from the modern world and find the most remote places they can to spend time. Self sufficiency and ruggedness is key to supporting their lifestyle.

• Equipped for both tropical and high-latitude cruising.

  • This is an interesting requirement. For many in the world-cruising scene, high-latitude means “places it gets cold”, like where I sail, Maine/NH, in shoulder seasons. A whole raft of new boatrequirements comes up when you’re talking about cruising in the cold, such as heat and insulation.

• Exploring remote corners of the earth, focus on self-sufficiency for extended periods, able to provision for 3-5 months.

  • 3-5 months away from society (or a grocery store) is a long time and a lot of provisions. Space to put all of this stuff is important. A bigger, beamier boat (see more requirements below) buys you more space for provisioning, without feeling like you’re living in a tiny, cramped space.

More Specific Wants/Needs

• Limited draft - lift or swing keel?

  • Draft (length of keel) helps sailboats sail into the wind (get to where they want to go). Keels don’t only act as ballast to keep the boat upright, but they also serve as a foil that creates lift, helping sailboats sail upwind. Longer keels generate lift more effectively. They also allow ballast to be placed lower in the keel, creating more righting moment (essentially a longer lever acting to keep the sailboat upright). But draft can also severely limit ability to get to shallow anchorages and gunk holes without running aground. Lift/swing keels try to attain the best of both worlds by having a centerboard that can be dropped when seeking upwind performance. They have been around for a long time. Most modern sailboats don’t sport them these days, and I would even go as far to say that they have developed a reputation for unreliability amongst some cruisers. Some modern boats that have them, such as Southerly and Alubat yachts, are somewhat infamous for their swing keels. Both are very cool brands of sailboat. Brian and Karin state their ideal draft is 1-1.5 meters (3’- 5’) draft, while their current draft that they’ve run into restrictions with is 2.1 meters (nearly 7’).

• Ability to hold dive gear and provide easy access to water for diving (easy access to water is important for general livability anyway).

  • This one hits especially close to home for me. Diving and boating go hand-in-hand in so many ways; both from an exploring perspective and a boat maintenance perspective. As a live-aboard, I know that aasy access to the water isn’t just important for diving. It’s also important when you’re loading your groceries, your kids, your dogs, your older mom and dad, your even older grandparents, and your first-time sailor guests onto the boat from your dinghy day in and day out. Modern boats with fold-down, walk-through transoms seem to really understand how important this design feature is. Older boats (such as Delos herself) can be very lacking in this regard.

• 75% trade winds/topics, 15% moderate latitudes, 10% high latitudes.

  • This bullet, I think, is interesting because essentially as soon as you start sailing in high latitudes in off-seasons, it trips a bunch of requirements that you basically can’t live without (see what I wrote above about heat and insulation).

• Willing to experiment with new technologies.

  • Awesome, so typical Brian and Karin. I love these guys.

• Considering hybrid diesel/electric.

  • This is very expensive, but I’m sure that if Brian really sets his heart on this he’ll figure out a system that offers a lot of benefits. Mainly, the big benefit I see here is, besides a more environmentally friendly means of propulsion, electric power allows a means of propulsion that only needs a sunny day, a lot of solar power, and big batteries to move when there’s no wind available.

• Large battery banks.

  • Lithium-ion batteries were a step-change technology in the world of sailing; and adventuring in general for that matter. A big focus of my blog is covering sailboat batteries and power systems. They’re so vital for anyone spending significant time on a sailboat that wants a comfortable life while on board. With lithium-ion and modern marine reverse-cycle air conditioning units, air conditioning and heat with limited or no generator run-time is a possibility. https://www.americanmainsail.com/sailingknowledge/sailboat-batteries

A Volvo Penta diesel-electric motor.

• DC only generators.

  • I think that Brian certainly has solar panels (see below) in mind for generating DC electrical power, but I’m thinking that he’s also getting at high amperage alternators, and maybe potentially sea turbines and/or fuel cells when he mentions this. The bottom line is that off-grid sailboats run on DC electrical power and only make AC power when necessary for appliances that require it (think hair dryers, coffee makers, reverse-cycle AC, etc.). An inverter is used to convert DC power into AC power. Modern inverters (like the Victron Energy 2000 Watt inverter I linked to) are efficient. But there are still losses. From an efficiency perspective, it’s best to stay in DC power as much as possible.

An approximate size comparison between Delos, an Amel Super Maramu 53 and the modern Amel 50. The Super Maramu measures 53’ length overall deck but only has a 42’ waterline. The Amel 50 measures 55’ length overall and has a 48’ waterline. The Amel 50 only has about 8” more total beam, but carries it much farther back toward the transom. Overall, the Amel 50 offers, at least 30% more interior volume than the Super Maramu.

• Large solar array.

  • To charge those big batteries. Solar panels are the workhorse of the modern cruising boat. https://www.americanmainsail.com/sailingknowledge/sailboat-charging

• Functionality and purpose over luxury.

  • I think that most sailors fall into this category. The saying goes: “Sailors are cheap.” I don’t think this is true. Sailors are practical.

• 60-70 feet long

  • This represents a big, serious, expensive sailboat. I’m interested to see if Brian and Kaza stay committed to something this big, heavy, and expensive. Especially due to their next bullet point item.

• Beamy

  • I’ve heard Brian talk about his appreciation for modern, wide and beamy “wedge-shaped” sailboat designs. Below, they offer an extraordinary amount of room in the stern of the boat for accommodations, storage, and deck/helm space up top. To boot, these boats tend to sail very well upwind. Their hull shape usually makes more lift to windward and their form greater form stability allows for a more powerful sailplan. I’ve seen many, old-school sailors write off modern, beamy boats. Some even call these designs dangerous. However, they’ve become ubiquitous in the modern sailboat industry. I think that this is because this kind of design offers such advantageous space and sailing characteristics. Even traditional, adventure-style brands such as Hallberg-Rassy and Amel have fully committed their modern builds in this direction. Because they offer so much more space, modern designs that carry beam to the transom are able to offer so much more boat in a smaller length. Not only do these boats take advantage of their maximum beam better, but they also use less (or no) hull overhangs, meaning essentially the entire footprint of the hull is usable space.

Modern sailboat designs often sport dual, spade rudder setups in order to offer good performance when heeled. Due to the width of their transoms, a single rudder will often lift out of the water too far to provide good steering characteristics and will also tend to apply less than optimal pressures to the hull that tend to “dig” the bow into the water. Adding two, angled rudders solves this problem and adds some redundancy to the steering assembly.

• Hull material: GRP or bare aluminum.

  • I think that this is a smart choice. Bare aluminum and GRP are both lightweight, tough materials that are also low maintenance.

• Sailing with 3 people but more on occasion (3 state rooms minimum).

  • This one also hits close to home for me. My boat has two staterooms, and I often want for an extra, third stateroom. The third stateroom is great for storing big, bulky items, as well as putting guests up in occasionally.

• Dual or swinging rudder for shoal draft.

  • Modern boats that carry their beam back to their transoms often require dual rudders to maintain good steerage. This also offers redundancy should one of the rudders be damaged. Something interesting to note is that the Amel 50 carries two, spade rudders on each side of her transom. The Amel 55, another modern cruising boat from Amel, carries a single, large skegged rudder. To my eye, the size of the skegged rudder of the Amel 55 and fairly large aspect ratio (ratio of length to width) they pushed the rudder assembly to in order to get good performance out of it leaves it just as vulnerable as two spade rudders. The Alubat OVNI line of voyaging sailboats also carries dual, spade rudders.

• Average speed 7-8 knots.

  • At 7-8 knots, a sailboat can cover 160-200 miles per a day. This is some pretty serious distance and, while it might sound slow to someone who’s cruising is down the highway at 70 MPH, this speed allows you to generally get from Point A to Point B in a reasonable amount of time. 7-8 knots is often considered “going fast” for a lot of sailboat cruisers. Speeds like this, and better, are very achievable for modern boat designs, especially in the size range that Karin and Brian are looking at. Cruising sailboats generally get faster as their waterline length increases. In my mind, being able to achieve reasonable speeds is a safety item. More speed means shorter time spent on passages chasing weather windows. It also means great ability to dodge nasty weather and chase down favorable conditions.

Conclusion

There you have it, Karin and Brian have touched on most of the broad topics to think about when selecting a sailboat. I think it’s important to remember that all of these aspects matter, but the extent of how much they matter depends on what you plan on using your boat for. Brian and Karin plan on using their boat for very extended, remote passage making and living. That’s a very small percentage of the sailing population. What’s also interesting is that many of the components they touched on are good, important qualities for any sailboat that voyages/cruises at all; such as speed, space, water access.

This video is so information packed, I’ve decided to break it up into two blog posts. The second will go into even more granular detail, where Brian and Karin discuss very specific things they love and hate about their existing boat. Again, the information they provide is really applicable to nearly any sailboat - so stay tuned!