We have a Mariner 31 sailboat, and we sailed it from California to New Zealand in 2011. Jared got his PhD and Christine did a Master's at the University of Auckland's Leigh Marine Laboratory while living on the boat. Then we had a baby, and now we're selling the boat. We're not updating the blog much these days.
I've taken a job in Santa Barbara, California at NCEAS so we've packed up and moved back to California. That's meant some changes in our plans for selling the boat.
Before leaving, I moved Architeuthis up to Marsden Cove Marina near Whangarei and left her in the care of a yacht broker called Sam Cannell. In the lead up to that move, I discovered (much to my chagrin) that the head gasket needs replacing. I intend to have that fixed before she sells, but we've significantly lowered the price anyway in the hope that she'll sell sooner rather than later. Please have a look at the official listing, and feel free to contact Sam with any questions or to arrange a viewing. If you have questions that Sam can't answer, I'm happy to answer as well.
Architeuthis is a 31ft full keel (with a
cutaway forefoot) cruising ketch (here's the listing). Her hull is thick solid (no wood or
foam core to take on water and delaminate) fiberglass and she has fully
encapsulated ballast. She has beautiful sitka spruce spars, and an
interior built largely of African mahogany with a teak and holy sole.
She was built by a US company at a Japanese shipyard in 1968, largely by
hand, by skilled craftsmen using exotic hardwoods that aren't available
these days. More information on the original specifications and history
of Mariner Yachts can be found on the owner association's website:
http://www.marineryachts.com/.
Fully loaded for cruising in Mexico and sitting a bit low in the water.
Manufacturer's line drawings.
Equipment
Electrical
The 12 volt system works really well. The two solar panels are able to keep the house battery topped while living aboard (with the fridge on all the time) even in the cloudiest weather. While making passages with the fridge and the below deck autopilot on 24 hours per day (those are the two largest electrical draws on the boat by far) we had to run the engine once a week or so to keep up with demand, but I've replaced the fridge compressor with a more modern and efficient unit since then. The solar panels may be able to keep up all on their own now.
2 x 140 watt Kyocera solar panels. Mounted port and starboard on the cockpit railings.
Very large (I think it's this one) Lifeline brand AGM house battery in very good shape. New in 2010. Always kept topped up by solar panels.
Smaller AGM battery for the engine. This one's a bit tired and not holding it's charge very well. But...
Dual battery switches allow you to combine the engine and house systems and/or swap which battery runs which system.
High output alternator (120w I think) and digital smart regulator. Original alternator provided as a spare.
Almost all of the lighting on the boat is low-draw LED with just a few left over halogens in the fixtures that are rarely used.
There's also quite a nice AC charger, several wall outlets, and a small inverter, but they're for US 110v shore power. We do have a large heavy-duty transformer that I believe will work to power the system from 240v AC that we can include with the boat. We've only used it for US power tools so far, but I think it would work. We've never needed to worry about it because the solar panels provide plenty of power for living aboard.
Navigation
All electronics were purchased and installed between 2008 and 2010. The sounder and radar are fully integrated with the chartplotter. The autopilot can communicate with the plotter as well (go to waypoint, etc.).
Garmin GPSMap 4208 with electronic charts for NZ, Tonga, Cooks, French Polynesia, Mexico, and USA. Mounted just inside companionway on an adjustable arm so it can be viewed from cockpit or cabin.
Garmin Radar (I need to look up the exact model, but I think it might be GMR 24). Great for watching for approaching squalls at night.
Raymarine below deck auto pilot. Type 1 rotary drive (RAYM81135), S1 corepack (RAYE12114: course computer, compass, and rudder position indicator), and a ST6002 plus controller (RAYE12098P). Installation photos. The installation was a pretty major project, but it's hard to overstate how great this thing is for cruising. The autopilot can be seen steering the boat through some pretty sloppy conditions in the video at the top of the page. It never let us down and, honestly, I think it steers better than I do in nasty conditions.
There's also a nice Ritchie bulkhead compass in the cockpit, but it's balanced for the northern hemisphere. It still works down here but the card is tilted.
There's an old Garmin plotter provided as backup, with wiring and a mount in the cockpit, but it hasn't been used since 2008.
Communications
ICOM IC-706MKIIG radio. Uses ham and SSB frequencies. Has an ICOM antenna tuner as well. We were able to check in with sailing nets everywhere we went and receive weather faxes. No problem talking to people on the other side of the Pacific.
West Marine (made by Uniden, I think) VHF 500 dsc.
We spent close to a year living on the anchor. We dragged a little bit a few times, but we had less trouble than most. The windlass could use a rebuild and bit of reconfiguration, but it's quite adequate as is.
15 kg Claw (a.k.a. Bruce) anchor on the bow with about 30 meters of 10mm chain and around 40 meters of nylon line. Chain was bought in NZ in 2012 and has seen very little use.
Lighter (around 10kg) danforth anchor on the stern with around 10 m of chain and a lot of nylon line. Maybe 50 or 60 m? I can't remember.
Massively oversized 20 kg Claw anchor stored on stern rail for use as storm anchor. Approx 12 m of heavy chain stowed separately. Never had to use the storm anchor but it was nice knowing it was there.
Manual Hyspeed Windlass. It's currently frozen up from lack of use. While cruising, I generally just pulled the anchor up by hand. It was faster, it was a nice bit of daily exercise, and the anchor is light enough that it's not too big a chore. The windlass is supposed to be pretty easy to rebuild and spares are still available online.
Sails
Genoa (around 130) on a harken mkIII roller ferler. Tan, made by UK sailmakers.
Main with two reef points. Made by UK sailmakers
Mizzen. Two reefs. UK sailmakers
Mizzen stay sail. Hardly used.
Asymmetrical spinnaker with sock. New in 2011. Nearly new condition.
Oversized telescoping whisker pole.
Rigging
I'm not sure how old the
rigging is, but most of it predates my ownership. My impression is that
the boat was fully refitted (decks, rigging, sails, everything) around
2001 or so, and then it just sat in the marina until I bought it. We
replaced some hardware (spreader tangs, bobstay and bobstay chainplate)
in 2010. The rigger we talked to in California before we left said that,
according to industry guidelines, we should've replaced it then due to
it's (assumed) age, but that based on it's condition he'd personally
keep it. It's been a while since I've been up the masts, but everything I
can see still looks good. Here's a photo album of the work we did on the rigging back in late 2010.
Engine
The engine is the original 40hp Perkins
4-108. If I remember correctly, it's got around 2500 hours on the clock
(I need to look to be sure). It always starts and it's never smoked. I
replaced the water pump, strainer, and hoses in 2014. I also pressure
tested the heat exchanger and transmission oil cooler and painted it.
It's big, low-tech, and sounds like a tractor but it keeps on going and
I've never had a problem getting parts for it. We typically burn about
half a gallon per hour while motoring.
Decks
The ply-wood decks on these boats can be a source of trouble. The decks were
completely replaced by a previous owner around 2001 or so. We've been
quite vigilant about tracking down and fixing any little leaks (with epoxy), and we
pulled all the stanchions, re painted the decks and non-skid, and
resealed everything in 2014. So the decks are in good shape for a boat this old.
The past year and a half or so has been a very busy time for us so we haven't been able to take care of Architeuthis the way we'd like to. Specifically, we've let some of the exterior varnish go. The toerails and drip rails are pretty well bare wood now, but they're teak so the wood itself is fine. You could revarnish it or leave it bare. The bottom paint has needs to be redone. It's lost its anti-foul abilities.
I haven't had time to post more details about the boat yet, but a potential buyer asked some questions on TradeMe. I think my answers will eventually show up on the listing, but in case they don't, I'll post them here. The potential buyer asked:
Congratulations on your PhD. Interesting yacht, rare to see proper
mooring bitts/post nowadays - couplea questions: 1) How does such
shallow draft affect AVS and sailing ability? 2) How are spruce masts,
ply decks, wooden rudder holding up against water penetration/rot? 3)
Condition of engine? 4) Age of rigging? 5) Lead or iron ballast?
Here are my responses:
I don't know the exact AVS, but I
looked up the capsize screening ratio (1.71) when I was buying the boat.
Subjectively, I found the Mariner to be a little more initially tender
than boats of similar size and displacement, but quite good with even a
small heel. So, basically, just a bit wobbly when motoring with no sail.
We just make sure to put up the mizzen and sheet it in tight when
motoring on lumpy water. There were a few knock-downs of other boats
that were crossing from Mexico to the Marquesas at the same time we
were, but we hardly even dipped our rails (but that might have just been
because we shortened sail early and often). The blue-water cruising
potential and stability of these boats is well documented. See this book about the first single-handed female pacific crossing in a Mariner 31, or the forum on the Mariner owners webpage.
The spars and deck are in really good shape. We took the whole rig down in 2010. We stripped and refinished the masts with AwlBrite,
upgraded the spreader and spreaders on the main-mast, replaced the
bobstay and bobstay chainplate, and inspected all the standing rigging
and consulted with a professional rigger (photos).
The AwlBrite is probably about due for a few new coats as preventative
maintenance, but (impressively) it's not showing any signs of
blistering, cracking, or water penetration of any kind. The decks were
completely replaced by a previous owner around 2001 or so. We've been
quite vigilant about tracking down and fixing any little leaks, and we
pulled all the stanchions, re painted the decks and non-skid, and
resealed everything in 2014. So the decks are in good shape too. The
rudder has never shown any sign of water penetration. I'm not even sure
it's got a wooden core. If it does, it's got a whole lot of glass and
gel coat over it.
The engine is the original 40hp Perkins
4-108. If I remember correctly, it's got around 2500 hours on the clock
(I need to look to be sure). It always starts and it's never smoked. I
replaced the water pump, strainer, and hoses in 2014. I also pressure
tested the heat exchanger and transmission oil cooler and painted it.
It's big, low-tech, and sounds like a tractor but it keeps on going and
I've never had a problem getting parts for it. We typically burn about
half a gallon per hour while motoring.
I'm not sure how old the
rigging is, but most of it predates my ownership. My impression is that
the boat was fully refitted (decks, rigging, sails, everything) around
2001 or so, and then it just sat in the marina until I bought it. We
replaced some hardware (spreader tangs, bobstay and bobstay chainplate)
in 2010. The rigger we talked to in California before we left said that,
according to industry guidelines, we should've replaced it then due to
it's (assumed) age, but that based on it's condition he'd personally
keep it. It's been a while since I've been up the masts, but everything I
can see still looks good.
I've never been able to find any
definitive information on what the ballast material is. There's
definitely a steel lifting eye (presumably used to lower the ballast
into the hull when it was built) that sticks up out of the ballast below
the cabin sole but, aside from that part, I can't get a magnet to stick
to anything at all so I'm pretty sure it's lead. And I've never heard
of these boats suffering from the water intrusion, rusting, swelling,
and cracking thing that seems to afflict some of the Chinese boats from
the same era.
I hope this answers your questions, and I hope trademe lets me include this much text in an answer.
P.S. Thanks for the congratulations on my PhD. It was pretty painful, but I'm glad I did it. ...mostly.
Christine has finished her master's degree. I'm wrapping up the final final revisions to my PhD. And, most importantly, we welcomed this guy to the family (and to, you know, life) last June:
So all of that adds up to this: Architeuthis is for sale. We love her dearly, but it's time to let her go. If the next owner gets even a tenth of the enjoyment we've gotten out of her, she'll be well worth what we're asking. Please have look at the advertisement and contact us through trademe if you're interested. I ran out of room for details on the boat in that ad, so I'm hoping to follow up with a post here in the next day or two.
