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j-hood · 13-05-2024, 03:45

Have you dreamed of owning a classic bluewater vessel that has rounded Cape Horn and anchored in Patagonian williwaws? One with a gimbaled oil lap that shines onto the teak bulkhead while the Fleming stainless wind vane steers you silently through the night? A boat whose Panama Canal and Suez Canal certificates hang framed on the bulkhead?

Ave Del Mar is a William Garden designed 1967 Rawson 30, built as a sloop and converted years ago to a cutter rig. Her rich wood interior, hand-made iroko-and-meranti cabin sole, and boundless, useful storage are nothing like the sterile Ikea-like interiors of today’s production boats.

Her 230 watts of solar is more than enough to charge her three deep-cycle batteries (new last year) and the Xantrex battery monitor helps keep an eye on your reserves. She has no refrigerator which means your power demands are minimal—keep the lights and the VHF on and crank some tunes while you sail, it’s hard to run out of juice on this boat. On cloudy days while your neighbors in the anchorage are running generators to keep their cheddar cheese cold you’ll be free as a bird. Chasing gasoline to feed the generator to fuel the batteries to run the compressor is someone else's game.

There’s no power usage to get water and no pressurized water system to spring leaks and no water pump to run and run and deplete your electric bank. Her galley glows with warmth and functionality, from the mahogany butcher block countertop to the brass sink and three-burner stove. Two 20-pound propane tanks mean you have months of cooking fuel on hand, and always a tank in reserve.

She is powered by a Kubota V-1305 four cylinder diesel after she was repowered in 2021 (used) and consumes a meager .6 gallons per hour while running at cruising speed. She has two 35-gallon black iron fuel tanks that will need to be replaced.

All of her lighting has been converted to energy-efficient LED, from the tri-color masthead running lights to the anchor light, spreader lights, and every light belowdecks. There are USB power outlets belowdecks and in the cockpit, so you are never far from a charging port for your electronics. At the helm you have your choice of two tiller pilots that can competently steer you while motoring or sailing, in light winds and in a blow. She carries a complete back-up tiller and tiller bracket should the unimaginable ever occur.

The list of “other” could go on forever:

Teak battens for the bookshelves.
Her vented C-Head composting toilet means no pump-outs.
Oversized whisker pole.
Massive storage lockers.
Garmin GMI 20 depth and water speed instrumentation in cockpit.
A built-in cribbage board.
Oil lamps galore.
Comfortable v-berth (I am 6’2”).
Salon settee converts to double sleeping quarters.
Quarter berth (6’).
A good Bluetooth stereo.
Custom, closed-cell cockpit cushions.
A potato locker for long-term storage.
Teak-framed hatch screens for bugs.
Newly redone decks and topsides (late 2022).
Handmade teak cockpit grates.
Bimini and frame.
A 10’ hard rowing/sailing dinghy.
Rail-mounted Lifesling 2 throwable lifesaving device.
A Yamaha 3.5 hp 2-stroke outboard (new carb and impeller last year).
Loads of jerry cans for water and diesel.
Fortress FX-16 secondary anchor with oversized chain/nylon rode.
Vented baskets for fruit storage.
CQR 35 emergency third anchor.
Tons of engine spares (incl. alternator, water pump, starter).
Sea Tiger 555 manual windlass (works like a charm).
Updated anodized brass primary winches (two years ago).
Two barometers, ship’s clock, brass mercury thermometer on the bulkhead.

She is rigged for easy singlehanded sailing but can accommodate several adults. One person can easily deploy the whisker pole with its preset Dyneema guys, and her bright-red preventers run to the cockpit for easy offshore adjustments without having to risk going forward.

Ave Del Mar is US Coast Guard documented. She measures 30’ on deck with a 9’ beam. A 46’ air draft allows you through bridges that others can’t clear. Her 5,000 pound keel is made of encapsulated concrete, so you’ll never worry about keel bolts leaking or corroding. And her keel design makes it damned hard to snag a line from a lobster trap or crab pot.

It pains me to sell this boat because the story that she and I have been writing together doesn’t feel complete, but I have aging parents who need help and grandkids who need to hold my hand on walks through the woods and it is time for me to go do other things for a while. “First Time Around” is the title of the out-of-print story of her 5-year circumnavigation written by her previous owner Jamie Bryson.

She has everything a modern boat needs to sail safely: AIS, radar, SSB, a 4-person life raft, and a classic full-keel design and overbuilt rudder that will heave-to like a dream in stormy seas. Her Fiorentino para-anchor is the best on the market and is rigged with oodles of brand new 8-plait nylon line. Her 25 kilo Rocna anchor will bite the ground like a bulldog, and the all chain rode was new last year. You’ll be thrilled to learn that you can tuck comfortably dry under the dodger if you need to hand steer in a squall. She has two recently-serviced PFDs, top of the line Kong double-tethers, and a Dyneema jackline rigged to marine-grade stainless for offshore safety.

Her tanbark main has three reef points for heavy weather sailing and the rest of the sail locker is overflowing with options: a roller-furling tanbark genoa, tanbark staysail, yankee, and stormsail, asymmetric spinnaker, symmetrical spinnaker, reserve jibs, and a brightly-striped drifter for light air up-wind sailing.