Drool! A 1930 57 foot Elco Flat-top … even though they glassed the hull and the settle in the pilot house is an ugly arsed dusty rose, I would love this boat! It would take some judicious grab bars to be added, and the tub replaced with a shower stall with seat, and a small amount of redecoration but it would be wonderful for living aboard. If we moved her north to New England leaving the Florida Keys in about April, and heading back down in October or November we could just about afford the fuel, and we would add solar panels and augment the battery system and run the nonpropulsion electrical system on solar. sigh
Wonder if we could trade the house for this … they are about equal in sale value…
To me it just looks like a kind of barge. It’s a bit ugly on the outside and very twee inside. It’s the kind of thing that an eccentric would pootle around a lake on. What’s the attraction?
Nope, I live in the US and BBC America doesn’t normally get all the really spiffy Brit stuff I would like to watch.
The twee is the crap the current owners load the poor thing down with. The attraction is that I have always loved early 20th century motor yachts, and the modern hitech fiberglass glossy crap doesn’t appeal to me. I really like craftsman, and these boats are fairly craftsman when you strip out the twee shit.
7 people in reasonable comfort [it has a forward section with the galley [kitchen] and a cabin for 3 crew, then the aft portion has the aft ‘masters’ cabin for 2 and a smaller cabin for 2 guests.
The attraction is, I would guess, is that it is a size that 2 people can be comfortable living in, with a bit of guest space for visitors, and is blue water capable. The thing will do 900 miles on a fill up, and if we went around via the Pacific rim we could gently putt our way to Europe. On the plus side, mrAru is effectively a marine diesel mechanic and auxilliaryman of 20 years experience and he can pretty much fix everything on her himself. Only real change we would do is add 6 or so solar cells and change out the battery system to allow us to run the rest of the boat on solar instead of bothering with a diesel generator set. The long trip around is where we would take advantage of the space to add another couple to give us company and someone else to lend a hand piloting so it isn’t as tiring as it could be. Not that we would run overnight, we would sea anchor out far enough to not be in sight of the land. [and yes we would use safety lights, we just don’t want to be close enough for small boats to come out to bother us, which can be an issue in some lesser developed areas.]
Dude, some nuts try to take rowboats across the Atlantic, staying within 30 miles of the coastline from Connecticut, through the Panama canal, along the west coast north, across the Bering Strait and down the coast of Russia, Japan and island hopping to Australia is [relatively] easy though time consuming at 5-7 knots of speed. Cutting across from Newfoundland to Greenland would entail much rougher waters and the need to stash 4 to 6 barrels of diesel fuel on the back deck to make sure it could make the roughly 1300 miles to Greenland. [if I had the burning desire to get the boat to Europe the short way I would prefer to actually load it on a carrier and ship it]
Only in they share the same styling because of the era they were both manufactured in. I don’t think the Sequoia was an Elco, let me google. Nope, Mathis Yacht. I was almost guessing John Alden from the overall design.
Probably =)
Elco, the manufacturer of the one I like is the company that designed and built most of the WW2 PT boats, and there are some similarities between the one I like and a PT, though obviously a PT is much less fancy, and has been designed for war rather than lounging around with a martini enjoying the marlin fishing off Key West.
I have never driven a boat, but it always seemed to me that Timothy Spall disproportionately panicked about the smallest things. Sure there were unknowns and small risks, but he worried about everything like it was a major disaster waiting to happen.
Could be fun, but I don’t know about any round the world trips in it - more like perhaps a long river cruise in Europe or Asia or even the US.
My parents owned several houseboats over the years, the last being the largest. It takes a special type of person to be on those kinds of boats for long periods of time - you have to be major neat-freaks and be able to live in close quarters without killing each other…there are lots of other things to take into consideration as well; weather being one of the key elements to be concerned about.
Fun for long weekends, and the occasional week in a single stretch, but I think most people reading this thread would spend about 5 weekends and one or two full weeks with their “loved one” and suddenly decide a large cabin, with multiple room, by a lake, is a far better idea and investment.
Around the world? Well - there are reasons one member of a couple often goes “missing” in boating “accidents” after lengthy periods of time on boats this size.
Oh man, I love it too. Yes - get rid of all the twiddly dusty rose junk, and add a big yellow couch in the lounge. Stock the galley with Plymouth gin. Mod the bathroom to accomadate a huge tub, and I believe you and Travis McGee will be in business aboard the Busted Flush!
mrAru spent 20 years living off and on in a small black cylinder with 130 guys … he is very accustomed to a small space and we live 3 people in an 800 sq foot house. Our bedroom is 9’x11’ and there would be more floor space and better storage on the boat without the third person…
Change out the tub for an indulgabath of the same footprint =) though I am more of a rum person. Not really into yellow as a furniture color, but I could see some big fluufy yellow cushions on the built in once rose sofa. I was thinking of doing the sofa in a really nice retro paisley. That would give a fair number of different colors we can add pillows of. I love the sofa looking aft under the flattop on the back deck, that is just made for sitting with a cold drink and enjoying the scenery.
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