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About Our Boat

Meet SV Elli. She’s a 1988 Bayfield 36.  She’s one of the last to be made by the Bayfield company before the production lot burned down. You can read about that interesting story here. Many of the Bayfield 36’s from that era are Ketch-rigged, but ours, as you can see above, is cutter-rigged.  She features a forward captain’s cabin, a head with an enclosed shower and small tub, a spacious saloon, and an aft pilot berth cabin. Our galley features a double sink, gimbled two burner propane stove, and a good-sized fridge/freezer. She also has a watermaker, which as of this writing, we haven’t fully utilized (we’re still in the refit stage at this point). She has a nav table that is serving mostly as an electronics charging station and dog kennel.

She’s full keel and a real solid blue-water cruiser.  Other owners say there is a balsa core and some marine-grade plywood on her, but we haven’t found that to be true on our vessel. She’s got an incredible, more than an inch-thick fiberglass all the way around. Because she’s one of the last ones made in the Yard up in Onatario, Canada, there’s no telling what’s what. But she passed her survey and sea trial with flying colors. We have a double anchor with a windlass and chain locker, dinghy davits, and four self-tailing winches. We’ve already added new sails with a new reef system and lazy bag, as well as new enclosed cockpit canvas. Our dinghy, Russell, is Achilles 8 feet with a 8 HP Yamaha outboard.  We’ll be making other upgrades down the road, but those are the basics.

Here’s some bullet-point stats:

  • LWL: 30 feet ; LOA:  45 feet with bowsprit
  • Hull type:  Long Keel
  • Rigging Type:  Cutter
  • Beam:  12 feet
  • Sail Area:  1,000.00 ft2
  • Draft: Bayfield claimed 4.92 feet, our manual says 5 feet (but, we believe she’s closer to 6 feet)
  • Displacement:  21,000 lb (but our owners manual says 18,500 lb.)
  • Ballast:  8,200 lb / 3,719 kg (our manual says 6,500 lb.)
  • Construction:  Fiberglass
  • Builder:  Bayfield Boat Yard Ltd. (CAN)
  • Designer:  Hayden Gozzard
  • Engine: Yanmar 4JHE 44 HP
  • Capsize Screening Formula:  1.74