About Streetcar

You might be interested in some details about the yacht on which Pete and Geoff are sailing. She is named "Streetcar," and her owner, Phil kindly provided the following photos and information to share through this blog.

Click the main image below to advance the slide show.




Streetcar was built in 2001 by Sovereign yachts in South Africa and has a custom built fitout. She is a full composite / fibreglass construction, which means she is solid fibreglass with balsa wood and foam stiffening in the deck and some parts of the hull along with various stringers and bulkheads ( 5 full bulkheads and a number of half and partial )

She a fin keel with 5,600 kg of lead ballast and an outboard rudder. Keel stepped 3 spreader rigged mast with all stainless steel rigging. Mast height from deck is approximately 18 meters.

The layout of the boat is centre cockpit with wheel steering in the cockpit and navigation instruments forward of the wheel.

She is powered by a Volvo Penta 60 HP diesel with saildrive leg.



Internal layout from bow, moving aft is:(as seen on plan)

• Forpeak....Anchor and windlass


• Sect aft of anchor locker is a general sail and rope storage compartment, accessed through a deck hatch.


• Internally the master cabin is situated just in front of the mast, with ensuite bathroom.



• The main saloon is aft of the mast and this area includes the galley and settee area with table that will easily sit six people.





• The stove is gas, with normal burners and an oven . The stove is gimballed with fiddle rails, which means it will swing when the boat heels and the fiddle rails hold the pots on the top of the stove in position over the burners.





• Refrigerator and freezer are located side by side and accessed through the galley bench on the starboard side. They are both 12 volt powered.



• A good sized double bowl stainless steel sink is also in the galley with pressurised hot and cold water. The water is fresh and is heated through the heat exchanger on the diesel engine.



• On each side of the boat when you turn to the rear from the main saloon are two cabins, each of which have a queen size bed and also have ensuite bathroom.
  These are the cabins that Peter and Geoff would be using, as the movement of the boat is less severe in this area being near the middle of the boat.





• The engine is situated in the centre of the boat under underneath the cockpit.
  Fuel tanks and water tanks are stainless steel and are under the floor of the saloon, which keeps the weight low and to the centre of the boat.

There is a small 12 volt water maker that will make approximately 12 litres of fresh water from sea water per hour.

She carries 600 litres of water and 400 litres of diesel in underfloor tanks, but extra fuel and water is also carried in drums....This is essential on extra long legs of the trip, where no supplies are available.

As most equipment on the boat is 12 volt power, keeping the batteries fully charged is essential...Unfortunately the boat is not equipped with a wind generator or solar panels, so all power generation need to come from either the main engine or the small Honda generator on the boat. Constant monitoring of this is critical as all the navigation equipment and auto pilot steering gear requires full 12 volt power.

Navigation on board is done with the aid of a Garmin 4012 chartplotter GPS, which will give accuracy to within about 5 meters of their location 24 hours a day. They can see precisely where they are heading, what the depths of water is, how far they have travelled and how far they are from their destination, all this on a 12 inch LCD screen.

Of course there is also two more critical requirement for any ocean going vessel. Communication and safety equipment.

As far as communication goes, normal mobile phones will not work when you are thousands of miles out to sea, so Peter and Geoff have 2 Iridium Satellite phones, which they can communicate to shore and get weather forecasts etc....On the shorter range of communications, there is a VHF radio which operates excellently when within relative close proximity. (Up to about 50 miles)

Safety wise, there is a 6 man RFD liferaft, self inflating with full provisions along with all the necessary life jackets, harnesses etc. full set of flares etc.

On deck there is also a 9 ft inflatable dinghy with a 15 horsepower Yamaha outboard motor.

Sails, halyards, mast, boom, rigging and rope sheets have to be constantly monitored and inspected for wear and damaged items replaced or repaired..... Nothing can be overlooked.