top of page

A WALK THROUGH THE BOAT

We’ve had quite a few people ask us to do a video walkthrough of our boat. I’ve been doing my best to put that off until the boat was “finished”. I have come to realize that, just like our houseboat we owned, it’s never going to be “finished”. So, here she is, in all her glory! We’ve added some clips of my walkthrough when I came out to St Thomas to view her in October and a few pics of what she looked like during the refit, just for comparison. As you scroll through the blog, click on the pics for a larger view.

We have made incredible progress since we purchased this 1992 Dean 365 in early November for the ridiculous price of $18,500. The first two months were nothing but work to get her in liveaboard condition. Since then, we’ve been balancing work, homeschooling, and family time, so things have slowed. We’ve also implemented the Pareto principle, or 80/20 rule, with this project of ours. In a nut shell, we’re managing 80% completion of projects on 20% of effort. This means we still have lots of detail work to complete, but had we spent the time on detail work, we’d not be as far along as we are now.

Some facts about the boat :

Make: Dean Catamaran

Model: 365 Oceanliner (sounds fancy, I know)

Length: 36.5 feet

Beam: 18 feet (width at the widest point, which is at the forward bulkhead)

Depth: 2.6 feet

Propulsion: 2x Yanmar 2GM20C 16hp diesels

Sails: Mainsail, Genoa on a roller furling, stay sail

Country of Origin: South Africa (she's already made a trans-Atlantic crossing!)

We’ll start outside, and work our way inside.

The Decks

The 365 has a rigid foredeck, meaning there are not trampolines like many catamarans have. There are pros and cons, but we’ve absolutely enjoyed the amount of forward deck space we have. We have room to set out beach chairs, and enjoy sunshine, or catch a sunset.

There are two large lockers forward, one which holds all of our anchor chain/rope rode (the chain and line that attaches to the anchor) and sand anchor, and the other that holds our propane tanks. Both lockers also contain random items, such as beach chairs, fenders, various lines, room for trash bags, etc. Between the lockers is the anchor, currently a 45lb hinged plow, and electric windlass.

There are two bow pulpits (railing that surrounds each bow), and we have plans to make some bow seats. If you’d like a giggle, you can check out the reclining invisible bow seat that I tried out over the weekend. Each bow has a cleat and a set of fairleads (guides) for dock lines or our bridle. We use the bridle to attach to moorings, or as a snubber when “on the hook”. The twisted line of the bridle softens and jarring of the chain rode, and helps to prevent swinging.

Heading aft from the forward deck, you can either walk along the sidedecks, or take a short step on to the coach roof. Because of the position of our mast and the minimal height of the coach roof, it serves as another deck. Our main hatch is in the coach roof, letting plenty of fresh air (and sometimes rain) into the salon (more traditionally the saloon). Even with the large size of this hatch, we have plenty of room to stretch out, and air dry after swimming, or catch a sunset.

Aft of the cockpit is the swim deck. It’s a pretty good size, with plenty of standing or sitting room. The swim ladder folds down into the water, making entry and exit a breeze. We have a fresh water transom shower out there, that allows us to rinse the salt off after being in the ocean.

Above the swim deck is the solar arch. It houses two 255 watt panels currently. We’d like to have supports made so we can turn them length wise and add two more panels to the arch. On the starboard aft sidedeck is the wind generator. Basically an alternator with a propeller. On cloudy days, a steady breeze will help us keep the batteries up. All of the cabling from the solar panels and wind generator run into the radar arch, and then into the interior of the aft starboard hull.

On the underside of the arch are eyes that serve as our dinghy davits, allowing us to suspend the dinghy out of the water when sailing, or for security. We aren’t spoiled with electric winches to lift the dinghy. Blood, sweat, tears, blocks and tackle, are our hoisting tools. These eyes also support our hammock, which is much easier to hoist.

Attached to the port side of the arch is our Magma propane grill. I’ve been impressed with this little grill. It seems to use a minimal amount of fuel, and stays lit under pretty windy conditions. If winds get too bad, and we just have to grill, it can be removed from the mounts, and set in the cockpit on it’s folding legs. Pretty nifty.

The Cockpit

The helm and three bench seats make up the cockpit. The sliding windshield and side windows keep the weather out when conditions get a little nasty. When there isn’t any major rain in the forecast, we remove the side windows and let the breeze work it’s magic. We’ve jerry rigged some canvas as a bimini top, adding extra shade, until we get a real one made. This is one of many things on our list that we are saving for when we get back to the states. We’re trying to save a little coin where we can, and labor rates are astronomical here.

At the helm, we have an elevated helm seat (good thing, if you know Lisa and I), steering wheel, engine controls, and instruments. The electronics include a Standard Horizon CPN700i chartplotter, Raymarine Autohelm (auto-steering), and depth, speed, and wind displays.

Our wind instrument on the masthead is non-functional, rendering the wind display useless. It’s on our list of to-do’s. We also have an external speaker for the VHF (which is mounted in the salon) on it’s way from Amazon, and the mic will reach out to the helm. This gives us radio communication capabilities inside and outside.

We have a pretty unobstructed view from the helm, and with the windshield slid open, we can stand on the cockpit bench, forward of the helm seat, and improve our vision in close quarters, or when approaching a mooring. We have, however, learned that when we are sailing into the wind, and we have the genoa all the way out, we lose vision on the side of the boat that the sail is on (this is called the leeward side). Our fix for this has been one of the ladies, usually Lauren, sitting on the sidedeck as a spotter. Obviously, we wouldn’t do this in rough seas.

Our sail trim controls surround the cockpit on the sidedecks and the transom. Each sidedeck has a winch, cleat, and sheet track for the genoa sheets (sheets are the lines that control a sail side to side). The port sidedeck also has a winch and rope clutch for the furling line leading up to the genoa roller furling. The roller furling is a great invention that allows you to roll up and unroll the sail, instead of having to raise and lower it. The furling line, when pulled on, will roll the sail. The sheets are used to unroll it. Attached to the transom is the traveler for the main sheet. The combination of the the traveler and sheet allows us to change the position of the boom from side to side, as well as adjust sail shape.

There are bench seats that run the perimeter of our cockpit, which provide an abundance of seating. More importantly, there’s always an available seat in the shade. Lisa spends most of her time out here when she’s working, and I like to sit out there and people/boat watch. It’s also a great napping spot. We have a small folding table that will fit between the benches if we decide to do some outdoor dining.

The cockpit floor has two hatches, one under the helm that contains our house battery bank, and the other that has our engine battery, access to the Racor diesel filter, and room for storage. We can also fit our Ryobi generator down there if we need to clear some space. This larger hatch is a bit of pain to access since we put down the plank floor, but it’s good to know we have extra space if we need it.

The Interior

We have a very wide, but not very tall, companionway that leads from the cockpit to the interior. The interior is sort of a tri-level. The highest level being between the hulls and the salon, the next level being the salon, and the lowest level being the hulls. Standing headroom varies, but is pretty tall for a boat this size. The salon offers 6’3” standing headroom, the hulls 6’4” and the space between 5’4”. The flooring in all of these areas is waterproof, laminate wood planks. This is the same flooring as we had on the houseboat, just a lighter color. Very durable, easy to clean, and easy on the eyes.

The setee (seating area) is comprised of three benches, and is extremely roomy. We had another family, Dessert First At Sea, over for dinner and managed to squeeze four adults and five kids around the table. The side benches are about six feet long, and the forward bench is just under six feet wide. The table is rather modestly sized for the settee, but still a decent size. We have plans to rebuild the table so that it will drop down, creating a guest bed.

Aft of the settee is the “entertainment center”. It’s modest, but we have an LED TV and soundbar that we can connect to any one of our laptops for Netflix, movies, etc. This area also houses our VHF radio and Xantrex 1800 watt inverter/charger. Above the TV is a panel that allows access to the wiring for the instruments in the cockpit.

In the aft starboard hull is Lauren’s stateroom. The berth (bed) is built over the engine compartment, and is a modified full sized bed which tapers to the foot. There is a hanging locker, and several storage lockers with doors. Lauren’s room is also home to the electric water pump, electrical panel and solar charge controller access. Fortunately, these take up minimal space.

Forward of Lauren’s room is the navigation station, which has evolved into more of a work bench and storage area. It has a decent sized desk with lots of storage. We modified the desk to support our portable A/C unit, putting it at a good height to cool the salon when we are on shore power (at a marina).

Just forward of the navigation station is a stand up fridge. We just replaced our broken Norcold fridge (long story) with an apartment sized 110v fridge. It’s not as big in the fridge part, but the freezer is bigger, and actually freezes ice cubes in the ice trays. It also seems to be insulated better, which causes it to run less than the previous fridge.

Across from the nav station and fridge is storage built into the back of the setee. The storage shelves run the length of the settee, and this has become our tool shed. What a blessing this area is to me. I have no idea how I would store any of these tools in any sort of organized fashion if I didn’t have this option.

As you move forward you come to the two heads, or bathrooms. The smaller, aft head, is our shower, and also home to a few items that haven’t found permanent homes yet. We have a seawater toilet we can mount in here, but we may end up modifying it into a shower/sink only bathroom. The cardboard boxes stacked in there have the plank flooring tiles that will go on the floor in there.

The forward head contains our Nature’s Head composting toilet, sink, water heater, and tub-turned-to-storage area. Yeah, a tub. Strange, I know, but it was standard issue on the Dean 365’s. We put it to good use with random things stored in there. There’s actually a ridiculous amount of storage in here, even without the tub. Lots of lockers and access to voids.

We also store our Rainman 110v desalinator (watermaker) in the forward head. It’s big and bulky, and may find a permanent home in the tub in the future. Sometimes I like to imagine how tremendously huge that room would feel if we didn’t have so much stuff in it.

Over in the aft port hull is Alyssa’s stateroom. It’s pretty much a mirror image of Lauren’s, minus the access cabinet for the electrical panel. Both staterooms also have 12 volt fans, a hatch and an opening portlight. These all help keep the temperatures down when the sun is blazing.

Forward of Alyssa’s stateroom is the galley. The galley on this boat is bordering on ridiculous. It’s large enough to have a full size sink and faucet, a four burner propane stove/oven combo, drop in fridge/freezer, and tons of leftover counter space. There are many storage lockers on both sides of the galley, which provide lots of space for dishes, pots, pans, and non-perishables. I’d love to do a complete remodel of the cabinets sometime, but we’ll see if that ever plays out.

Forward of the galley is the master stateroom. It has a hanging locker, counter space, and storage lockers. More than enough space for our clothes and belongings with some room to spare. The berth is a centerline layout.

Prepare yourself for this next sentence. Ready? The bed is a king.

Yeah, that’s right. I said a king. In my personal opinion, it’s the most ridiculous thing about this boat. Apparently, the standard 365 layout does not include the forward head we have, and there are mirrored staterooms forward with full beds. Whoever built this one out decided they needed some extra room to roll around. And separate tub and shower rooms.

At any rate, I’m glad it was built out the way it was. If for nothing else, so that the four of us can all climb in the master bed and watch a movie together. I hope the kids are never too big to be ok with this, because we absolutely love it.

So there are the basics of our Dean 365. Like I mentioned previously, we have a lot of detail work and some rather major projects to complete. However, the transformation from when we bought her has been pretty amazing.

We’d love to hear your questions about living on the boat, comments on our progress, or ideas you may have on how we could improve her. If we can get enough questions from the blog post and video, we’ll answer them in our next post! If you’d rather comment via social media, you can reach us on these accounts by clicking on the links:

Facebook: SailingByFaith

Instagram: @SailingByFaith

Recent Posts

bottom of page