The Oriental Lady
A coastal cruiser that's full of surprises.
When we found her we knew right away that this was the boat for us. The full beam aft captain's cabin with separate head and shower room make for a much more comfortable time at sea, and the children's three bedrooms forward of the salon give them all their own space to retreat to, except for the boys who have to share a cabin. Each of the cabins forward have bunks, with the bottom bunks being quite large, so we have plenty of room to host other families and have had 4 adults and 8 kids all staying on board with no real space issues.
The boat was extended at some point by an additional 4 feet, with an aft transom added, providing some serious extra storage, along with a swim platform. This addition makes the boat much more family friendly and gets a real workout in the summer. The bench seat is a comfy spot to be close to all of the action and keep a watchful eye on the kids in the water. It also makes coming and going from the boat a lot easier, both at port and also out on the water.
Seaworthiness and capabilities
This boat is a 12 mile coastal rated cruiser, not a true blue water capable vessel, but that being said, the semi displacement hull with small keel means a safer passage in rougher seas, and a smoother time at anchor. The 5 feet of the hull below the water line means that there is plenty of boat in the water keeping things stable, and the weight of her enables a much more pleasant ride in rougher seas - she just plows on through.
Our normal cruising speed is around 7 - 10 knots at about 1200 - 1400 rpm's, but if we need to get somewhere quicker, and are happy to burn more diesel, we can bump it up to 2200 - 2400 rpms and get 12 - 13 knots out of her, with a top speed of 16 knots that we have never had to "activate". The Oriental Lady also has some planing rakes in the keel enabling her to ride up onto more of a plane and some large trim tabs aft to help bury the nose down. We don't do it often but when we do hit the hammer down it is quite a noticeable difference to the sedate cruising we normally do. It is great to have the extra speed up our sleeve in the event we need to get ahead of weather or swell on an open seas coastal passage.
The previous owners had all of the windows and top side hatches replaced which has also upgraded the seaworthiness of the boat.
Creature Comforts
The Oriental Lady is big enough for our family of six, plus the dog and a couple of cockatiels in a large cage. It is also packed with creature comforts for the humans onboard. This is our home away from home, so we have upgraded many of the domestic appliances to better suit our lifestyle and extended trips at sea. We have a new large battery bank, solar panels and a large Onan generator so we are never short on power if the need arises. Life is far too short to "make do", so we have a coffee machine, breadmaker, blender, vacuum cleaner, cordless mini vacuum, cordless window vacuum, oil column heaters, diesel heater and dehumydifiers to keep everyone toasty in winter, and sandfree in the summer. We are spending far too much time on the boat to not be comfortable so we have made the effort to make life as easy as possible! That being said, we are learning and adjusting all of the time.
Bays to Stay
Pictures of the week
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