Fayaway is our home on the water – a 1996 Pacific Seacraft 40. After owning and sailing other boats on many voyages we have evolved our definition for an optimal cruising boat for us. Craftily built like a brick $hithouse, Fayaway rides comfortably through a bigger seaway and yet keeps a good compromise with decent sailing characteristics. She’s by far the slowest (in terms of PHRF ratings), but fastest (in terms of ocean passages) and overall roomiest boat we’ve ever owned.
Fayaway’s Selected Specs:
- Displacement = 24,000 lbs (dry)
- Length
- Overall = 42.2 feet (12.8 meters) not including vane & anchor).
- Waterline = 32 feet
- Beam = 12.5 feet
- Mast height: 55 feet
- Draft = 5.2 feet (Scheel)
- Ballast = 8,600 lbs
- Sail area = 846 square feet (we’ve slightly increased)
- Cutter-rigged, slab-reefed main and headsail furlers
- Rigging: SS wire w/ dyneema runners & topping lift; lazy-jacks
- Basic Sail Inventory:
- 125% Genoa, main, staysail, asymmetrical spinnaker
- Auxiliary Propulsion: 50 hp diesel; 3-blade feathering prop
- Tanks:
- fuel: 70 gallons & 25 gallons
- water: 100 gallons (forward and aft tanks)
- Batteries: 500 Ah LiFePo, 170A alternator
- Solar: 750 w, on parallel MPPT chargers (redundancy)
- Instruments: Mix of Garmin, Airmar and hardware; AIS (B+) (Not tied to any proprietary system – for redundancy)
- Principal navigation tools: Garmin/Navionics. (but I’m a fan of Aquamap on the IPad). Sextant & paper charts for redundancy.
- Offshore communication: IridiumGo! (with Garmin InReach redundancy)
More about Fayaway:
One of the first built at the original west coast facility (hull #4). We know very little about her early history, having purchased her from the second owner. Planning a maiden voyage east into the Caribbean, the original owner had her shipped from Fullerton, California to Miami. Shipping was paid by the factory in exchange for her unveiling at the 1996 Miami International Boat show – a first appearance.
Fast forward a couple decades… Only one short week after returning from a summer cruise around the Maine coast, our original Fayaway was quickly under agreement for sale to a new owner and we found ourselves highly motivated to find a new place to live. Only the second out of twenty other boats considered, we found her early-on in our search, then residing in the “left out to pasture” section of a boat yard. Her recently-removed, deeply-tarnished shrink wrap had been strewn nearby. Rigging, also nearby, had lichen growth throughout, and her high-quality Harken furlers, blocks and winches were somewhat frozen due to serious need of cleaning. She was in the process of being spruced up after having been sitting high and dry for more than 15 lonely years! Oh boy!
We saw the bright side: her original gel coat has fewer years of UV penetration, displaying a youthful finish; she’s built of the highest quality and most of all, her design meets all of our wants and desires. Pricing was attractively lower relative to comparable boats, but this one has many unknowns. What could be wrong after sitting so long? Does the engine run? Just imagine the condition of fuel left in the tank! Do the instruments work? Batteries were obviously needed, etc. We just weren’t sure yet, and our search had only just begun.
A good write up of the Pacific Seacraft 40, still in production in North Carolina.
About the designer, William Crealock.
Fayaway – the name:
We must dedicate a brief owing to the literary source from which the name Fayaway is derived: From the nineteenth century novel Typee by Herman Melville, Fayaway is a beautiful southern island native woman who accompanies Tommo during his “captivity”. Read the book, as I can’t possibly describe her as well as Mr. Melville!
SV Fayaway 