MVdisconnect
Member
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2022
- Messages
- 7
- Vessel Name
- Disconnect
- Vessel Make
- Jefferson Rivanna SE 50 - 2006
Hello!
I have been a lurker here for some time but finally decided to join after realizing there are a few other Jefferson owners on the site and after spending a couple hours today reading through some great threads on what made other members fall in love with boating.
Just wanted to introduce ourselves—my husband and I sold our Florida home on a whim in early 2022 (unable to resist selling in such a sellers market even though it was definitely not a boat buyers market!) and bought our 2006 50ft Jefferson Rivanna SE out of state where we began refitting it while living aboard before cruising south to Florida and the Bahamas.
Our path to the Jefferson: My husband comes from a sailing family but we decided not to buy a sailboat—my own sailing experience is very limited and at this point in life we much prefer being in a location over the getting there so all the work of sailing is lost on us. The only boat we had owned together was a 1960 Owens 30 kept on a freshwater lake. We thought about a power catamaran or a Greenline hybrid but didn’t love the layouts or the prices. So we looked at various older power boats with a focus on having an aft cabin with a decent sized walk around bed for our liveaboard comfort and covered outdoor space with no ladders between levels for the comfort of our ten year old labrador dog. 50 feet was bigger than I wanted at first and I leaned towards more true trawler shapes but my husband had lived aboard a similarly designed Taiwanese boat (a Dyna 53) back when he was in Hong Kong in his 20s and assured me we would appreciate both the huge engine room and all the covered outdoor space. He was right! We spend so much time on the aft deck enjoying the shade and even though we don’t need such powerful engines for our preferred trawler-speed cruising style the engine room is a joy to work in.
We cruised south to Stuart, Florida from Charleston this summer then set off for the Bahamas in October just after a fresh bottom paint job and luckily not getting hit by Hurricane Ian, and we are now two months into full time cruising here. Other than a week or so in a marina during Nicole we have anchored or moored continuously in the Abacos and expect to head south to Eleuthera and possibly the Exumas when weather permits. So far in this sea of charter sailboats, power catamarans and little center consoles we are often one of the only “larger” power boats in sight.
Some of the upgrades/changes we made to the boat:
Fun stuff! Added 1,350W of solar panels, an inverter, lithium batteries and a variable output external regulator on the brand new port alternator for a redundant charging source, along with a Schenker Zen 50 water maker, mesh shade screening around the aft deck enclosure and the windows/windscreen, Aquatraction decking on all exterior levels, a daybed to replace the awkwardly sized flybridge table, an Ultra anchor, a new windlass, a StarLink dish, and a Raymarine Axiom 12 chart plotter, digital radome and backup camera.
Less fun stuff! Rebuilt the generator, the turbos on both Cummins QSC 8.3TA 540hp Diesel engines, the starboard heat exchanger, and the forward head. I think we probably swapped out nearly every hose and clamp in the engine room. We replaced the battery charger, fresh and raw water pumps, 2 of 3 HVAC compressors, one HVAC fan motor blower and a reversing valve. We upgraded some electrical and swapped out the old anchor/nav lights and halogen salon lights with LED.
Looking at that long list tells me it was a labor of either love or insanity (I definitely vow to never live aboard during a boat refit again!) but either way we are happy with the outcome and are loving the current experience.
We have no idea how long we will be on this adventure or what we will do next—the idea is just to do it as long as we are enjoying it. I feel grateful we were both willing to take the leap to do this now on the young side of our retirement rather than waiting until we are too old to fully enjoy it.
Anyway, thanks for having us here—we look forward to being members!
Please feel free to reach out if you are a current, former, or hopeful Jefferson owner. Happy to share any info on ours.
-Adrienne
I have been a lurker here for some time but finally decided to join after realizing there are a few other Jefferson owners on the site and after spending a couple hours today reading through some great threads on what made other members fall in love with boating.
Just wanted to introduce ourselves—my husband and I sold our Florida home on a whim in early 2022 (unable to resist selling in such a sellers market even though it was definitely not a boat buyers market!) and bought our 2006 50ft Jefferson Rivanna SE out of state where we began refitting it while living aboard before cruising south to Florida and the Bahamas.
Our path to the Jefferson: My husband comes from a sailing family but we decided not to buy a sailboat—my own sailing experience is very limited and at this point in life we much prefer being in a location over the getting there so all the work of sailing is lost on us. The only boat we had owned together was a 1960 Owens 30 kept on a freshwater lake. We thought about a power catamaran or a Greenline hybrid but didn’t love the layouts or the prices. So we looked at various older power boats with a focus on having an aft cabin with a decent sized walk around bed for our liveaboard comfort and covered outdoor space with no ladders between levels for the comfort of our ten year old labrador dog. 50 feet was bigger than I wanted at first and I leaned towards more true trawler shapes but my husband had lived aboard a similarly designed Taiwanese boat (a Dyna 53) back when he was in Hong Kong in his 20s and assured me we would appreciate both the huge engine room and all the covered outdoor space. He was right! We spend so much time on the aft deck enjoying the shade and even though we don’t need such powerful engines for our preferred trawler-speed cruising style the engine room is a joy to work in.
We cruised south to Stuart, Florida from Charleston this summer then set off for the Bahamas in October just after a fresh bottom paint job and luckily not getting hit by Hurricane Ian, and we are now two months into full time cruising here. Other than a week or so in a marina during Nicole we have anchored or moored continuously in the Abacos and expect to head south to Eleuthera and possibly the Exumas when weather permits. So far in this sea of charter sailboats, power catamarans and little center consoles we are often one of the only “larger” power boats in sight.
Some of the upgrades/changes we made to the boat:
Fun stuff! Added 1,350W of solar panels, an inverter, lithium batteries and a variable output external regulator on the brand new port alternator for a redundant charging source, along with a Schenker Zen 50 water maker, mesh shade screening around the aft deck enclosure and the windows/windscreen, Aquatraction decking on all exterior levels, a daybed to replace the awkwardly sized flybridge table, an Ultra anchor, a new windlass, a StarLink dish, and a Raymarine Axiom 12 chart plotter, digital radome and backup camera.
Less fun stuff! Rebuilt the generator, the turbos on both Cummins QSC 8.3TA 540hp Diesel engines, the starboard heat exchanger, and the forward head. I think we probably swapped out nearly every hose and clamp in the engine room. We replaced the battery charger, fresh and raw water pumps, 2 of 3 HVAC compressors, one HVAC fan motor blower and a reversing valve. We upgraded some electrical and swapped out the old anchor/nav lights and halogen salon lights with LED.
Looking at that long list tells me it was a labor of either love or insanity (I definitely vow to never live aboard during a boat refit again!) but either way we are happy with the outcome and are loving the current experience.
We have no idea how long we will be on this adventure or what we will do next—the idea is just to do it as long as we are enjoying it. I feel grateful we were both willing to take the leap to do this now on the young side of our retirement rather than waiting until we are too old to fully enjoy it.
Anyway, thanks for having us here—we look forward to being members!
Please feel free to reach out if you are a current, former, or hopeful Jefferson owner. Happy to share any info on ours.
-Adrienne
