The portuguese bridge on our DeFever 54 kept most of the breaking seas off the wheelhouse windows which were already formed of heavy
safety glass. The
salon windows had 5/8 "
plywood covers with smaller holes cut in the center that we attached for
offshore running. We hit a couple of seas of 30 ft or higher coming from
PNW to
San Diego and the DeFever handled them easily at conservative speed. As I
recall, we ran about 7.5-8 knots burning 4 gph with twin Cat D330's, slower in a headon buck or confused seas. Very little gen set time as we had a cruising
generator on the starboard
engine which drove refer, 110 v power and charged up 12 and 24 volt systems. Fuel capacity was 1800 gal so a
west coast to
Hawaii or Trans-Atlantic crossing would need 500 gal bladder to provide necessary
safety margin.
Defevers are soundly built, sea kindly lines that handle rough
weather well and remain relatively dry and comfortable underway. They are roomy below making
living aboard and passagemaking enjoyable.
We lived aboard for over 5 years, cruised about 6000 miles, much of it
offshore, so she has my vote. PM me for further info. Phil