1970
Cheoy Lee Luders 30
Located in Emeryville, CA in the
San Francisco Bay Area
Asking $12,500
The Arethusa is a 30 foot
Cheoy Lee sloop designed by Bill Luders and built in
Hong Kong. Cheoy Lees are well known for being solidly built and beautifully designed
boats, usually with lots of lovely
teak used for exterior brightwork,
interior finishing and decks.
This is a full-keeled cruising
boat as well, although as you can see in the photos below it has a cutaway forefoot that makes it tack more easily than many full-keeled
boats. The
hull is thick, hand-laid
fiberglass and very solid. I've hauled it a couple of times and there has never been any indication of
blisters.
One of the main concerns with these boats is the
teak decks they generally come with, which due to age have thinned and
lost their plugs, increasing the risk of
leaks into the
deck core. I removed the
teak deck several years ago, and it's now
fiberglass and non skid
paint. At the same time I also re-bedded the stanchions and other
deck hardware.
Another major concern with Cheoy Lees is the chain plates which were sometimes made of sub-standard
stainless steel. I replaced the chain plates, standing
rigging and
lifelines in 2006.
The
mast and boom are also
aluminum instead of the original spruce, which makes for a lot less
maintenance. I removed the
mast, stripped and rewired it in 2005 and also replaced the existing spruce spreaders with heavy duty
aluminum.
As well as being a beautiful and solid
boat, she's also a very comfortable and cozy
liveaboard. There's 6' 4"
headroom in the
cabin, a roomy v-berth, 12v Adler Barbour Cold Machine
refrigeration, alcohol
stove and hotplate, pressure
water with a 35 gallon tank, and a
Jabsco head with a 13 gallon
holding tank.
I refinished the
interior several years ago as well, removed the teak veneer laminate that had been
water damaged and replaced it with a red oak veneer. I also refinished the existing solid teak,
cabin sole and replaced the windows with
safety glass.
Here are a couple of the main issues:
The
sails are in okay condition but nothing to write home about. They're fine for bay sailing, and this is a great sailing boat so it's pretty forgiving.
And, the
engine currently in the boat is a
Volvo MD2B diesel that expired due to
corrosion. These are very durable and reliable engines, but they're
raw water cooled and tend to succumb to
corrosion over time. They're also difficult to find
parts for, and what you can find are expensive.
But, in addition to the broken
engine I'm including an identical
MD2B in great condition that I currently have in
storage. I bought this engine last summer and saw it run in the boat yard, which it did very well.
So there you have it. As you can probably tell from my long-winded post, I'm very fond of this boat. It's been a great
project, but life beckons and it's time to move on to other things.
She's not perfect, but she's solid and a winning combination of beauty, world cruising potential and comfortable living. I would love to pass her on to somebody who would appreciate her as much as I have.
Check out some links below and hit me up with any questions. Thanks.
More info on the Cheoy Lee Luders 30:
LUDERS 30 (CHEOY LEE) sailboat specifications and details on sailboatdata.com
Luders 30 - Cheoy Lee
A discussion of this boat on Cruisers Forum:
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ase-61216.html
More on Bill Luders:
Sailboat designs of Alfred E.Â*Luders by year
What's "Arethusa" mean? (kinda cool)
Arethusa (mythology) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia