1976 Gulfstar 52 MS Sold Boat in Punta Gorda, FL US

This is a boat with a long and impressive record.

It's had three owners. For five years the first owner used it to travel widely through the Caribbean with stops at the Virgin Islands, most of the Windward Islands, Grenada, Trinidad, Aruba, Panama, Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. The second owner sailed out of Galveston, and for 15 years roamed all over the Gulf of Mexico in US and Mexican waters, including many trips to Honduras and Belize.

The present owners of more than 20 years kept the boat on the Chesapeake Bay and occasionally went up the East coast to Maine. But their principal use was to head south down the ICW and spend their winters cruising Florida and the islands of the Bahamas. They have made 26 crossings of the gulf stream during the stormy winter months.

The boat has proven that it is very seaworthy, rock solid and amazingly reliable as well as a secure, roomy and comfortable joy to live on during a long cruise.

On Deck:

It has a hardtop pilothouse with heavy glass forward windows which gives it fantastic forward visibility and large pantographic windshield wipers that clear the rain or sea spray and are worth their weight in gold. This is a feature that you will be hard pressed to find on any boat of this type. Opened up, the cockpit is light and airy while when closed up, there is complete protection from the foulest weather. The boat can be sailed with the pilot house closed up.

The helm is a dream come true. The captain sits on a large cushioned tilt back chair mounted on a pedestal that adjusts in every possible direction. Navigation is done with a commercial grade computer system with a huge monitor right in your field of view with room in front of the monitor for a full size book of charts. This allows very accurate positioning. All the radios, radar, autopilot, GPS, depthfinders, and the entire switch panel are within arms length and all the engine and wind instruments are in your view.

Down Below:

Here you have all the comforts of home. This boat is not about camping on the water. It has every convenience that you have in your house or apartment with lots and lots of water which allows showers every night. With the very large refrigerators and freezers you'll never have to worry about running out of fresh food. Note: All are front opening so no fishing down six layers to find that frozen chicken on the bottom.

Laundry? No problem!!! Toss it in the washer/drier combo unit. Two hours later it's done and better than the machine in your house.

Lots of appliances can be used onboard this vessel including hair drier, coffee maker, toaster, power tools, and microwave. Just plug them in and use. You do not have to run the generator to use these small appliances. The boat has very large batteries, inverters and plenty of AC power instantly available. It even has air conditioning but you have to turn on the generator to run the AC.

Cooking is done on a large propane stove with an oven and broiler and there's almost six months of stored propane, or use the large microwave.

This is a long haul boat where people spend a lot of time together. One of the most important commodities in this situation is "space" and this boat is very roomy and a big strong boat where you really feel at home and secure regardless of the weather. It's also a great boat for company. The guests are in the two forward cabins with their own head and shower and the owners are in the aft cabin with their head and shower separated by the length of the boat. Lots of privacy.

Special Features:

Self Launching Anchor -- Launch and retrieve the anchor without leaving the helm. Roller furling on all sails -- Boat is easily single handed.

Short anchor rode rig -- Greatly reduces the anchor footprint

All critical equipment have backup -- If primary fails, switch to the secondary and continue on. See equipment list.

Custom davits and power hoists -- Takes one minute to launch or retrieve dinghy. Dinghy is on lift. Boston Whaler with electric start engine -- can't do better than that. With the main vessel carrying 400 gallons of fuel you can choose where to buy fuel, which is very important in the islands. Motor is a 140 hp Ford Lehman aka American Diesel which are legendary engines, 15-20k hr life span. Boat also has a 10KW Westerbeke diesel generator. With a 280 amp alternator belted to main engine this provides a secondary charging source.