A CAPABLE CRUISER: For Sale
February 2016 Update. Murre has sold.
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March 2015 Update
New Photos Added
Included in this repost of my November, 2014 description of Murre are a number of current interior and detail photographs. These shots were taken March 7, 2015 and can be found by scrolling to the bottom of this article.
November 18, 2014
This post announces that my current boat, referenced in a previous post, is for sale.
Murre in Mexico, 2010.
My tough cruising ketch and my sole companion for over 12,000 miles of Pacific Ocean passage-making, Murre, is for sale.
I bought Murre in 2001 and spent many summer weekends, and even some work nights, sailing her to the far corners of the San Francisco Bay. For years, the favorite activity of my wife and I was to high-tail it to Murre on a Friday evening and be anchored at Paradise Cove or China Camp before nightfall. In the winters I often put Murre in a covered berth where I slowly rebuilt and readied her for more challenging waters outside the Golden Gate.
In 2010 Murre and I took off. Over two years we made three long ocean passages; we explored Mexico’s Sea of Cortez, the tropical paradises of French Polynesia and Hawaii and even Alaska’s glaciers and the Inside Passage (map). Our course covered thousands of miles of open water; we passed through the trades three times and over the equator twice; survived calms and gales; saw seabirds and dolphins and flying fishes and the vast Pacific from 20 south latitude to nearly 60 degrees north. Without doubt it was the grandest adventure I could have imagined.
We returned under the Golden Gate late in 2012, and I’ve since been organizing the Figure 8 Voyage, a different kind of exploit requiring a much different boat.
So, my capable cruiser awaits her next departure with a new owner.
Line Drawing of the Far East Mariner 31.
BASIC SPECIFICATIONS
Murre is a Far East Mariner 31 built in Japan in 1972 and restored in California between 2003 and 2010. She is ketch rigged and has a full keel with cut-away forefoot and big, strong rudder controlled by a robust worm gear of bronze. Her hull is solid fiberglass, insulated between the deck and waterline, and her ballast is encapsulated. Her deck and cabin construction is glass and wood sandwich, replaced and heavily reinforced during the rebuild.
LOA: 31′ — LWL: 25′ 8″ — Beam: 9′ 9″ — Displacement: 11,500lbs — Ballast: 5,000lbs — Sail Area: 468 sq. ft.
Theoretical hull speed: 6.8 knots — Displacement to Length Ratio: 300 — Ballast to Displacement Ratio: 43% — Sail Area to Displacement Ratio: 13.97 — Capsize Ratio: 1.71 — Comfort Ratio: 32.51.
Murre inside Makemo Atoll, Tuamotus, French Polynesia, 2011.
EQUIPMENT LIST
Engine: Perkins 4108 — 50hp; 70 amp alternator and new spare; Racor fuel filter; large Grocco bronze raw water strainer.
Tanks: Fuel, 40 gallons in one tank (plus 20 in Jerries in a locker); Water, 60 gallons in three tanks.
Electronics: Lowrance 7″ Chart Plotter (full Pacific chart cards) with HD Radar; Standard Horizon Matrix GX 2150 VHF Radio with AIS receiver; Hand Held VHF; ICOM M710 Single Sideband Radio with PTC III-USB Pactor Modem; Tactics wireless depth and knot meter.
Electrical: House Bank is 3 Group 31 AGMs of 315 amphrs; separate start battery. Banks are isolated by separate Blue Sea battery switches and combined for charging with a Blue Sea Automatic Charging Relay switch. Charging is via 70 amp engine alternator and 200 watts solar power in 4 panels.
Sails: Schafer roller furling system holds a 115% Hood jib; removeable inner stay for hank on storm jib; fully battened main and mizzen; mizzen staysail, mule sail, and “racing” spinnaker.
Dodger: Custom made companionway hatch cover and small dodger.
Rigging: Standing rigging beefed up and increased in size before passage making. Spinnaker pole customized for downwind cruising on headsail; removable inner forestay with running backs for storm jib; running backs for mizzen.
Galley: three burner propane stove and propane in two 20# tanks; single stainless steel sink with electric pump for fresh water and foot pumps for fresh and sea water; large ice box.
Lighting: LED cabin lights; LED running lights.
Heating: Force 10 Propane.
Steering: Edson bronze worm gear; Monitor wind vane; Raymarine tiller pilot
Ground Tackle: 35 lb CQR on the bow; small danforth as kedge on stern; 200 ft 5/16ths chain and 300 feet 1/2″ rode; manual windlass.
Emergency: Flares, ACR Aqualink PLB; Switlik 4 person life raft.
Tender: Inflatable “Avon”-type rowable.
Accommodations: Galley to port of companionway; small navigation station to starboard; two settee berths in main salon and fold-out dining table. Single head forward to starboard and hanging storage locker to port; large v-berth plus ample lockers both in the boat and in the cockpit.
Murre exploring Sawyer Glacier inside the Tracy Arm, Alaska, 2012.
CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF UPGRADES
2003 — Rebuilt and reinforced deck and cabin sides; stripped all bottom paint and applied barrier coat. Read about it.
2006 — Rebuilt cockpit well, massively reinforcing floors and mizzen support; replaced fuel tank with new. Read about it here and here.
2008 — Rebuilt aft cabin bulkhead. Read about it.
2009 — Fashioned and installed new bowsprit and spreaders. Read about it.
2010 — Replaced all stainless chainplates with new, nearly doubling thickness; replaced all standing rigging with new wire and turnbuckles and increased wire diameter by one size. Replaced all running rigging with new. Shot hull and decks with Awlgrip. Added Tactics knot and depth meter; Garmin chart plotter; Standard Horizon VHF and AIS; Icom M710 SSB and Pactor. Installed solar panels; new Blue Sea electrical switches; new Blue Sea battery switches; new Blue Sea ACR and volt meter. Installed Monitor windvane. Added new HOOD 115% headsail.
2011 — Replaced house bank with new 3 AGM 105s (Group 31) of 315 amphrs.
2012 — Added Lowrance 7″ Chart Plotter and HD Radar. Built custom hard dodger over companionway. Added Switlik 4 person liferaft.
RESOURCES: Mariner Owners website, Mariner Owners bulletin board.
MORE PHOTOS OF MURRE
Back on the waters of San Francisco Bay
New Decks and Cabin Sides
Painting of Murre commissioned by my wife from artist and family friend, Nick Stewart. Not included in sale, not by a long shot. Contact me if you’d like to commission Nick for yourself or reach him at www.stewart2.com.
Icom M710 SSB Radio.
New batteries in and under load.
Dodger: final result with canvas installed.
Why the hood is good.
Strategy for first half of passage–up and to the left.
Creating my debris capture system, a tiny net on a long pole.
I see flame, but do I feel heat?
Running under poled-out jib only.
Yippie, say the solar panels that now have sun to work with.
Making smart time on a clear day with the Monitor.
HD Radar showing bergy bit targets in Alaska’s Tracy Arm.
Shroud attach point in new radar bracket.
Around 40N–it’s starting to get cold.
Cabin finally picked up.
Making smart time on a cloudy day.
Climbing close-hauled the last 100 miles.
A Fast Passage North.
Into the Infinite Blue.
——–THE BELOW PHOTOGRAPHS OF MURRE WERE TAKEN ON MARCH 7, 2015.——–
Note Tactics wireless instruments for knot, depth, and compass heading; also, hatch boards have been reinforced with Lexan
Nav station is fully visible from the wheel.
Note run of line for Monitor windvane.
Note standing rigging and chainplates are bright and clean. Both were replaced in late 2010. The standing rigging was bumped up one size and the chainplates were almost doubled in thickness.
Note vintage bronze and wood sheet blocks bronze rail. Also, cabin windows have been reinforced with Lexan.
One of four solar panels.
Hard dinghy is a Bolger Tortoise.
Lowrance chartplotter is integrated with AIS in Standard Horizon VHF radio. Black triangles on screen are local AIS targets.
Force 10 Propane stove.
Large icebox is under green counter lid. Storage behind counter and stove extends down below the waterline–i.e. vast amounts of food storage for a boat of this size.
Note box on athwartships bulkhead is for new switch panel. See next three photographs.
All interior lighting has been retrofitted to LED.
Salon table opens to easily accommodate a party of four.
V-berth is wider than a king size bed.
Anchor chain has been redirected into a large space below V-berth where there is room for the quantity one needs when cruising; this also moves the considerable weight of chain aft and down.
Full boat cover protects brightwork.
WOW the entire Pacific!! U are GREAT!!! I am afraid with my 24 Clark San Juan to leave sight of land headed south from John’s Pass (near St Pete) Florida in the Gulf.
Any advice for a 71 year young sailor ? I am planning a trip to the Keys this Spring.
Advice? Not from me. If you are soloing, you must make your own decisions; make all your own preparations. This is the fun of it, of course.
What weather conditions do you expect on your cruise? Can you and your boat handle such conditions comfortably? What extremes are possible and how do you adjust for them? How long can you live comfortably on the boat at sea? For my one-month passages in Murre, I carried 70 gallons of water (enough for two months living normally–much longer if necessary) and enough food for…oh, I don’t know…3 months? Over time I kept filling lockers with canned goods, and I am still finding the odd can of beans in a corner. It’s not being out of sight of land that is the danger but how you plan to survive out there and how you plan to get back. Emphasis on the word *plan*.
I was lucky in how I started: years of soloing within the protection of the San Francisco Bay; a winter inside the Sea of Cortez, and then the leap to the South Pacific (itself a gentle run if you can avoid wandering hurricanes). Take things slowly; plan short trips; generate confidence over time and through practice.
Thanks for checking in on the Figure 8, Vern.
Good luck,
RR
Beautiful boat, very fine webpage. We’ve been ‘retired’ from sailing for a few years, and living in the desert (!?) at Tucson. And to my wife’s quiet dismay, I need a boat. I’m looking at ‘Cactus Tree’ in San Carlos, and have been in touch with Don the broker, but then I found your vessel, which is far more ready to sail away. And at my age (a fit 65) I don’t have much time to burn through anymore! ‘Murre’ seems pretty much perfect as she lies. I expect she’s licensed & registered in CA. Documented? I’m a Westsail fan, but am often stunned at what a mess that double-ender can be with a Moniter, plus end boom sheeting, a boarding ladder, etc. – your transom with wind-vane installation looks neat & tidy as can be. I prefer a tiller, but your wheel and worm-gear look pretty much bombproof. I’ve told my wife that our (my) next boat will have a composting toilet, (like an Airhead) and she has told me happy sailing…singlehanded or with a new crew! For the boys I think they are very cool, as the holding tank goes bye-bye, and you can lose a hole in the boat. But ‘plumbing’ differences make them a little cumbersome for the ladies. There’s always a bucket…
I like moving that rode & chain abaft. Does any water ever make the berth?
I am a very simple sailor; not a techie at all. The Pardey’s (and Moitessier) are my heroes, and ‘Murre’ has all the gear and electronics one might need, and then some maybe. Very nice.
You mentioned a Avon inflatable, but the photos showed a hard dinghy. I generally don’t tow a tender except for very short passages. Does the Bolger (if included) nest on the cabin top, or foredeck? I imagine on the cabin top it would cover your solar panels – also a neat installation, I might add – so I’m just wondering where you stow it.
Anyway, thanks for the beautiful webpage, the great photos and very solid information. Hope she sells quickly for a price you like…and of course I hope I’m the buyer, but we’ll see.
All the best,
Robert
If u r still looking for a ready to sail mariner 31 in San Carlos call me at 575 404 6704
By the way: is she ‘Murre’ as in ‘Murray’, or ‘Murre’ as in John Muir?
Hi
What happened to the 4-108 in the end? Read about your issues in the doldrums.
Brian