June 7, 2015 -- A Tour of LeeLoo

LeeLoo is a 1999 32-foot Nordic Tug.  We purchased her in 2006.  In the nine years we have had LeeLoo she has been the perfect boat in all respects.  Nordic Tugs are very well made boats and they are easy to maintain because all of the mechanical systems are readily accessible.  And they are unique enough in appearance that everywhere we go people want to come aboard and check her out.  Unfortunately, LeeLoo was not originally equipped as a cruising boat, one ready for, well, cruising for an extended period of time, with some of that time being at anchor.

To get LeeLoo ready for the great Loop, we made the following upgrades, most of which were planned:

·       New Bimini top and weather cloths

·       New interior cushions

·       New paint job (Awlgrip, green hull only).  No more waxing the fiberglass hull (yeah)

·       New electronics

·       New batteries

·       New anchor windlass

·       Numerous maintenance tasks that, unfortunately, resulted in a new fresh water pump and a new bow thruster motor

LeeLoo’s beam is a little less than 12 feet.  Her water draft is just shy of 4 feet and her air draft is about 12 feet.  The former is important to know in order to not run aground.  As they say in Florida, “Don’t boat where the birds are walking.”  Air draft determines if LeeLoo can squeeze under a bridge or if we have to wait for the draw bridge to open.  Displacement when fully loaded is about 20,000 pounds.

LeeLoo is powered by a 220-hoursepower Cummins 6BT5.9 diesel engine.  This is a marine version of a very popular Cummins truck engine.  Spare parts are inexpensive and readily available.  LeeLoo burns less than 2 gallons of fuel per hour (1600 RPM, 8.5 knots).  This converts to about 2.5 miles per gallon which, believe it or not, is very good for a boat.  At 8.5 knows, range is in excess of 500 nautical miles.

LeeLoo does not have a generator.  So when we are at anchor we will have to carefully manage our electricity usage.  She has plenty of battery capacity, however, for lights and such.  And she has an inverter to “make” AC power to the TV, the microwave, and the computer (but perhaps not all at the same time).  The only limitation of not having a generator is that we can’t run the air conditioner.  So if the evening is warm, we’ll just head to a marina and plug into shore power.

LeeLoo carries 100 gallons of fresh water in two 50 gallon tanks.  We should be able to last a week or so between fills.

Inside, LeeLoo has three main compartments, the salon and galley, bridge, and forward stateroom and head.  The 32-foot Nordic Tug is a very livable boat; she can easily sleep four, feed six, and party eight people.

This is a picture of the salon (aka living room).  One nice feature is that the table folds up and can be moved out of the way.  On many boats, the dining table is fixed in position or, if it is removable, there is no place to store it.

Salon

Salon

The galley (aka kitchen) is shown below.  LeeLoo has hot and cold running water (sink to the left), a two burner electric stove under the cutting board and a small refrigerator (to the right).  The microwave is a convection unit, so we should be able to do some baking while on the loop.  To allow for cooking while at anchor, LeeLoo has a two-burner unpressurized alcohol stove beneath the electric stove.

Galley

Here is a picture of the bridge.  This is where you drive the boat.  Three people can comfortably fit on the settee (seat) behind the helm.  When we purchased LeeLoo, she was equipped with 1999-vintage Raytheon (now Raymarine) gray-screen (pre-color) electronics.  There was a chart plotter display, a radar display, an auto-pilot, a Tri-Data (speed, depth, and temperature) and a VHF radio.  There was also an Echo-Pilot forward sounding sonar.  The electronics was dated, but everything worked.

Settee on the bridge

Electronics

As part of our preparations for the loop, we updated the electronics.  We replaced both displays with a new Raymarine C127 12-inch multi-function display (MFD) which includes a fish finder (sounder) module, a new radar scanner, and a new VHF radio with digital-selective calling (DSC).  We were led to believe that our old electronics (depth and speed transducer, auto-pilot, etc.) would work with our new electronics.  They do, for the most part, but they don’t integrate very well, especially the auto pilot.  So we will be replacing both the depth transducer and the auto pilot to get everything just the way we want it.  When it comes to marine electronics, I think the “take-away” is to either upgrade everything or to not upgrade at all.  This makes sense when you consider that marine electronics today are connected as a big network.

New Electronics

Here is a picture of the head (bathroom).  It has a vacu-flush toilet (like on an airplanes), a small sink, and a separate stall shower.  The separate shower stall is nice because you don’t have to spritz down then entire head when taking a shower.  That’s the theory anyway; we mostly shower in marinas.  This allows the shower to be used for storage.

                              

Head - sink and storage

Head - shower

Here is LeeLoo’s stateroom (bedroom).  There is a single double bed that is mounted athwartship (nautical talk for kind of sideways).  So, there is an inside person and an outside person.  The rule is . . . whomever drinks the most gets the outside position.  The previous owners upgraded the mattress; we sleep better on LeeLoo than anywhere else.

There are three drawers under the bed and a small hanging locker (closet) for our clothes.  We will have to pack carefully for the great loop.  We are told to not bring too many clothes.