Thursday, March 28

Beneteau Starts Epic Cruise from Seattle to San Diego on New Swift Trawler 47

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Beneteau’s Swift Pacific Adventure is now well underway, an epic voyage down the West Coast from Seattle to San Diego on a new Beneteau Swift Trawler 47. The boat, escorted by a Swift Trawler 35 and a Swift Trawler 44, left Lake Union and traversed the Ballard Locks, went up Puget Sound to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and then turned left.

Here’s the description from Jackson Willett, the captain on board, as the boat “headed into the open swell of the Pacific and the rounding of Cape Flattery. With 10-to-12-foot rollers on the nose, the Swift Trawler unflinchingly climbed and descended with the interval until rounding the lateral mark and starting the downhill run.”

The voyage will be broken up with stops along the coast: Newport, Oregon, then San Francisco, Monterey Bay, Marina del Rey, and a final leg from Newport Beach to San Diego with a big welcoming party on May 31. The boat is now in Newport.

Beneteau’s Swift Trawlers have proven themselves as popular cruising boats; the French yard has built more than 1,000 of them so far. The Swift Pacific Adventure is modeled on the successful Beneteau Greatest Loop voyage on a Swift Trawler 34 that boating magazine editors drove around the Great Loop seven years ago. I developed that idea with Beneteau, and spent a week on the boat, cruising from the top of Lake Michigan down to St. Louis, with George Sass, Senior, the photojournalist.

On this Pacific trip, the Swift Trawler 47 is definitely going in the right direction. The prevailing winds and current will help push it south along the rugged coast of Oregon and then California. Many years ago I went the wrong way, from San Francisco to Seattle, on a new Grand Banks 49, which was built like a little battleship, and we still had a lot of lumpy going.

The Swift Trawler 47, with twin 425-hp Cummins diesels, is built for comfortable cruising. (So was the 34; Sass and I were both sorry to get off the boat in St. Louis.) The cockpit and large salon are all on the same level, and separated by double sliding doors that can be opened to create one large social area. The master stateroom below has an en suite head with a separate shower. The boat also has two guest staterooms and a day head with an enclosed shower.

Capt. Willett started off running the boat at 20 knots at 2700 rpm after leaving Seattle. The Swift Trawler 47 tops out at 25 knots.

LOA: 48’4”; Beam: 14’6”; Draft: 3’10”; Disp.: 27,958 lbs.; Fuel: 510 gals.; Water: 169 gals.; Power: 2×425-hp Cummins diesels.

http://swiftpacificadventure.com

http://beneteau.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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