1971 American Marine 49' Alaskan - Hull #6

She is a classic passage making trawler with a rich history, designed for heavy duty offshore cruising with a 1,000 mile range.  Being shed kept over the last ten years has allowed this Alaskan to retain much of her original good looks.  The starboard aft bulwark had been removed for repair but overall she showed little outward sign of her 30-year life span.  It appears the ownership has been shared by four captains.  The first lived in Canada and kept her for almost ten years.  I'm guessing they had a close relationship with Gardner Diesel since he exchanged the Lehmans for Gardners almost immediately.  The second owner lived in the Washington, D.C. area and kept her for nearly ten years.  The third for only about a year (1988) and it was then quickly sold to a broker.  We are guessing that her name was Joanna Voynick based upon papers found onboard.  She may have been an employee of Sperry at the time.  The fourth owner was Charlie and Patty Scott in Kent Narrows, Maryland and he has kept her for nearly ten years.  Charlie owned the marina there in Kent Narrows.

Salon and Cabin Layout

Ongoing Maintenance

Through-Hulls

Graving Plan

For those interested in what Tortuga cost when new - Hal Jones of Hal Jones & Co.Yachts provided the following sales slip information from Balboa Marina, Newport Beach., CA  for a purchase on 12/18/1971:

Twin Ford 120hp Diesels $93,150 Twin 4 cycle V8 Diesels $105,650 7.5kw generator Refrigeration Hot water heater Saltwater wash down Wet bar and icemaker Coast Guard equipment Shore cord

 

Hull

Hull Material: 1 1/2" Mahogany planking over steam bent white oak frames. There is a storage locker on the deck in front of the Portuguese bridge with a ventilation hatch to the V-Berth below. Access to the engine room is via a hatch in the galley floor. Access to the aft storage lazarette and rear engine room entrance is though a hatch on the aft deck. Engine room ventilation is provided by twin scoops on the solon roof.  Chain/rode locker ventilation is via a foredeck mushroom (hooded) vent.

Accommodations

She sleeps four in two double staterooms plus an underway pilothouse bunk. One could drop the solon table and the pilothouse chart table to give a total sleeping capacity of nine. A V-berth cabin is forward with a head and shower in the main hall. The Master suite is amidships, with a private head and shower tub. There are opening hatches and portholes in all sleeping cabins. The main salon has double (folding) door aft in addition to five windows. The headroom is 6'4" throughout. The salon has hand rubbed teak veneer with solid teak trim. The salon incorporates an L-shaped built-in corner seat with table which can be lowered for conversion to a sleeper for two.  There is a U-shaped settee and dining table that accommodates six in the pilot house and an off watch bunk above and behind the settee.  The berths are fully air conditioned.

Galley

Located portside, the galley is equipped with a three burner electric stove/oven,  large stainless steel sink with hot and cold pressure water, ample storage for utensils and dishes, etc. A residential  refrigerator freezer is built in on the starboard side but is being removed.  A starboard entry door provide passage from the walk around.  The counter tops are Corian and there is a microwave above the stove.

Electronics

Icom 602 VHF radio with integrated GPS-coupled DSC, fog horn and hailer RayMarine ST-60 Tri-data display and transducer for speed, water temp, and depth The Capn' Electronic Charting System (ECS) with full-size WindowsXP-based 12VDC computer Furuno FR-240 Mark-II open-array radar RayMarine 320 GPS WAAS receiver ROSS Engineering AMV250 VHF radio Robertson AP2000DL Autopilot Raytheon 611xx chart plotter and dedicated Raymarine GPS Raytheon R11xx open-array radar Raytheon V850 color echo sounder

Electrical

Kohler Model 8CCO 8KW Generator with separate starting battery. Electrical service panel in the pilot house. Power distribution panel on the forward starboard bulkhead of the engine room. Two house banks consisting of two GC2 6 volt batteries each providing 250 Amp Hours. Each GC2 is rated at 975 MCA. One 24VDC starting bank consisting of two 908D batteries (1,340 MCA each) Link20 and Link10 battery monitors Pathmaker battery combiner for house banks Xantrex 750 watt inverter

Take a look at the Gardner Engine Photo Gallery

We believe that Tortuga (and all older Alaskans) have a modified displacement hull.  That is, she has hard chines to improve roll stability.  An excellent article was written by Professor George Petrie at the University of New Orleans on hull design.  This link provides his hull form shapes and a chart showing theoretical hull speeds.

  Visit the Grand Banks Web site for a history of these wonderful vessels.

American Marine started in a small yard in 1956 located at Kowloon, across the harbor from Hong Kong, building other people's designs in wood. Its first - a 52 foot ketch now named Cutty Sark - still sails the waters of Puget Sound in northwest Washington.  In 1963 they commissioned Keith Smith to design a semi-displacement "trawler yacht" as they called it. The boat was named "Spray," and she was, in effect, the prototype for American Marine's first production boat, the 36' Grand Banks.   The Alaskan series that followed the Spray where designed by the Newport Beach naval architect Robert S. Dorris.

Note - Britishers Tony Fleming and Anton Emmerton in the early 1970s are also reported to have developed the respected Alaskan cruising boats for American Marine. After leaving American Marine and going their separate ways for a few years, the pair reunited in 1986 to refine the Alaskan concept and build boats themselves under the name Falmouth Yachts (now Fleming Yachts). Tony Fleming now lives in Taiwan and oversees construction at the Tung Hwha yard while Anton Emmerton handles marketing from the company's headquarters in Newport Beach, California.  It is also reported that Art DeFever was the naval architect for the Alaskan 46.  That design has been continued in the Grand Alaskan 60,64, and 65 flush deck motor yacht built in Taiwan by the CTF and POCTA yards.

American Marine outgrew the Hong Kong yard and in 1969 they acquired a much larger yard in Singapore which gave them the space they needed to set up molds to build in fiberglass. In 1973 the most popular Grand Banks models were switched from wood to fiberglass construction, while the larger models continued to be built in wood at the Hong Kong yard. The Hong Kong yard was closed in 1975 and all construction was done in Singapore.

Our past love is Sea Camp, a 32' Wellcraft St. Tropez.  She sold on April 4, 2001.  Click here to see her pictures.