A niche ahead of the wheel is just large enough for
the single Raymarine navigation monitor chosen by
Saunders and for the engine gauges spread before it.
The table fronting the settee is mounted on a 4-inch
stainless steel pipe that also carries outside air to the
engine room below. The table is just the right size for
a plate of sandwiches and several coffee mugs for the
on-duty crew. Stainless steel columns on either side of
the stairway leading forward support the upper deck
and mast.
Usually, Seahorse Marine covers the sole with a teak-and-holly veneer, but Saunders chose carpeting. The
A desk dominates the master stateroom, with the berth
positioned on the starboard side.
teak cabinetry is precisely fitted and glows softly under
a smooth finish. The overhead’s fiberglass paneling
resembles the V-grooved planks you might have found
on old salmon trollers and workboats.
There is no door to the outer deck from the helm
area on the 382.
GOING BELOW
Moving from the pilothouse to the head, saloon, and
staterooms on the lower deck requires navigating six
steps, all with red courtesy lights. A handrail helps.
At the foot of the stairway, you’ll find yourself in
a warm, comfortable space—call it a lounge, call it a
saloon. Doesn’t matter. A dining table is to starboard,
and a casual chair to port offers easy access to
bookshelves, with plenty of space for stretching legs.
One semicircular corner of the table has been cut
Diesel Duck
away to ease access to an adjoining locker housing
electrical gear, including an isolation transformer and
batteries. Normally I favor locating that kind of
equipment outside the engine room, as long as it’s
easily accessible. But this space looks awkward to reach
for repair or service; the bottom of the locker door is
about even with the tabletop, and the transformer and
batteries are below that, near deck level. Saunders said
the 12-volt AGM 8D batteries are “removable by
hand,” but my view is that it would take an Olympic
weightlifter to reach down and make the hoist.
A stainless steel pipe running through the center
of the table carries diesel fuel from a fill port on deck
to five steel tanks below the saloon deck. The 382
normally carries 1,200 gallons of fuel, but Saunders
ordered extra tanks to increase capacity to 1,750
gallons. That’s enough for long, long voyages: up
to 6,825 nautical miles without refueling, assuming
a speed of 6. 5 knots, a fuel burn of 1.5gph, and a
10 percent reserve. For those who spend a couple
hundred hours annually coastal cruising, it’s probably
too much fuel.
Opening portlights and a skylight brighten the saloon,
and an oil-burning Dickinson Marine stove on a forward
bulkhead warms the space.
Moving forward, the marine toilet is in an enclosure
to port, and the shower is to starboard. The fuel
manifold sits beneath a panel in the sole in the
passageway. The guest stateroom is located in the
bow, with two stacked berths to starboard and storage
cabinets to port. A washer is neatly hidden behind
tambour doors.
A passageway on the port side leads from the saloon
aft to the galley, master stateroom, and engine room.
The galley, two steps down from the saloon and along
the outside of the passageway, is equipped with a top-loading refrigerator, a three-burner propane stove, a
large stainless steel sink, cabinets, and a Corian counter.
A top-loading freezer is a few steps farther aft, in the
master stateroom.
The stove is not gimbaled, but Saunders says that
isn’t a problem. If he’s cooking while Traveller motors
through swells, he braces his backside against the
opposite wall and his feet against the counter base and
is able to reach the stove and work areas. A water tank
sits beneath the galley counter.
Saunders asked Seahorse to paint the side walls and
overhead of the galley white to reflect light from a
portlight at counter level. The engine room adjoins the
galley, and the disconnect switches for the main engine
and generator starting batteries are on the inside galley
wall (which separates the galley from the engine room).
