SV Llyr is a Roberts 53’ ketch built in Estonia and Riga, Latvia from 2000-2001 as the personal vessel of American NOAA mapper, Captain Ben Smith. Llyr is a modified Bruce Roberts 45' steel ketch with a 16' beam, full keel with skeg rudder and weighs 22 tons. Her original name was Mother of Perl.
She is roomy and bright with a high freeboard that opens up 9' of clearance in the interior
cockpit/salon/galley that are paneled in sunny white Baltic birch with teak trim. Llyr has 27 windows and 7 Moonlight hatches, plenty of headroom and no tight squeezes moving fore or aft.
She has a compound round-chined hull, roomy walk-in engine room housing a Perkins/Sabre M90, over-built rugged and beautiful custom storm sails personally designed with Dimension Polyant by Doyle Sails, extended fuel range, and robust mechanical and electronic components more typical of larger commercial vessels.
Llyr is designed for being self-sufficient for long passages and periods of time. She is at home in the Arctic as much as in the tropics thanks to her fully insulated hull, abundant natural lightning and cross-ventilation. Llyr is cool under the hot sun and warm in the high latitudes. Inside, her spacious and bright interior is quite remarkable and can easily be compared to a much larger boat.
She was last hauled out in September 2021 at Keehi Marina. Llyr has new exterior paint, deck paint and antifoul. She is currently in outstanding condition, carefully maintained and with state-of-the-art sails. Llyr is ready to sail right now from Honolulu, Hawaii for your next adventure!
Raymarine Chart Plotter (2019)
Skymate Weather Reporting System
B&G Trition Package 2 Displays (2017)
Standard Horizon GX2100 Matrix
ICOM IC-M504
Radar: Si-Tex, Koden 4kw unit
Compass
Icom SSB
ICOM IC M710 SSB transceiver with AT-130 Auto-tuner
Pactor SCS PTC IIUSB Modem
Motorola Sat-phone
6 Batteries
Charger
Freedom 2000 Watt Inverter/Charger
110V AC/12V DC systems
Generator: Yamaha
Perkins 4.236 (M90) 85hp diesel engine with 6500 hrs
Wheel Hydraulic steering
Autohelm Autopilot
Holds 193 gallons of fuel in two steel tanks
Fuel filter Double Rancor
Fresh water cooling system
Water: 343 gallons
Holding: tank 35 gallons
Builder: Anderson
Designer: Bruce Roberts
Dimensions: LOA: 53'. Draft: 5'5"
Engine(s): Perkins.
Tankage Fuel: 193 gallons
Beam: 16' Ballast: concrete
Displacement: 44,000
Jacklines fore and aft with 8 PFDs with built in harness and stainless steel clipped tethers
3M deck grip strips
LED Deck lights fore and aft
Additional Mustang life vests and type 1 jackets
Viking, RescYou 8 man liferaft in sealed valise
Forespar MOB floating strobe & Forespar MOB pole
ACR category 1 hydro-release Global Fix Pro EPIRB, registered with USCG
2 x floating VHF radios
2 windshield wipers and defoggers
ACR Ditch bag stocked
large complement of marine flares alongside two heavy European pistol army surplus flair guns with potent flares
Lifesling MOB and throw ropes
Fireboy Propane sensor
Spare stainless steel tiller steering system
Also included is an emergency oxygen tank.
4 ways to pump bilge and seawater: 2 Jabsco 3000 Submersible Bilge Pumps on automatic in fore and aft bilges, 1 Whale Gusher 30 Manual Bilge Pump in the engine room, and a raw water Y-valve that converts the engine's raw water intake into an emergency bilge-pump.
Stainless steel bars and locks for all lazarretts and SS hatch bars that prevent intrusion if you happen to anchor where night security is a concern.
Llyr's last rigging inspection was in 2016 by West Rigging of Lautoka, Fiji with no signs of crevasse corrosion or significant wire deterioration. A hi-power illuminated jeweler's magnifier is on board for your confirmation. (After changing out her mizzen wires in 2011 the owners followed traditional advice and sealed terminals with melted beeswax to inhibit crevasse corrosion.) From her large stainless chain-plates welded to the deck to robust wire sizes and numerous stays and shrouds Llyr is considered by riggers overbuilt for strength.
Her mast and spars are of high quality and condition, large winches are Anderson and Harkin. A new Harken MKIV furler+stay system was installed for her new genoa headsail as well as a large customized Forespar spinnaker pole and tackle for downwind sailing.
In 2011 all of her 7 Moonlight hatches were replaced. Her 10 generous custom acrylic cockpit windows were replaced with well known Diamond Sea Glaze 3/4” tempered storm-glass and all 27 windows on board were serviced.
The vessel's high freeboard, large center cockpit and dual steering stations create safe operating spaces. The center cockpit floor is thoughtfully designed for removal allowing for vertical lifting of the engine if ever required for future servicing.
Llyr's foredeck has a broad, open and raised design that allows for both the easy shedding of waves as well as numerous work projects, people or gear to haul. At her stern there are four deep lazzaretts that house dive equipment for 6 (2 tanks and 2+ full dive kits and materials from their sponsor Aqualung USA), compressor, spare ropes, Viking Rescue 8 man Life Raft, Honda generator, heavy charge cables, 6 x 20 liter cans of gasoline, 2 propane tanks, fishing gear and chain etc.
Forward, her generous dual hatch chain locker houses gear for Llyr's four anchors, hydraulic windlass, G4 5/16 chain as well as a complete complement of spare sails, 18' Paratech parachute and over 400 meters of heavy thimbled double braight rope for deep water anchoring or Parachute bridle.
Mainsail (good)
Genoa (good)
Jib (good)
Cruising spinnaker Code Zero w/sock (excellent)
Storm tri sail (excellent)
9 Anderson winches
Sleeps 8
3 Staterooms
5 Berths
2 Heads
2 Showers
Propane 3 Burner Stove
Oven
Pressurized Water
Hot Water Tank
343 Gallon Water Tank
35 Gallon Holding Tank
Macerator
Dingy
Cockpit Cushions
BBQ
AWL Grip Deck
Bottom Job completed October 2021