Cooper 416

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The owner gives the basics of his 1982 Cooper 416 pilothouse: 42 feet overall, a 14-foot beam, drawing just under 7 feet fully loaded, with 180 gallons of water and about 180 gallons of fuel. He says she can motor at six and a half knots for over a thousand miles.

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The factory pilothouse seat sat too low to see out, and because the bow goes uphill a little the owner says you almost need your head at the ceiling. They had been stacking cushions, so he built a sliding platform on a sail track so the seat can be set to any helmsman's height.

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To fit a 25 kilo anchor on the bow, the owner had to weld on an extension and a roller that protects the furling drum and locks the anchor in place once it is up. He calls getting the anchor one of the best things they have done.

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The owner says the 130 percent furling headsail is fine for many conditions but too much upwind in heavy breeze. He keeps a hank-on 100 percent jib on a Solent stay, reefable down to 60 percent, with the storm jib hanked on above it.

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The owner counts the arch he built, with davits, a barbecue mount and two tilting solar panels totalling 270 watts that supply the boat's electricity needs, as one of the best things they did for cruising, next to the water maker.