Our boat is a 2011 Meridian 441 that for us is a really good fit for living aboard and traveling for a year. The sky lounge is where the navigation occurs, and the main level is our “home” with no lower helm. The boat is about 47 feet long, has two 480 hp Cummins diesel engines, a 13.5 kw Cummins generator, six AC/Heat units, and holds 150 gallons of fresh water, 55 gallons of black water, 432 gallons of diesel, and weighs about 35,000 pounds.
We travel at about 8.5 MPH so the big engines only rev up if we are out-running a storm or have another reason to go fast temporarily. To help with landing at new place every time we move, the boat has bow and stern thrusters, and a joystick that integrates with the shaft drive engines as well.
Nancy enjoys cooking on the boat so we do have a fairly large galley with a full size fridge/freezer (for a boat), 2 sinks, 3 burners, a microwave and a small versatile oven.
There are two sleeping staterooms and two heads. Ron has a place for his office in the salon with a movable table (next to the liquor cabinet and ice maker as needed).
The sky lounge/bridge has a Kenyon electric grill, sink, fridge/freezer, 32,000 BTU of heat/AC and TV along with the main helm, and a table that seats six.
The mast has a custom hinge so I can climb up on the hardtop and lower it if needed to get air draft down to about 18 feet, 6 inches. The draft is only about 3 feet 5 inches which is really helpful on the Loop. The stern of the boat has various locations to exit the boat to a dock at differing heights which helps for getting off and on the boat.
For navigation we have a Raymarine radar, Flir night vision camera, AIS send/receive, aft camera, Garmin Autopilot, 12″ Raymarine chartplotter and a 12″ Garmin chartplotter and a Vesselview with real time engine data and fuel consumption. I also use tablets at the helm for Aqua Maps and Navionics cartography.
Reimanns 'round the loop in 2022 