About the boat

The name Elysium--among the many definitions, it has evolved to demonstrate a meaning of paradise, or playground of the gods.

The boat:
2002 Southerly 135, built by Northshore in the UK.  It's an approximately 45 ft boat, with plenty of water and diesel tankage.  While heavier than any other boat we've sailed, she handles well, can be single handed and tends to go quicker under sail and motor power than we expected.

One of the key features of the Southerlys is the fact that is has a variable draft in the form of a swing keel.  So, our draft goes from nearly 10 feet when down to approximately 3 feet when up.  (Jury is still out on the up part, published depths and what we've measured don't match).

For two people who spend a lot of time cruising the shallow waters of the Keys, this is ideal.  The keel is also designed to push up if it comes into contact with something (bottom/coral, etc), which lessons the chance of structural or keel damage if we ground.

Our boat is a saloon up design, so the chart table/pilot station are all raised in a deck salon fashion.  Plenty of seating and visibility while having the protection of a pseudo-pilot house.

All Southerlys are custom designed, so the original owner had a lower settee place forward of the nav station, which is quite nice.  Forward bunk room (which is now the 'garage), forward head which acts as the day head and V-berth head.

There's an inline galley that you can fit into snugly with a port opening to the center cockpit so communication can be easy (and food service!) Tons of easy to access storage and grab bars on both sides if you wanted to tie yourself in.

The master cabin is the full width of the aft with a double bed and private head.

Through the master head is a workroom, with a shelf and access to the generator room.  Some people install a washer/dryer here, but we decided we will not want that additional humidity on our boat.