Technical details:
NEREUS is a Ted Gozzard designed motor vessel built by North Castle Marine in 1985 in Ottawa, Canada. We believe she is hull #19 of the 41 that were built. The Pilgrim’s plumb bow, side walkways and rounded stern are features reminiscent of an earlier age of pleasure boating. Her screened doors and windows, along with a beautiful butterfly hatch above the salon offer breeze and light throughout her comfortable interior.
She is a displacement hull boat with a single screw, driven by a 100HP naturally aspirated Westerbeke diesel engine. With two 70-gallon fuel tanks and a burn rate of just 1.5 gallons per hour at 7 kts, she is well suited for long term inland cruising. Tedd Gozzard designed the boat for one couple: single stateroom, single head, a generous salon/galley, and a real wheelhouse. This said, we’ve configured our boat to comfortably host another couple for those who want to join us on our way. Our boat also has a flybridge which we enjoy driving from on nice days.
We have equipped our boat to make it more independent from shore services and comfortable without adding overly complicated systems. The systems include upgraded anchor, rode and windlass, a solar power system and simplified cabin heat.
To hold Nereus firm at anchorage, we upgraded our system to include a new Lofrans Tigres windlass, 200’ of 3/8” G4 chain, and a 65 lb Mantus anchor. We have found great security with this combination.
For electric power, we have added 800 watts of solar power with a 60 amp inverter. This keeps our Lithium Iron Phosphate house batteries topped off without needing to use our 8KW generator. A 3KW inverter gives us ample 120v power for domestic needs.
To stay warm, instead of using our Marineaire heat pump AC/heating system which requires 240V power (shore power or generator ops), we find it easy to stay warm with a couple of bus heaters connected to a hydronic water loop heated by the main engine’s heat exchanger. When we are running the boat, the engine’s waste heat keeps the loop temps near 180 degrees heating the domestic hot water heater and the bus heaters. With this system, we stay toasty warm running the boat from the wheelhouse on cold days. At anchor, a Dickerson Antarctic diesel heater easily heats the main cabin and with a 2-pass stainless water jacket, keeps our hydronic loop heated as well.