Portico – a Sea Ranger 53’ trawler yacht

Portico

Type of Boat: Sea Ranger 53’, trawler yacht

Refit/ Work completed – Comprehensive internal and external refit

The 16 metre sturdy semi-displacement vessel built in 1992

Portico was nearly 20 years old, sound and tidy but in need of updating and customisation. So, to Cornwall she came where Mylor Yacht Harbour’s Marine Team worked end to end and inside and out.

When Roger and Dinah Graffy bought a motor yacht there was only one place they considered for her refurbishment – even though it involved a 4000 mile round trip.

She was hoisted from the water at Mylor on 10 September 2010 and for the next eight months she tested all of the skills in the boatyard.

The couple own Mylor Yacht Harbour. So, having built a talented team of craftspeople and technicians they knew and respected hugely, it would have been a bit perverse to take their acquisition anywhere else.

Roger spent five years looking for a suitable boat before he found Portico just south of Genoa, Italy, in 2010. She’s a Sea Ranger 53’, a ‘trawler yacht’: a sturdy semi-displacement vessel with a similar profile to a fishing boat, which tends to attract a following flock of confused seagulls expecting a free lunch as she approaches port.

That might surprise some who know him better helming a Sunbeam racing in the Carrick Roads. He said: “I’m very keen on sailing, but I wanted a boat that could be like a tortoise: my home on my back, big enough to have all my toys on it, like kayaks and dive equipment, and with enough space to get the kids and their mates out.”

Updating and customisation

Portico was nearly 20 years old, sound and tidy but in need of updating and customisation. So, to Cornwall she came. She was hoisted from the water at Mylor on 10 September 2010 and for the next eight months she tested all of the skills in the boatyard.

Mylor’s Marine Team worked end to end, inside and out. The stainless steel bowsprit was replaced, the bathing platform on the stern extended, the hatches reconfigured on the aft deck and the over-scrubbed teak decking replaced. Winches and the dinghy crane were repaired, trim tabs were changed and rope cutters put on the props.

Remote-control bow and stern thrusters were installed along with a set of controls on the aft deck for precision reverse mooring if the boat’s undermanned.

Redesigning and rebuilding

Inside, the galley was redesigned and rebuilt with new appliances and the gas supply refitted. “Gas is something that scares the living daylights out of me. It’s heavier than air so if it leaks, the only way of getting it out is by bucket – if you switch the bilge pumps on it might explode.” The gas containers are now housed in special lockers with drains overboard.

Portico was also completely rewired with 240v sockets throughout and LED lighting, including Bond-like underwater lights (“Once the electrician suggested it, well….!”), and fitted with all-new electronics: VHF, radar, chart plotter, stereo.

Electric toilets replaced the old manually-pumped heads and grey and black water tanks were plumbed in and a new calorifier installed as well as a new generator and welded exhaust manifolds.

The tired velour headlining in the main saloon and wheelhouse was torn out and replaced with painted tongue-and-groove boarding to, well….make it more woody.

Attention to detail

Finally, the exquisite solid teak interior joinery was re-varnished and the exterior completely repainted from the keel to the tip of the superstructure – a heck of a job, because it’s a very large surface area with a large number of fittings to remove and refit.

Anything Roger says about the quality of the work might be met by a response along the lines of ‘well, he would say that, wouldn’t he’. It’s true he feels a great loyalty to the Mylor workforce, but having put himself in the position of a client, he is genuinely pleased and proud of the outcome. He said: “I’m absolutely delighted, because the guys here did a brilliant job. They have fantastic skills; I’m both in awe and slightly jealous of them.

Portico returns to the water

“The depth of skill across the board is our key point of difference, really. There isn’t a single area where we are deficient. Anybody can bring any boat here and say fix it all – and we can…and project manage it efficiently.”

In June 2011 Portico slipped back into the water and back to the Med where she has since been moored just south of Rome, as the base for family holidays. “She’s wonderful for entertaining and exploring. We’ve also been caught in one of the most frightening storms I’ve experienced aboard a boat, but she was fine, she’s built for it. And she looks stunning now.”