Our girl may have some years on her, but she has thousands of miles to sail before she's done!  She's a 1992 Privilege 482 Catamaran.  The Privilege line was first built by Jeantot Marine, which was founded by renowned solo sailor and founder of the Vendee Globe, Phillipe Jeantot. Privilege Catamarans was the leader in the world in the production of cruising catamarans by the time Ophelia was built in 1992. 

 

From the beginning, Privilege has earned and kept a reputation for building ships of extremely high quality, using only the best cutting edge building techniques and capable of the toughest blue-water cruising in style and safety.  For that reason, many buyers seek out the older models for their robust build, not to mention the much sought after shaft drive and extremely good sailing characteristics, particularly for a large cruiser.  They have also continuously been known for their luxury, amenities, incredible woodwork, and comfort.  She may not look it now compared to a new cat, but in 1992, Ophelia sold for over $950,000!  We sure didn't pay that, and while she'll obviously never hit anywhere near that mark again, we're doing our best to recapture her former glory! 

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The 482 was originally aimed at the charter industry so she boasts a ridiculous FIVE full sized cabins, four heads, two of them wet heads and the two master suites with full enclosed showers.  The fifth cabin is in the Privilege trademark "nacelle" forward and between the hulls.  On Ophelia, this is called the "Hobbit Hole" and has been converted to a utility, storage, playroom, and laundry room with washer and spin dryer.

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The 482's also come with FOUR large tables, two inside and two outside.  For a cruising family, that's two too many.  We removed the smaller outside table, creating an awesome wide open space great for yoga, entertaining, projects, or anything else requiring floor space.  Inside, we dropped the smaller table down to couch height and converted it to a hinged storage unit with a custom cushion on top.  It's now our family sectional.  Great for TV nights as well as off-watch snoozing on passages in immediate reach of the cockpit.

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She's also "galley down" meaning her galley is down in the port hull and not up in the main cabin like many modern cats.  We LOVE this feature.  The layout is extremely spacious and out of the way of our "living room" creating just enough separation for the cook, while still in conversational distance.  She has a large front load domestic freezer, a spacious front load fridge, microwave, air fryer, a full size pantry, tons of cabinets, and loads of counter space, all with 6' 4" and headroom minimum.  A hatch and a side port keep things bright and ventilated.

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All of Ophelia's cabins boast a queen size bed, although they're all "side entry", one thing we don't like about the boat...somebody has to climb over somebody to get in or out of bed!  However, her vast storage in our starboard master cabin and huge and bright head and enclosed shower make up for it...mostly.

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From a sailing standpoint, the boat really shines.  She has a 74' foot mast boasting an enormous mainsail with traditional slab reefing, all handled quite easily at the mast, which is very safe and easy to get to in even the roughest seas.  Her nearly full beam traveller on the stern takes some getting used to, but the result is excellent control of the big main.  She's a blast to sail and very fast for a cruising cat in our opinion...we've been on passages with sustained speeds of 12 knots for hours (that was a crazy ride) and even on tamer stretches we regularly cruise at 8 - 10 knots and can maintain good speed at up to about 30 - 35 degrees apparent wind.

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For the story on her "auxiliary" propulsion, go check out the "Sailing ELECTRIC" page!