Arthur DeFever's Most Popular Boat

Here's a link to a photo tour of a DeFever 44. About 300 44's were built.

Pacific Nor

I agree that the 44 De Fever is a great boat, but I would opt for a 49' if I was in the market. If I had it to do over again the 49' De Fever is what I would have today instead of a 42' Monk.

How do you define “most popular”

If you go by the usual metric when describing “most popular” then you are talking about the number of units sold.

In the case of DeFever designs it’s the “38" as Mr. DeFever called it.

Over 650 hulls licensed. And a couple of hundred illegally splashed Taiwanese copies.

Sold as the DeFever 38 when built in wood by the Oriental Boat Co in Japan, the DeFever Passagemaker 40 when built in all glass by Jensen Marine in Costa Mesa CA, and the DF 41 when built by Bluewater Yachts, and latter by MMC in Taiwan.

I’ve read more than one interview with Mr. DeFever where he discusses this very subject. I was also fortunate to talk to him in person about this.

There is even a good thread here at TF on this subject.

Mike

Perhaps the most popular "pilothouse" would have been a better statement. Around 300 44's were built, all of the same material and apparently all (or nearly all) by CTF.

You do need to combine the production of the wooden 38's and the fiberglass 40's (both the Passagemaker and Downeast series) to get to the number you're quoting. If you prefer to consider all those various boats and builder as the same model, then you are quite likely correct about the total number.

According to McKnew and Parker:

"Introduced in 1973, the DeFever 40 Passagemaker is actually a fiberglass version of the earlier wood-built Passagemaker 38. Built in Taiwan in imported by Jensen Marine in California until 1977, the earliest Passagemakers suffered from a poor reputation caused by poor fiberglass-over-plywood deckhouse construction. (Note that later model Passagemakers were all fiberglass).

In 1980, the molds and tooling were acquired by Downeast Yachts, a California-based sailboat builder, and production was resumed as the Downeast 40. Construction was fairly straightforward until Downeast started building the boat; they added a full cabin liner and an engine room liner- very unusual in a trawler design but beneficial in that it strengthens the hull and makes engine room cleanup easy. Both Passagemaker and Downeast models came with a full teak interior, and both featured identical layouts including a companionway in the aft stateroom for direct cockpit access. Additional features include a functional mast and boom, teak swim platform, port and starboard salon deck doors, and wide, well-secured sidedecks. A single 120-HP Lehman diesel provides a cruising speed of 7-8 knots with a range of about 1,000 miles. Twin diesels were optional."

OK my vote goes to our's.

Handsome boat

McKnew and Parker suffer, as they often do, from a cranial rectum inversion.

There were 2 boats ( that’s two boats total) built in Taiwan - not from 1973 to 1978. Know what you buy if you buy their book. You can believe them, or someone who has talked to Art DeFever.

Downeast yachts only built a few boats.

All the 38's are the same. I have rafted up with a Oriental 38, DF PM 40's, and both brands of DF 41's.

They are all the same size and shape, except that the Oriental 38 and the Jensen Marine 40 do not have a chine.

My argument is not with you, just posted for those in the future looking for info on these boats.

Mike

I really like our DF49 and am getting her ready for a big cruise, she is so quiet and smooth in the water and vibration free.

We feel blessed to own her and she is looking good with new canvas, furniture and I just got her a new Rocna with a new 300' all chain rode which holly molley wasn't cheap.

More work to still do but as we move on board full time next month look forward to seeing us on the TN river until Fall before we head south down to the Florida for the winter

Guys, I admit the D-F 49 has great lines and must have great interior volume, and travels very well. My only query, and hopefully you can answer this, that cockpit arrangement, where you have a beautifully covered aft section, but instead of a full rear cockpit, or a full width aft cabin with raised sundeck on top, it has this roof of the aft cabin coming up right into the space which one would normally use as a lovely covered indoor/outdoor living/fishing/lounging space. How does that work..?

I see a 50" DeFever Trawler for sale in Mexico. Cat's Meow it's called. It this really a 49" model. Yacht World YW# 2426-2520709. It's a wood boat. Do you believe this was built in the states? The boat has quite a history.

All and any comments are welcome!

Bill

Kwajdiver said:

I see a 50" DeFever Trawler for sale in Mexico. Cat's Meow it's called. It this really a 49" model. Yacht World YW# 2426-2520709. It's a wood boat. Do you believe this was built in the states? The boat has quite a history.

All and any comments are welcome!

Bill

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That boat was built in Japan by the Oriental Boatbuilding Corporation.

Scott Welch
Island Eagle

Chuck Gould said:

Handsome boat

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I've got to same about the eagle 40. I have always loved the stern and the low CG.

Daddyo said:

I've got to same about the eagle 40. I have always loved the stern and the low CG.

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Daddyo, do you have anything to enlighten me re my query in the post #9 above..?

Peter B said:

Guys, I admit the D-F 49 has great lines and must have great interior volume, and travels very well. My only query, and hopefully you can answer this, that cockpit arrangement, where you have a beautifully covered aft section, but instead of a full rear cockpit, or a full width aft cabin with raised sundeck on top, it has this roof of the aft cabin coming up right into the space which one would normally use as a lovely covered indoor/outdoor living/fishing/lounging space. How does that work..?

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I think you mean the DF-48... the DF-49 was a raised pilothouse. By the way the DF-48 was basically the same boat as the DF-50 built by Oriental Boatbuilding Company, and it was also built in steel (one of the guys on here has the steel one). The DF-49 in turn was a very slightly stretched DF-46 Alaskan.

All of these are slight variations on the arrangement used on Island Eagle, which was designed in 1963. Art's other early boats (built by Lindwall) were almost all double-deckers, although Pau Hana was not.

I have a complete database of Art's designs, I will try and get it up on Wikipedia one of these days.

Scott Welch
Island Eagle

IslandEagle said:

I think you mean the DF-48... the DF-49 was a raised pilothouse. By the way the DF-48 was basically the same boat as the DF-50 built by Oriental Boatbuilding Company, and it was also built in steel (one of the guys on here has the steel one). The DF-49 in turn was a very slightly stretched DF-46 Alaskan.

All of these are slight variations on the arrangement used on Island Eagle, which was designed in 1963. Art's other early boats (built by Lindwall) were almost all double-deckers, although Pau Hana was not.

I have a complete database of Art's designs, I will try and get it up on Wikipedia one of these days.

Scott Welch
Island Eagle

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Yes, I think he meant the DF-48. That said, the 49 is no great shakes in terms of interior space utilization. In fact, I was shocked and disappointed when I looked at one last Spring. Looks very "shippy" on the outside, though.

How well do these boats handle rough water. Say on a trip from Mexico or the West Coast to Hawaii. Can you Defever owners tell me a little about fuel consumption?

Would you consider 4000 hours on a DD engine a lot or average?

Bill

My guess is that vessel doesnt carry near enough fuel for that trip also you need to calculate in a good 20% for unknowns.

Secondly 4000 hours on a DD is alot on a 2 stroke, i would imagine that it already has had work based on its age and hours.

You may want to look elsewhere if you are planning travel across the pond and plan for alot more money to buy.

My wife and I finalized the purchase of a Defever DownEast 40 on Wednesday. So for now, it is our favorite model. Like Chuck said, it has a full cabin and engine room liner. There is not much structural wood. When I was going through all the old paper work, I found an original sales brochure. I could scan it if anybody wanted a copy.

We wanted a boat that I could still fish from while comfortable enough for the wife and son. This is our first larger boat and we have a lot learn. It's not as handsome as the 48's, but it will do. BTW, are there any other DownEast 40's in the group?

Bob

Ok, so as everyone skirted round it, and no-one actually answered my question, I take it having the roof of the aft cabin intrude into what would otherwise be a nice covered aft cockpit does not work that well, (exact vessel length being irrelevant here), but yez love your boats so much otherwise you put up with that..?
I guess it does shade the aft cabin in summer and keep it cooler, for sure...

Pete unless I'm mistaken Tidahapa and another newish Oz member with sticks holding up rags on his powerboat have the same arrangement as the DF-48's covered trunk cabin. I'd like to know more about that myself.

skidgear said:

Yes, I think he meant the DF-48. That said, the 49 is no great shakes in terms of interior space utilization. In fact, I was shocked and disappointed when I looked at one last Spring. Looks very "shippy" on the outside, though.

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The 49 has been made for a number of years in different models with different layouts and just looking at one is not always indicative of them all, also I dont know any boat that can combine all factors including dollar value into a single package.

We really like our DF49 and when you consider cost and sea worthiness it could not be beat.

Guys, thank you for all the input. This is what a mate of mine down under wrote about the Defevers.

The Defevers didn't have very good fastenings in the bow and they are renowned for opening up in heavy weather. Instead of naval bronze they used silicone bronze fastenings which corroded very quickly with the sappy timber that was used to build them. Many Defevers in Australia of that size opened up on their maiden voyages in temperatures over 28 degrees C. This model is top heavy and not a sea-kindly vessel. This vessel would be OK in the inland waterways and lakes of the States. To summarize, this vessel is best left in Mexico (and it's not cheap!).

My waters are a lot rougher than most of you have. I need a real passagemaker, or a win the Powerball and retire tomorrow. If that happens I'm coming to visit you ALL.

Bill

Kwajdiver said:

Guys, thank you for all the input. This is what a mate of mine down under wrote about the Defevers.

The Defevers didn't have very good fastenings in the bow and they are renowned for opening up in heavy weather. Instead of naval bronze they used silicone bronze fastenings which corroded very quickly with the sappy timber that was used to build them. Many Defevers in Australia of that size opened up on their maiden voyages in temperatures over 28 degrees C. This model is top heavy and not a sea-kindly vessel. This vessel would be OK in the inland waterways and lakes of the States. To summarize, this vessel is best left in Mexico (and it's not cheap!).

My waters are a lot rougher than most of you have. I need a real passagemaker, or a win the Powerball and retire tomorrow. If that happens I'm coming to visit you ALL.



Bill

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I have seen a 53' Hatteras open up its port bow after coming around Point Conception and the Captain who was bringing it up from LA never critisized or faulted this model or boat or brand, neither would I because as many people know Hatteras make alot of very good boats.

Therefore please check your info before you slam a brand of boats as your post is not based on first hand knowledge or fact.

If you have proof of a particular model from any brand having issues go ahead and post by all means but my frustration with your post is that a blanket slamming of a whole brand is not cool or appreciated

Enough said

Sorry, I had no intentions of slamming any make or model, I was just repeating something I have been told. This is an information gathering forum for me. I have no first hand knowledge on this size boat, so I'm listening to all. Gathering information then trying to weed out the good and bad information. You are correct, my post was not based on first hand knowledge.

I still like the boat I'm looking at, the owner now tells me it's not a 50ft, but a 52ft. I've ask the owner what fastening are used on the hull.

Sorry if a offended anyone. I think the Defevers are a beautiful craft, just have to find out if it's right for me and the waters here.

Bill

gwkiwi said:

Therefore please check your info before you slam a brand of boats as your post is not based on first hand knowledge or fact.

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I've wrestled with myself quite a bit after reading the above.

In 1986 my brother had a brand new DeFever 53 (stretched to 57) built. He cruised it about 30K miles before selling it. The boat had deck separation from the hull issues which caused him considerable grief. Did I see the actual separation? No. Do I believe a brother that was 8 years my senior with a ton of cruising miles under his keel? You bet!

It should be noted that this is the only DeFever that I ever heard of that had these problems and certainly does not represent all other DeFevers. I consider that I had first hand knowledge in this case and if my brother was alive to day, he would be the first one to confirm it.

I've mentioned it before, but it bears repeating. DeFever us a brand, not a builder. Art DeFever put his name and brand on every DeFever, but they were built by (literally) dozens of companies. The build quality varied considerably between companies and also between boats built earlier and later in the production run.

In the case of the boat down in Mexico, that boat was built in Japan by the Oriental Boatbuilding Corporation over 40 years ago. It's probably built about as well as a similar vintage Grand Banks (in fact, the DeFever Alaskans were built in the same yard as wooden Grand Banks). OBC also built the same boat in steel, and that boat is tough as nails.

Scott Welch
Island Eagle

Peter B said:

Ok, so as everyone skirted round it, and no-one actually answered my question, I take it having the roof of the aft cabin intrude into what would otherwise be a nice covered aft cockpit does not work that well, (exact vessel length being irrelevant here), but yez love your boats so much otherwise you put up with that..?
I guess it does shade the aft cabin in summer and keep it cooler, for sure...

Click to expand...

I really like the covered aft cabin. Headroom is such that we have deck chairs under it and the overhang means the aft galley window and the master stateroom ports are all covered. It also means the bridgedeck is huge and you can carry in our case a 11' Boston Whaler with a 35hp engine. The aft cockpit is 4 1/2' deep and the cabin top makes for perfect seating. When you include the top for seating then you don't need chairs so it really translates to a 6 1/2' cockpit which is plenty large for anything you might want to do back there. It really is a blend of a Europa and a trunk cabin.

Kwajdiver said:

How well do these boats handle rough water. Say on a trip from Mexico or the West Coast to Hawaii. Can you Defever owners tell me a little about fuel consumption?

Would you consider 4000 hours on a DD engine a lot or average?

Bill

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We have 1500hours in two years on our 48. Two hurricanes on the hook. A few thousand sea miles. 3.75 mpg at 6.8knts. Slammed a trough behind a tanker out of Charleston after getting the bow 15' off the water. Range is over 3,000nm. No problems with the build or design for me.

Daddyo said:

I really like the covered aft cabin. Headroom is such that we have deck chairs under it and the overhang means the aft galley window and the master stateroom ports are all covered....The aft cockpit is 4 1/2' deep and the cabin top makes for perfect seating. When you include the top for seating then you don't need chairs so it really translates to a 6 1/2' cockpit which is plenty large for anything you might want to do back there. It really is a blend of a Europa and a trunk cabin.

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Thanks. Ok, I think I can see how that could work. Maybe not quite as flexible as if it was all covered open flat cockpit area, but close...

You guys get a grip, this is a BOATING FORUM and not a court of law.