Defever RPH...

BillC said:

If you have to pay payments on it, you can't afford it. Pass on it and enjoy what you have!

BB

Click to expand...

You mean the one I'm making payments on now?

BruceK said:

I`ve often wondered if Lehman 120s in DF44 and above, is a big ask. I think I saw then fitted to an early 80s 48 advertised here,which I recall looked more like a 10yo boat than a 35yo one.
Would they be working hard, maybe harder than is economic or good for them? We`ve twin L120s, they don`t work hard in 36ft,so maybe fine in 44ft+.

Using unreliable memory, I think Sunchaser`s DF48 has Perkins Sabre engines, unsure about hp.

Click to expand...

At 1,650 RPM our DF44 goes 8.5 mph. At 1,550 she goes 8.0 mph. Neither RPM is over-taxing a Lehmam 120.

From 1977 to 1986 the DeFever RPH was built in the Sen Koh yard in Taiwan. The hull has a slightly softer chine than those built by CTF/POCTA (1986 to present) and the ultra hard chine of the current 50 foot version. With those boats built by Sen Koh, the fly bridge is on top of the pilot house giving it a higher profile than those built by CTF.

The price is about right for this vintage and apparent condition DeFever. Prices have actually held pretty stable on these boats for about the past 10 years. Many have gone up significantly.

The CTF/POCTA version with the harder chine (unless you're doing the loop, still needs stabilizers), with either the 135 Lehman Ford's (the 135 is the same engine as the 120 with most of the bugs fixed) or preferably the 135 Perkins Sabres are now climbing in price, especially those noted to be Plan B's (with direct access from salon to the master stateroom).

In 1986 production shifted to the CTF/POCTA yard in Taiwan managed by Wilson Lin (still manages the new yard in China). They moved the flybridge aft of the pilothouse, hardened the chines, changed to the 135's and created the Plan B. Art DeFever liked what Wilson's designers changed. Art attended most DeFever Rendezvous (that's where we met him).

We sold our 2001 49 DeFever CPMY in 2012. The same boat is now for sale for $40K more than what we sold it.

DeFever's stand out. They are solid boats. One article referred to them as "cult" boats. Once you get "Da Fever" (song), you will always have a soft spot in your heart for these boats.

By the way, the 49 DeFever CPMY is the 44' DeFever with a 5 foot cockpit extension. That extra five feet gives the boat flatter aftersection for form stability and a longer keel for lateral stability so many of the 49 CPMY's don't have stabilizers - we didn't.

Think about it, a 44 foot boat with a walk-in engine room, work bench, sea chest for all below the water line seacocks, huge covered sundeck (we've had 14 people there for jam sessions) the flybridge is like a lido deck on a cruise ship (we had a disco ball we could hang during parties). There are several 44's for sale, check them out. Great boats. Did I mention "cult" boats. Yeah, I'm still hooked on DeFevers.

HypnoBob - great posts, thank you for sharing your knowledge.

One thing I’ve wondered about is range. It seems like tankage maxes out at 800 gallons in everything below the big 60’+ flush deck POCs.

Seems like decent range with Lehman’s but with the big CATs I’d imagine range is quite limited.

Any perspective you can share?

The DeFever 44+5 CPMY (aka 49), carries 1000 gallons of fuel.
Two 350 gal saddle tanks + 200 in under the master tank + 100 in the lazzarette tank.

The 120's or the 135's get incredible mileage. The bigger cats, not so much. But, if you're cruising the Great Loop, you've got fuel available everywhere. There is one 200 mile stretch down the Mississippi that you'll need tankage for. In our DeFever, we mostly added fuel just to keep it fresh (a thousand gallons goes a very long way)!

Even in the Bahamas, there was quality fuel available on most islands. We fueled once in Emerald Bay Marina the entire time we were there (3 months).

Let me know if you have any more questions about the boats. Love them.