Sarita, Solitaire 52 (English version)

Sarita is now sold!

We wish the new owner fair winds and following seas onboard Sarita.
För svensk version, tryck här.

With roller furling both on main and genua regulating sail area is done with ease

Model: Solitaire 52.11 (basically a modified Stevens 50)
Designer: Sparkman & Stephens (drawing number 2390-C3)
Builders: Grand Harbour Yachts, Taiwan
Position: Preveza, Ionian Sea

We have decided to move on in life and part from our sailing yacht Sarita and our lifestyle in the form we are living now since we are ready for new adventures that can be seen on the horizon or that are still hidden from us. Sarita, the Solitaire 52, that we have sailed with in the Mediterranean since 2012 and has been our home since 2017 and that we have renovated and upgraded when we were on land between 2017-20, we now want the opportunity to sail on with new owners. She has been special for us with her classic beautiful lines and stable and safe qualities. Sarita is now equipped, fixed, and like us ,ready for the next phase in life.

Sarita is an ocean going sailboat who is a joy to steer and handle at sea. Designed by Sparkman & Stephens during the same period they were the main designers for Nautor, it is only natural that her hull shape reminds a lot of the classic Swan 65 and Swan 57. She handles offshore sailing beautiful and has soft movements even in heavy seas going to windward. She is stable and everything with her is dimensioned with a safety margin, from her mast and rigg (rigging from Selden with 12 mm stainless steel wires) to a sturdy skeg to protect the rudder. She is built at Grand Harbour Yacht, a quality yard which can be seen by the good condition Sarita still are kept in complemented with constant upgrading during the years.

A video showing the deck and cockpit of Sarita taken on April 29, 2024

Her teak interior ensure a nice feeling down below and her layout is planned for sailing with a galley containing two deep zinks and where you can brace yourself at all times. Her large saloon table can sit up to 12 persons comfortable and her stern platform is very comfortable when you are at anchor with deep steps and a swimming ladder and shower aft. The solar panels and wind generator installed has made her self sufficient with electricity and with over 1000 liters fresh water tanks we have stayed at anchorage for months. With several dorado boxes and 15 hatches that can be open ventilation is excellent whether at sea or in an anchorage. In short, Sarita is a comfortable quality sailboat with beautiful classic lines that are built for comfort both at anchor and sailing on the ocean. And she has proven herself an excellent boat for exploring during her life time, taken previous owners around the world to explore exciting new areas. Now she lies in Preveza in the Ionian Sea waiting for new sailors to fulfil their dreams.

A video showing the interior of Sarita taken April 29, 2024

Videos of Sarita sailing

If you want to see Sarita in action we made three videos from our sailing from the Ionian Sea to Turkey and back:

Film: 13 weeks in 13 minutes, Sarita in Greece and Turkey 2013 The sail from Ionian Sea via Corinth canal to Turkey 2013
Film: Sarita’s sailing 2015 from Dodekanesos, via the Cyclades and Corinth canal to the Ionian Sea.
Film: A summary of Sarita sailing 2012-18 A summary of the sailings on Sarita up to the refit (2012-18)
Film: 2022 Spring sailing with Sarita in the Ionian Sea A summary of sailing in the Ionian spring 2022.
Film: 2022 Autumn sailing with Sarita in the Ionian Sea: A summary of sailing in Ionian Sea the autumn 2022.
Film: 2023 Sarita sailing in the Ionian Sea A summary of sailing in the Ionian Sea during the summer of 2023.
There are also a number of articles written on this homepage about our different adventures on Sarita. You find them under “My Blogs” in the menu.
To get more frequent updates of our sailing with Sarita you can follow us on Facebook

With an anchor in the bow and lines ashore Sarita is in a safe harbour in Greece with the sun awning up.

Data:

Building year: 1991
Sarita is registered in the Ships Register at the Swedish Transport Agency
Call-sign: SKYR
MMSI nummer: 265650270
Depth: approx 1.95 m
Material: GRP (fiber glass)
Length: 15,80 m
Width: 4,36 m
Weight: approx 18 ton
Mast hight: 23 meter

Engine, tanks and pumps:

Engine: Yanmar Diesel 72 HK (from 2005 renovated 2019), modell 4JH3-TE, Engine hours 4430
Gear box: ZF 15 MIV
Max Prop three balade folding propeller
One fixed three blade propeller as spare
Double parallell fuel pre-filters type Racore typ for the engine that can be changed individually while using the engine (2019)
Volvos “Black Jack” stuffing box (2020)
New Cutlass bearing (2020)
Bow thruster from Vetus
2 stainless water tanks (approx 1 100 liter) with inspections hatches
1 aluminium dieseltank (approx 450 liter) with inspections hatch
1 stainless black water tank to the aft head (approx 100 liter) with inspections hatch
1 grey water tank in the bilge (all waste water from galley and heads goo there)
Yamaha inflatable dinghy with inflatable floor board (up to 15 HP outboard)
6 HP Mercury Model no: 1-F06201EL four stroke outboard engine (2014)
1 stainless outboard lift, up to 50 kg
The pumps for the black water tank, grey water tank and the bilge (one of the bilge pumps) are all the same model, Waste pump Jabsco 19LPM No 50890-1000 (spare onboard)
Fresh water pressure pump Jabsco Par Max 2,9
The pump for cooling the fridge compressor Shureflow 3901-0214

Ackommodation/Interior:

5 cabins with a total of 9 bunks (plus salong and cockpit areas)
3 cabins with double bunks
1 cabin with two single bunks (upper and lower)
1 cabin transformed to storage/workshop but can easily be retransformed to a single bund cabin.
12V fans at all bunks in the cabins plus two in main saloon.
2 heads (one with normal Jabsco toilet with disposal overboard and one large Jabsco toilet with disposal to septic tank). Both heads with showers.
1 shower on aft deck
Pressure fresh water with foot pump back-up system
Salt water foot pump in the galley
Boiler (hot water maker) Quick B3 40 liter (B34012S) with both heat exchanger from engine and 220V, 2019
Large water-cooled refrigerator in the galley Waeco ColdMachine 87, both top access and side access.
Small (35 liter) 12V/220V refrigerator in the sofa Waeco CFX 35, 2018
Alpes propane stove with 4 burner and oven, new burners from 2020
Fully equipped galley for at least 10 persons
The salong and navstation has new seat cushions that has both new upholstery (marin blue) and covers to protect them (light blue)
All 39 light onboard has been changed to LED
3 oil based radiators (220V)

Navigation equipment:

1 Radar (Raymarine)
1 plotter (Raymarine 120)
2 GPS antennas, one for plotter, one for AIS (Raymarine)
1 vind instrument (Raymarine i60)
2 multi instrument (Raymarine i70)
1 Autopilot (Raymarine 6002 hydraulic steering)
1 Short wave radio (Kenwood HF Tranciver TS50
1 Antenna tuner (GC SG-230 Smartuner Antenna Coupler)
1 VHF, fixed installation (Sailor Compact RT2048)
1 VHF handeld (Cobra)
1 VHF handheld in grab bag
1 AIS Raymarine 610 (receiver and transducer)
1 Antenna splitter (True Heading SRT-MTB-ANS)
1 Writing barometer (MeteoLiner)
1 Stereo with CD player and external entry with waterproofed speakers in salon and cockpit (Kenwood KDC-3357U).

Electric:

1 AGM battery 220 AH for bow thruster
2 Gel batteries á 180 AH for windlass (act as house spare ass well)
2 Gel batteries á 180 AH for the house
1 Start batteri på 140 AH (2021)
4 solar panels, Solar Swiss KVM 110-12, á 110 W total 440 Watt (2018)
1 wind generator, Air Breeze 200W (2018)
1 battery charger, Sterling Pro Charge Extra (2019)
1 inverter 12V till 220V, Sterling 12 1800W (2019)
1 MPPT regulator, Phocos MPPT 100/40 (2019)
1 battery monitor, Victron BMV 700 (2019)

Sails

1 Furling genua, 82 sqm Spectra (2015)
1 Furling main, negativ leach
1 Furling main, standing round battens
1 Gennaker with sock
1 Stay sail
1 Trysail on separate groove in the mast
1 Storm jib (orange)
1 Spare furling genua (Dacron for a 45 feet boat)
1 Anchor sail (hoisted on the aft stay with the spare main halyard)

Deck/Mast hardware

New inner forestay with quick release tensioner
Seldén mast K 31-290-4634-825
Main furling system Ma Ling 59-199
Genua furling system Furlex 539-103
Seldén boom vang/rodkick (2019)
2 Barient 36 Two speed self tail genua winches on cockpit coaming
2 Barient 32 Two speed self tail winches on cockpit coaming
2 Andersen 46 ST Two peed self tail winches under spray hood
2 Barient 24-45 Two speed self tail winches on the mast
2 rope clutches for two lines each in cockpit
3 rope clutches on the mast
Mast steps
Spinnaker boom on a slide at the mast
Windlass Maxwell 2200 VWC Topworks
110 meter stainless 10 mm chain
1 Rocna main anchor (40 kg)
1 Wasi Bügel (30 kg) spare anchor, plus anchor line 60 m och 10 mm galvanised chain 10 m
Spray hood in marin blue Sunbrella
Bimini in marin blue Sunbrella
Sun awning for Bimini to the mast in marin blue Sunbrella
Sun awning from mast forward in marin blue Sunbrella
Cockpit side protection in marin blue Sunbrella
Sun protection in mesh that can be hung from Bimini and sun awning
Small sun awning in mesh for cockpit
Marin blue Sunbrella protection for steering pedestal, outboard engine, windlass, vind vane and all winches,
Swimming platform at the stern with ladder and shower
Outboard lift in stainless, up to 50 kg
7 large fenders (30×90) with new fender cowers
3 large round fenders with new fender cowers
6 smaller fenders
Good ventilation through 6 Dorados and 15 hatches that can be opened
2 Wind scoops to be mounted over the forward hatches
1 Vind vane, Royal Perfect
All through hull fittings and ball valves have been changed to Tru Design composite (approved by insurance companies)
12 marin blue Kapuk cushions
Abundance of mooring lines, amongst other a floating line of 45 meter, three mooring lines of 60 meters each, and around fifteen shorter mooring lines
Many spare halyards and sheets waiting for the present to be worn out

Safety equipment:

10 life harnesses
10 life wests (varied models and sizes)
2 Life buoys
1 Hansa throwing line
1 Rescue line
EPIRB (Mcmurdo Smartfind G5 plus)
4 Fire extinguishers, ABC
1 fire blanket for in the galley
Propane bottles stored i closed compartment aft draining outboards
1 electric bilge pump for the deepest part of the bilge with level guard
1 electric bilge pump for the forward part of the bilge
1 manual bilge pump in the cockpit
Emergency tiller
Emergency flares and rockets according to Greek demands
1 extra hand held VHF in grab-bag
Yamaha infaltable dinghy on deck

Pictures showing Sarita under sail, at anchor, in the yard and different details onboard.

Sarita´s history
(Told by the previous owner):

Sarita, a Solitaire 52.11 was built at Grand Harbour Yacht, Taiwan in 1991. She is a Sparkman & Stephens design with the drawing number 2390-C3. Basically it is the same hull as a Stevens 50 aft cockpit version with some alterations (extended transom with swimming platform for example). The yard has a good reputation for building quality boats to a limited numbers of customers and all the Stevens yachts are build at Grand Harbour Yachts.

There are supposed to be seven to ten Soltaire 52.11 built. One sister yacht was doing chartering in Croatia and another is assumed to be in Netherlands. Sarita was build specially for Dr Kurt Eckers of Austria who started and was running Eckers yachting, a charter company, until recently when he retired. Sarita was Dr Ecker’s private yacht and was named after a mummie of a young inka princess found in the Andes, she was called little Sara (Sarita).

Sarita was delivered to Greece where she was completed. The rig came from the Swedish company Seldéns and since way over half of the equipment is manufactured in the US Sarita has been approved by US Coast Guard as being made in the US. Milan Petranovic was responsible for finish the work with Sarita in Greece and was thereafter the skipper/caretaker of the boat as long as it was in Dr Eckers possession. Most of the information that are written here comes from him.

Sarita was commissioned during the summer of 1991. The same autumn she sailed to the Canaries with Milan as skipper. There the crew changed and the well known German sailor Bobby Schenk took over as skipper. He started a project, together with a paying crew, with doing an Atlantic crossing without navigation equipment, including removing the auto pilot since it had a compass. The purpose was only to use variouse old traditional navigation methods on the way to the Caribbean. The project was called ”Transatlantik in die Sonne” and resulted in a book by Bobby Schenk with the same name.

Between 1993 and 1995 Sarita made a circumnavigation with paying crew. The round the world sailing was made against the prevailing winds when going south around the capes. During 1996 -1998 Sarita had Polynesia as a base. Here Kurt Eckers used Sarita privately as well as some longer sails with paying crew. Bobby Schenk was also spending time on board which resulted in another book, and a film for German TV, called “Südseeträume”. After that Sarita sailed to the Mediterranean where she established as a new base but also made longer sails, often in the shape of different projects. This included a sail to India and back with paying crew. In the autumn of 2003 on her way up to the Suez canal, Sarita ended up in real rough weather that resulted in that she lost the rigging. After going to Haifa in Israel for emergency repair a new mast and rigg from Seldén was flown down from Gothenburg. After mounting the new rigging, which is the same model but slightly lower than the original one due to transportation limitations, the journey continued.

In 2005 a new engine was installed, a 80 hp Yanmar 4JH2M-HTE. At the same time the diesel generator was removed. In February 2006 Kurt Eckers sold Sarita to a Swedish couple, Christer Lefvedahl and Annika Ottander. Sarita then had Koper in Croatia as base, but were still sailing under Austrian flag. In August the same year she was transported on land from Slovenia to Kiel where the mast was raised and she sailed up to the Stockholm archipelago after a visit to Gothenburg. In Sweden she was measured and registered with the call sign SKYR by the Swedish Maritime authorities (Svenska Sjöfartsverket, now Transportstyrelsen- Swedish Transportation Agency). At the same time she was measured for a Panama canal certificate.

Christer and Annika owned Sarita from 2006 to 2012 when we bought her. During that period several upgrades and refits were done. In the winter 2006-07 new stays for the standing rigging was installed and the furling gear was renovated. After that most of the running rigging has also been changed. All the winches, including the windlass, was re-chromed and a new backstay tensioner installed. All the deck hatches was changed to Lewmar high quality hatches. A new radar and plotter was installed in 2008 as well as a new three bladed Max-Prop as a replacement for the fixed one (still onboard as a spare). The same year the two forward cabins with upper and lower berths was transformed to a master state room with a large double bunk by a well renowned boat carpenter, Roland Palm of Dalarö in Sweden. The whole interior, including floor boards, was also revarnished and some wood details replaced. All the pumps were replaced and a septic tank for the aft toilet is installed as well as a new refrigerator system from Waeco and new counter top for the galley. All this work was finished in 2009.

In May 2010 Sarita was sailed to Kiel for transport on land to Slovenia. During the following winter Sarita had a major refit where the transom was rebuilt with new fibre glass, new steps with a better angle and new teak. The whole hull was shaved and sanded, both above and below the water line. The hull was then filled and treated with epoxi, five coats under the water line and three above. No osmosis was found. The topsides was then painted with five coats of Hempel Light two component white colour and the bottom has been repainted every year with anitfouling.

During 2010 and 2011 a new motor for the windlass was installed as well as an upgrade of all batteries. New gel batteries of 220 ampére each was installed, two in serie (24 V) for the bow thruster, four for the house batteries and one for the start battery. Also two solar panels were installed as well an upgrade of the bow thruster and anchor equipment (a Delta anchor to replace the CQR). Also a new deck lid to the anchor box was installed and a new Furuno facsimile receiver purchased. The boat was mainly cruising in the Adriatic and Ionian seas until 2012 when I bought Sarita, then she was on land for the winter in Cleopatra Marina in Preveza, Greece where she is at present.

Sarita making good headway through the water.

Present:

Since 2012 up to now we have sailed during the summer months in the Ionian Sea through the Corinth Canal and the Saronic Gulf and further east through the Cyclades to the Dodecanese’s and the Turkish coast, where Sarita spend one season. Then we sailed Sarita back the same way, see links to films above. Apart from general maintenance Sarita has been upgraded with for example a new Genua in Spectra from North sails in 2014 and an anchor sail in 2013. In 2015 a new 6 hp Mercury outboard for the dinghy was bought as well as a new Selas life raft for 8 persons with a cradle. Also in 2016 we upgraded the Raymaine navigation instruments to the new Sea talk and installed an i70 multi instrument. In 2017 we replaced all the through hull fittings with certified composite fittings and ball valves from True design.

Since 2017 we live permanent on Sarita and have after the season of 2017 have had a maintenance period when we have been on the hard for more that two years at Cleopatra Marina in Preveza. During that period we have or about to deal with our long working list, the work you can follow on our blog. Some of the things are:

Removal of the leaking teak deck (including deck hard ware), dry out the core of the deck (including drilling around 3000 holes, fill the holes with epoxy (West System) and wither with sanding made the surface fair and then paint with three layers of primer two component epoxi paint, two layers of gloss white and two layers of papyrus white and a final coat of papyrus white with non-skid powder, all two component paint from De Ijssl.
New stainless bolts for the genua tracks (96 of them)
New stainless bolts and newlargerb holding plates for all cleats on deck.
Lift of the engine for a total refit including changing all four engine mounts, the stuffing box (to Volvo dripless “Black Jack”), the cutlass bearing, the turbo charger, the oil cooler and the spring sheave for the gearbox plus a refit of a lot of the equipment like injectors, the starter, the heat exchanger and the alternator
Purchase and installation of double parallell pre-filters type Racore for diesel and new diesel hoses
Cleaning of water separator/silencer and purchase and change of new exhaust hose and vakuum valve (Vetus).
Removal of old and installation of new isolation boards for the engine room
Cleaning, renovating and painting the engine room bilge
Rebuilding the space behind the engine room for better ventilation for the engine room, including reduce the depth of the locker under the cockpit floor.
Rebuilding the engine room with larger hatches to gain better access to work on the engine.
Removal and fixing leaks of the four big windows in the saloon, inkl changing the moist wood under the ceiling panel.
Purchase and installation of a new gas kick from Seldén
Removing and renovating the windlass
Purchase of new anchors, one 40 kilo Rocna and one 35 kg Wasi Bügel
Purchase and installation of two stainless covers in the bow to prevent nicks from anchors
Purchase and installation of a vind wane, Royal Perfect
Purchase and upgrading the Raymarine navigation system to i70
Construction of a new bimini mount for holding solar panels
Purchase and installation of four new solar panels at 110 Watts each, total 440 Watts, and a MPPT regulator
Purchase and installation of a wind generator
Change of all through hull fittings to composite material from Tru Design
Cleaning of the grey water tank
Rebuilding the wast water system so all waste water from the galley and the toilets are collected in the grey water tank.
Change of most hoses on the boat for sewage systems
Rebuilding the fresh water system with new faucets, valves and manifolds.
Installation of foot pumps for fresh water and salt water in the galley with new faucets.
Purchase and installation of a new boiler (water heater)
Fixing leaks in the water pressure system (aft shower and both heads)
Cleaning and painting of the bilge
Cleaning and painting of the lazaret inkl the hydraulic steering units
Upgrading a lot of the electrical cables and removing most of the ones not in use
Purchase and installation of a new battery charger
Purchase and installation of an inverter (12V to 220V)
Purchase and cutting new cushions for the main saloon and nav station and sewing new upholstery and covers for them
Scrape clean and oil the cockpit floors with Ovatrol’s Deckolje 1 och 2
Change of the malfunction manual bilge pump in the cockpit.
Change all the light to LED, including the navigation lights.
Purchase and install a new deck fitting for an inner forestay.
Purchase of a used quick release tensioner for the inner forestay so the baby stay can also be used as inner forestay.
Cleaning the water tanks.
Cleaning the fuel tank.

Videos from the renovation

We made four films about some of the projects we did during the renovation of Sarita 2017-20. If you want to see more in details of the work you can watch the videos: