Just aft of the dinette is a nearly straight-line galley. Many opening ports and hatches provide plenty of cross ventilation. Handrails and fiddles are where they should be. The dinette is to port, the table folding up onto the bulkhead opposite are twin easy chairs with a table/cabinet between. ![]() The deal was closed when they went below to a varnished teak interior that has a teak-and-holly sole. This led the couple to Caliber’s trademark collision bulkheads, impact-resistance zones, watertight rudder dam, and sea chest, allowing just a single hole to be drilled through the hull. What first wowed engineer Scott was Caliber’s tankage system, in which all tanks-each with a viewing port-are bonded to the hull below the waterline, strengthening the hull and creating a double bottom. All winches are two-speed and self-tailing, and they’re powered by a single 18-volt Cinch Winch 1600 (cost: $1,000) instead of $25,000 worth of electric winches. On-deck storage includes two forward and two aft lockers for large gear and a double anchor locker. The lifelines lead forward to a true pulpit, with stainless-steel rails and twin anchor chocks. The wide decks with aggressive nonskid provide an efficient work platform. We close-reached back to the barn, and when Eclipse began laboring, we killed the staysail, and the gentle ride returned with no loss of speed. ![]() When we buried the ports, we reefed the main and staysail by a third and the genoa by half, then jogged comfortably through 2-foot beam seas at 5.8 knots. This day, months later on Chesapeake Bay, Scott’s wife, Karen, played artfully with the bow thrusters to extricate Eclipse from the marina, and we set off in 18 to 25 knots apparent, beam-reaching at 7 to 8 knots over the ground under full main (on a Seldén in-mast furler), genoa, and staysail. Second, she was bought at last year’s Miami International Boat Show, and at show’s end, she was bound east, across the Gulf Stream. Three things you should know about Eclipse, the Caliber 47 Long-Range Cruiser we test-sailed: First, she was picked out by an engineer, Scott Blovin, who knew nothing about boats but a lot about engineering.
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