S/V Mola Mola né "Juggler"
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| This is a diagram showing the layout for floorplan 'B'. We however have plan 'A' which has a dinette instead of the pilot berth and settee port side. It is a U-shaped bench with a table that drops down to make a full sized bunk. This was the only good drawing I could find though. |
What's in a name?
Well, there's an 'N' and an 'A' an 'M'... har har har!
The mola mola, aka ocean sunfish is a big, funny looking fish. It lacks a true caudal, or tail fin, rather its second dorsal and anal fin are fused together at the stern. They eat mainly jellyfish, lots of jelly fish. We think they are pretty cool, and we even saw one on our honeymoon at the Monteray Bay aquarium in California. We've even changed the blog page icon to a picture of a mola mola, albeit a very small one.
Bill "A.E." Luders designed several boats build by the Cheoy Lee shipyards. Ours is a Luders 36 Sloop and was built in the first year of this models production.
The deck, brightwork and interior trim are constructed from Burmese teak, the hull is thick, hand laid fiberglass and the spars are aluminum. Auxiliary power is provided by the original 45hp Westerbeke 4.107 that is located aft of the companionway ladder, below the cockpit sole.
We have a fresh water tank that holds 60 gal. which lasts us 3 days with cooking and showers. We've read the average American uses 60 - 145 gallons of water a day (National Geographic states 100 gal/day).
Our 30 amp shore power connection provides AC power for our batter charger, fridge, water heater, other household niceties. If you've ever tripped a breaker in your kitchen by running the toaster and microwave then you have an idea of what power limitations boats have.
| appliance | amps |
| Refridgerator | 1.3 |
| Laptop, etc. | 3.5 |
| Battery charger | 2.0 |
| cabin lights | 2.0 |
| Total: | 8.8 |
| |
| Occasional use |
| Water heater | 20.0 |
| Coffee maker | 4.0 |
| Air conditioner | 7.0 |
With a max of 30 amps we keep in mind not to run too many of the heavy drain appliances at once. We are always looking for ways to minimize or power usage. We are far from being off the grid, but we do like the ongoing search to be use less power and be more self-sufficient.
We have seen many other Luders 36's and seen subtle changes in hardware, trimmings, etc. but in the dozen or so years of production the design was kept pretty much the same. The teak deck is in good shape, however, like many boats of this era and construction, the cored fiberglass deck below has deteriorated and will require a complete re-coring. We hope to be able to save the teak and reinstall it afterwards.
We have a long list of projects we are currently working on, and as we live aboard we try to juggle comfort with progress.
