Technical Specification
Our first ever sailing boat is Firefly, and we wanted to include some facts, figures and information about her here. Info about her as she was when she was built, as well as info about our particular boat.
Firefly is a 25ft (7.62 m), bilge keel, Cobra 750 yacht, built in the 1980s by the builder Cobra Yachts (UK). She was designed in 1977 by David Feltham, who also designed similar Seawolf sailing boats. She is one of 500 built. She is a relatively comfortable coastal cruiser.
She has a draught of just 3’6″, as a bilge keel, which means she can be used in shallow water, and beached (or left on shore as the tide goes out). She has a beam of 9’8″, which gives her quite a nice look from both the front and the top, and at nearly 10ft (3.05 m) wide, she has plenty of room inside.
Furthermore, she displaces 2631 kg, and is rigged as a Masthead Sloop. Her engine is a 10hp, Diesel Yanmar 1GM10, she has three main berths, and a sail area of 360sq ft (33.45 m²).
Condition
When we bought Firefly, she was in a bit of a state. She had no saloon at all. No seating, no navigation desk, no table, no bunks – nothing at all. She has some equipment in the galley in the form of an oven, a new sink, and some shelves, but there’s not too much at all. Her heads are complete with a toilet, but the slide out sink, cupboard, and all plumbing are missing.
The v-berth at the front of the boat was destroyed, and there was a huge hole out to the anchor locker. The whole cabin was full of mould, and spare mouldy wood. The electrics were all over the place, and nothing was wired up at all. There was a pole where a wind generator had been previously, but there were no internals at all. She had a radio and a chart plotter.
The boat was floating when we bought her, and she remained that way for months until we had her towed and lifted out, however she was full of holes on the deck where things like the windlass was missing, and the door was in such a poor state of repair, it might have been better off without it. The floor of the boat was missing, and she was holding about 4 inches (10.16 cm), of water inside when we bought her.
The engine was an unknown quantity. We had been told it was a new (to the boat) engine, however, we had not seen it run at all at this point. Further to this, it was always soaked due to the door leaking right above it. The rudder was also not responsive at all (its internals were rotten). This is common with Cobra 750s.
History
We are unaware of a lot of Firefly’s history, however we were contacted by one of the previous owners, who let us know some interesting information. When the people we spoke to sold Firefly on, they sold her to a couple who somehow tied her up wrong, and ended up sinking her from the bow. We are presuming the lines were too tight given some of the damage, but we will wait to find out more.
She seems to have taken on water, and this seems to be the reason she has been stripped, and why we found silt on the floor. The person who bought her from that couple with the intention of rebuilding her, sadly passed away, and we bought it from their family. This is where our YouTube channel starts.