This is SV Cosmo, our pride and joy, and our floating home for the last few years. Here she is docked in Morro Bay in December 2020 halfway through our first passage aboard when we brought her up from Santa Barbara to Monterey. She is a 2000 Dufour 43 foot center cockpit, built in France and delivered to the US where she’s had 2 previous owners before us. Luckily for us, the previous owner was upgrading to a motor yacht and was eager to empty his slip in the Santa Barbara Marina so it was a quick and easy purchase.
The Basic Specs
The boat broker was straight forward with us before we saw Cosmo: she’s not a bluewater boat. What does that mean? She’s not ready for offshore sailing. Not a huge surprise for the price of the boat, but he confirmed that with certain upgrades (see Boat Projects) she’d be ready to cross an ocean. Here’s what we were working with:
Dufour Center Cockpit 43
Monohull, Sloop
Fiberglass
14.2 ft Beam
6.2 ft Draft
Fin Keel
5,200 lbs ballast
Diesel engine, Volvo Penta
Left handed folding propeller
60 gal fuel tank
3 water tanks totalling 90 gallons
2 cabins, 2 heads w/electric toilets
Propane stove
Drop in refrigerator
All the Extra Stuff We Added
– Freezer install and wiring
– Alternator replacement
– Lithium battery upgrade
– Water heater install
– Solar panels
– Solar arch
– Dinghy davits
– Dinghy
– Outboard
– Watermaker
– Outboard lift
– Inverter
– Starlink & rewiring Starlink to run on 12V
– New water tank in vberth
– Recaulked old teak deck
– New mantus 65 lbs anchor
– All new standing rigging
– Heads plumbing replacement
– New dodger
– New cockpit table
– Custom dining table with hydraulic leg & cushion
– Diesel can covers
– Added a liferaft
– Kitchen drop in sink
– LED lights
– TV install and 12V rewire
Whoa, that’s one heck of a list of upgrades—though we’re pretty sure we’ve missed a few things, and this doesn’t even cover the usual maintenance! But hey, it’s all we can think of at the moment. Everything on this list (except the standing rigging replacement) we tackled ourselves, thanks to our trusty “YouTube University,” countless hours of deep-diving online, and the ever-helpful Facebook groups where we waded through a thousand wrong answers just to find that one golden nugget of wisdom. But hey, that’s boat life for you—never a dull moment, just problem-solving and learning as you go!
SmoCo Sailing 