Why Selene?   

Our Grand Banks 46, also Celebrate, gave us fifteen great years of cruising and adventure, but we felt it really wouldn't meet our liveaboard and extended cruising plans for a lot of reasons. Many will differ.

We had to understand our own requirements based on our experience and our plans. We began our casual search sometime around 1998, but got a lot more serious as time went on. The search process helped us understand those requirements, and appreciate how important it was to think through how we would actually be using the boat. This had everything to do with the choice. It is said that every boat is a compromise. We didn't think so when we finally discovered the Selene 53, presented by Marlow Marine at the Miami Boat Show in 2002.

One given was that Andrea and I will forever be the entire crew, even with guests aboard (especially with guests aboard). If we can't handle it in even some challenging conditions, the boat is a rule-out. This limited our consideration to vessels under 60 feet, within our budget both from a financial and competence standpoint, if not within our ego budget. After a lot of thinking, our real needs boiled down to these, and our Selene 53, Celebrate, meets each:

Pilothouse Trawler	Generous Bridge	Inside Access to the Bridge
Walkaround Decks	Midships Master Stateroom	Twin Engines
Classic Design	Quality	Fine Finish
Easter Eggs	Ease of Maintenance	Efficient Operation
Value	Dealer Competence	Manufacturer Support

Pilothouse Trawler - Extended cruising demands not a lot of space as much as it demands a lot of spaces. It is important to be able to 'carve out' turf for varied purposes. The PH design naturally produces this diversity, and that is in addition to its fundamental purpose of providing a fully sheltered helm for passages that because of weather, seas, time, or choice make running from the bridge a second choice.

• Celebrate gives us eight, count 'em, spaces not including the engine room to use- 1) the foredeck for sunning and socializing under way or at rest; 2) the pilothouse for cruising in comfort on unfriendly days. It also is where Andrea and I eat 90% of our dinners - beautiful 270°views; 3) the salon provides the right place to entertain at mealtime, to sit and read, to watch TV or a movie, and to just enjoy our own company when dinner is in the making; 4) the cockpit is arguably one of the most gracious places to relax at anchor and watch the sun go down. It is also the transportation station whether by dink or launch; 5) the bridge is huge and with two pilot chairs we both can be together on any passage. The settee and table anchor an entertainment venue and when we swing the pilot chairs around six are most comfortable and ten can get along; 6) the master stateroom and 7) guest stateroom provide for their obvious function, but TV and piped in stereo create alternative places for bored guests or little visitors; and finally 8) the third stateroom aka crew's quarters aka office is where the ship's business is managed at the comfortable built-in desk, computer workstation, and ample file and storage facilities.

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Generous Bridge - Every time weather permits we choose to run the boat from the bridge. We were told by many PH owners that would change. After over 12,500 miles so far, it has not. We love the openness, fresh air, great visibility, and plenty of room for sundowners with or without company.

• Celebrate delivers. See (5) above. And that is just the start because we also store our Zodiac 340 Yachtline there, hoisted on and off with a great hydraulic davit. Cabinets store more than enough life jackets and emergency gear; a freshwater sink is surprisingly helpful for a sip or a splash; the circular staircase to the cockpit aft makes getting our folding bikes (stored in the dink) on and off easily.

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Inside Access to the Bridge - As agile as we are, the idea of going out on deck to take a sandwich to the bridge, or more probably, have to visit the head when a sea is running, was a concern. Celebrate has it, and it is a work of woodworking more like furniture than a utilitarian assembly.

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Walkaround Decks - With two of us running the boat, we don't want to depend on help from the dock or from additional crew. The ability to get right down on a mooring or a dock from either side, to put fenders exactly where they are needed in any situation, and the flexibility in rafting with friends makes walkaround decks a must.

• Celebrate has them. They are wide and covered making scooting around even in some stuff a safe and easy task. Courtesy lights provide welcoming illumination at night.

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Midships Master Stateroom - Why waste the full beam of the boat on corridors?

• Celebrate's uses the whole boat to accommodate a walkaround queen bed, built-in vanity, and ample drawer and locker space.

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Twin Engines well housed - This controversy will never be over. But after 19 years operating twin-engine trawlers, considering a single with a get-home was not an option. In December, 2003 we had a throttle failure on one of the engines. It was a rather urgent situation, and it ratified first-hand the wisdom of our choice.

• Celebrate's twin Cummins 220s fit easily into the huge engine room. There is plenty of space to service them on either side. It's not full walkaround, but I can get around without a lot of difficulty. There is more than enough room without any crowding for the genset, 4 8D AGM house service batteries, 2 8D engine starting batteries, fuel manifold with dual Racors, two HVAC compressors, and a ton of related system gear.

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Classic Design - A trawler isn't supposed to look like a Clorox bottle; after years of appreciating the timelessness of our Grand Banks, we required another with the same touch of grace and beauty.

• Like all trawlers, Celebrate sports that kind of in-your-face dumpy look. But there are some points of style that also really work well for us. The reverse shear windows in the PH let us run in a lot of rain without even thinking of the wipers. The radar arch comfortably holds the radar (naturally) plus two domes for sat TV and other antennas. It also works well as a place to do chin-ups. We chose to have Flag Blue gelcoat for the hull. Most other stock trawlers are monochromatic gray or beige. The brilliant white superstructure over the mirror-like dark blue hull is exactly to our liking.

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Quality - The boat had to be designed and built with the highest standards of materials, methods, and equipment.

• The touch of great minds the likes of Ted Hood, David Marlow, and others is apparent in the conception and design of all Selenes. Coupled with the competence and creativity of Howard Chen and others at Jet Tern, Selenes are most gracious, but also effective and efficient. Jet Tern is an ISO 9001 yard attentive to international standards. We have had our share of minor issues, all easily remedied, but none as a result of poor quality materials or equipment. The stuff is gold standard - Naiad, Westerbeke, GE, Grunert, SeaLand, Xantrex, etc.

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Fine Finish - This is to be our home. Enough said.

• Celebrate's finish has exceed all our expectations. We began by specifying cherry instead of teak for all the woodwork. It is warm, light, and beautiful. All the grain aligns on every surface, every door, and drawer. It is significant that the region where Selenes are built is in the middle of one of the largest furniture manufacturing centers in the world. Skilled craftsmen are available and committed. Ditto for the proximity to huge manufacturers of stainless steel, resulting in so many custom fitted pieces that blend perfectly.

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Easter Eggs - These are little features that aren't really promoted, but that are really appreciated in the long run of an extended cruising liveaboard life.

• Celebrate has pleasantly surprised us with a huge number of things we never really bargained for. Some examples include locking knobs on every drawer or cabinet door, digital volt and amp meters for all 12, 120, and 230 volt service, seven cedar-lined hanging lockers, a built-in electronic safe for valuables, DC 'cigarette' outlets in PH and on bridge for cell chargers and the like, a full-sized15-page set of CAD drawings that document every system on the boat, an annunciator panel in the PH with a profile of the boat that alerts one to every 'on' light, pump, or alarm, digital heat/air condition controls, wing stations port and starboard to make docking, locking, or mooring maneuvers a fraction of the adventure they would be if control had to remain at either helm, double FW pumps to maintain great pressure evenly delivered and without temperature surges, switchable stereo speakers in staterooms, PH, cockpit, and bridge all prewired to the entertainment center in the salon, Vacuflush heads that use only a pint of fresh water per cycle, fully finished lazarette with cabinets - drawers, and lockers that are fine enough to be on the bridge, surprise storage in nooks and crannies everywhere, accent lights under galley cabinets and behind the valences as well as beneath the beds in the master and guest staterooms, automatic lights upon opening any locker. The list goes on and on, and even after three months aboard, we discover new things constantly.

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Ease of Maintenance - It is a breeze

• Celebrate's gleaming white gelcoat topsides clean up with a good fresh water hosing, even when caked in salt. Same for her Awlgrip dark blue hull. Stuff just runs right off.



• Extensive use of stainless steel for all fittings, rails, cleats, etc., need little attention, other than a periodic good soap and water wash down when we're doing the rest of the boat.



• We have teak decks. Many would groan, but Jet Tern uses adhesive, not screws and plugs to affix the wood to the deck. The result is a smooth surface everywhere, and just twice we used mild cleaner and diluted brightener to keep them fresh and naturally golden.



• The engine room is most spacious, and service technicians have really complimented how well it is laid out and how easy it is to get at everything.

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Efficient Operation - 8-10 Kts is fine with us; higher speeds just never meant a lot.

• We cruise Celebrate at 9kt by varying the rpms between 1800 and 2000 depending on what the current is. She will do over 10, but it is a displacement design, so let's be reasonable. A good competitor to Krogen and Nordhavn, but doesn't even think about matching the speed (or fuel) of GB, Fleming, Offshore, and other fast trawlers. Our consumption so far has ranged, over all 12,000 miles to date, around 6 gph. When we are at anchor or on moorings the genset is running a good bit including a couple hours every few days to make water while we are under way. That is not counted in our gph computation.

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Value - Many manufacturers have enjoyed the benefits of the oligopoly that the trawler market has been over the years. With a lack of strong competition, there has been little incentive to invest heavily in innovation and production efficiency, and a good bit of incentive to ratchet prices up. We wanted to be sure to be on the correct side of the curve to both avoid overpayment, and to not get stuck when the inevitable deflation of over-priced boats hit the used market.

• No boat of this size and sophistication comes cheap. But many come expensive, and that is most noticeable in brands that have been around a while, and spending tons on promotion. GB, Fleming, Krogen, and Nordhavn come to mind. Today there are a lot of new entries in the marketplace that have started with a pretty clean slate and have been able to take advantage of the latest in construction materials and methods. This has translated into pricing that is surprisingly lower than those boats locked into their historic metrics. We think Celebrate is fair value, and will not depreciate at the rate higher- priced trawlers may as the marketplace forces its adjustments.

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Dealer Competence - Or, more interestingly, dealer interest.

• Celebrate might have been made in China, but it was delivered and is supported here. The best built boat is going to need help, and it is the competence, professionalism, and interest of the dealer that makes the difference. On this count, after a commissioning that took a couple months, and nearly 3000 miles of continuous use over three months, we are fully impressed with both Marlow Marine from whom we purchased the boat (but who no longer represents Selene), and Ted Hood's Portsmouth (RI) Marine who is following on residual issues, including some warranty work. We recommend both organizations highly. They have served us well. We have received no argument or push- back on even the most trivial issue; on the contrary, both organizations have offered new and creative ideas on whatever topic is at hand. (Interestingly, sometimes the ideas conflict a bit - in boating, as in other things, there is a continuum over which fact morphs into opinion.)

[Note 1/2006 - Now that we have become the Selene Dealer for the greater mid-Atlantic region of the Eastern US, we appreciate more than ever the importance of quality customer service. With our own commitment, and with full competence in the well-deserved reputation of our partners Bennett Brothers Yachts and Washburn's Boat Yard for outstanding service, Selene Annapolis customers will enjoy the good experience that we did.]

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Manufacturer Support - Jet Tern has consistently been there when we have had questions or needed help.

• Every new boat has warranty issues that must go back to the manufacturer. Jet Tern has supported corrections without exception.
• They have been prompt and direct on emails between us, and they are highly responsive to even casual inquiries we make with questions. They are clearly responsive to suggestions and ideas - some of ours (Hull #8) are now appearing in current production (up to Hull #66 as of this update). We think each new hull is improved by the aggregate learning of all the deliveries that have gone before.

Selene is the best value and match we know of for our defined requirements. If you'd like to debate, discuss, differ, or dive in, email us at celebrateanc@aol.com.

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