What can I say? I am smitten by the profile and use of these aft house cruisers, evoking for me the same emotion as looking at the Halibut Schooners that have fished the North Pacific for more than 100 years. These are very seaworthy boats capable of holding their own in just about any conditions the sea can dish out. The Oysta 62/Annie was designed in 2001 for the customer of the first of our Sockeye series powerboats. His family was expanding with a new marriage and he started down the path of dreaming about a boat that could handle this pack. Part of his dream was the lifelong goal to cruise to high-latitudes places with comfort and safety.

Let’s take a good look over the interior of this design. Starting from aft, you’ll find a giant aft-owners cabin complete with desk, full head/shower, an island queen sized bed, and enough room around the bed to be able to make it up in the morning without being a gymnast. Going up the staircase into the pilothouse, there is room for a proper charting area, separate double watch chairs, a dinette seating area, etc. Double doors on both sides of the pilothouse give access to the deck and the working area of the boat.

From the pilothouse going down a staircase on the port side, the galley, a true dinette area, and laundry are accessed. Lots of room to do all the chores that keep a boat and crew clean and well fed can happen here. Access to the engine room is done thru a large door at the aft end of this compartment. There is stand up room around the large single screw diesel engine, the fuel tanks are port and starboard in the shoulders of the engine room, and fuel management is easy and organized. Double generators round out the engine room with a 6kw providing backup to the 20kw main.

From the Galley/Dinette cabin, access to the Focsle is done up a few steps and there are two primary staterooms accessed in the bow. The Skipper’s cabin is to starboard with a double berth and a desk and locker area. Clear up in the bows of the boat are stacked double berths, port and starboard, and a diesel bulkhead heater keeps this whole area warm and dry. There is a very large head to port with full shower for keeping the crew clean and neat. Up a winding staircase is access to the foredeck of the boat allowing crew to exit both up directly to the deck or aft thru the galley/dinette cabin.

The rig, if set up on the Oysta 62, would be a large ketch rig set on aluminum spars. For my money, I would put a gaff on the mainsail keeping the mast lower and the whole center of gravity of the rig as low as possible. This is a true motorsailor with the rig only providing assistance to the engine and it is good to keep the sail areas down small enough that they will get set quickly and easily. Once one gets into the Tradewinds, the engine can just purr along with the assistance of the sails and the motion of the boat is easy and nice with the range being something North of 3,000 nautical miles.

Imagine an evening, with the anchor set hours ago, in some very secluded holding ground very far away from the maddening rest of the world. The crew has all gathered down in the galley/dinette. It’s shirt sleeves now with a bit of residual heat emanating from the nearby engine room and the huge diesel range/oven in the galley. There is a bottle of good rum on the table and glasses are being emptied to the accompaniment of lots of laughter mixed with good stories, music, and a brisk game of Mexican Train dominos spread out on the huge dinette table. With good friends at your elbow, mix in a bit of smoke from fragrant Cuban cigars broke out for the occasion and realize that life does not get any better than this! – Sam Devlin

The Oysta 62 is available as study plans, but this one really begs for a call to Sam, just in case you want to land a helicopter on it.

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