Southern Ocean Shipyard or SOS was at the forefront of building bluewater cruising yachts, in the UK, with their iconic range of Van de Stadt designs. The Ocean 71 was a superb sailing yacht. Great to look at, offering powerful sailing and fast passage times and with practical and comfortable accommodation. Her split rig made her easier to handle. These yachts have voyaged to all corners of our planet, taking families and charter guests far.
Ocean 71, OCEAN JOY has the advantage of a very experienced owner who rebuilt her in the UK in 1998 and again in 2016. She is in cosmetically great condition, but importantly her systems and mechanics have all been upgraded or replaced in this ownership.
She offers enormous potential for serious sailing and is in great operational condition. Whilst writing, we would like to thank Tim Wright for the use of the photographs in this specification.
I have owned Ocean 71, OCEAN JOY as a family boat for 25 years. I rebuilt her in 1998 at Hamble, including new engine room and systems, new generator, exhaust systems with separators from Halyard Marine, Aquafresh water maker, bilge pumping, shaft, Aqua drive, Maxprop, Condaria reverse cycle air conditioning with handles in four cabins, completely new domestic plumbing, complete rewire of entire boat (by Datayacht, Lymington), new fresh water tanks, galley redesigned with new Force 10 cooker and new refrigeration, both masts rebuilt by original maker and leads rearranged on main mast to facilitate shorthanded sailing, new standing and running rigging and new sails, new anchor windlass and anchoring system to allow singlehanded anchoring and retrieval. New stainless steel stemhead fitting, pulpit, pushpit and all stanchions. New Andersen winches including 3 electric. Most systems were designed with redundancy in mind and for long distance cruising.
Over the years, I have continually maintained and upgraded OCEAN JOY and in 2015/2016 did a refit at Fox’s, Ipswich and at Southampton Yacht Services. Items included, hull osmosis treatment including re-laminating above and below waterline. Awlgrip paint on topsides and deck. New Tek-Tank water tanks, new main engine Perkins 6354, 115hp non turbo with probably less than 500 hours to date, all new Raymarine instruments, new standing rigging including rigging screws, 1×19 wire and all toggles, all new running rigging, new refrigeration, new Sanimarin electric heads plumbed for both fresh and seawater, new Spade main anchor. Steering overhauled by Whitlock engineer.
In my ownership OCEAN JOY has spent several winters cruising the Caribbean with summers in Maine and the US northeast. I think I have probably sailed her 12 times across the Atlantic, sometimes two handed but generally three handed. She is an exceptionally easy to sail, long legged and seakindly passage maker. I generally plan on covering 200 miles a day minimum with some days making 240 miles.
OCEAN JOY was built to Lloyds +100A1 with Lloyds machinery certificate. When I rebuilt her I maintained her in class. Around 2012 I allowed class to lapse because Lloyds new regulations relating to items such as watertight bulkheads were not practically possible to comply with.
Jennifer Stewart
Berthon USA
Tel: (401) 846 8404
E-Mail: jennifer.stewart@berthonusa.com