S/V Madeye is a 1973 Ericson 46 racer cruiser, designed by Bruce King. I found her and bought her on the hard in late 2021. She was previously put up for sale in 2016 while she was sitting in Cartagena, Colombia.
When I purchased her, the staysail was missing, the lifelines had been caught up on another boat, causing the pulpit and some stanchions to be bent and some broken welds in the bimini. The sails were due for service (one ended up being retired), the rigging was certainly overdue for replacement and some minor leaks needed to be addressed. The 2001 Beta Marine 50 diesel also requires some repair work.
Some interesting facts about the Ericson 46. Around 26 were made, one of which was owned by the CEO of Hughes aircraft for a decade or so. There are still at least a handful running around, one of which is Aiki. Bruce King actually designed two different rudders for the 46, one to meet racing specs of the time and one with improved control thanks to a better foil design.
Madeye (previously corsair and cinnabar) has some interesting features and challenges. The biggest departure from the norm on this boat is the location of the companionway. It’s a center hatch in the deck, forward of the cockpit. There are a pair of Goiot hatches that connect the aft cabin to the cockpit, mostly useful for passing things between and emergency access. However, this creates a very clean cockpit layout. The deck is relatively flat, featuring only mild curvature despite allowing over 6ft of headroom inside the boat.
The rudder is fairly well protected – not as good as a Kraken full skeg, but the semi-skeg has keel in front of it as opposed to most semi skegs that just stick out. If there’s a downfall to this boat it’s got to be the deep draw at 7 feet. This isn’t the end of the world – the Kraken 50 draws 7ft 6 inches.
The owner’s cabin… is sorta weird. There’s a double-ish bed along with a single. Each has a foot well that’s tucked up under the cockpit. Between the two, there’s a huge steel tube that contains the steering cabling/gears. However, the space would be super claustrophobic if not for the two hatches into the cockpit. These allow plenty of light into the space.