The origin story of Deep Water Yachts is about someone who was unsatisfied with current offerings, and who was graced with an entrepreneurial, restless mind.
Founder Peter J. Bost was raised by the sea in Holland and pursued a career in the Netherlands Marine Corps. After serving his country, he logged thousands of nautical miles on a fiberglass vessel, wandering about the European coastline from Belgium to the French Riviera.
“I found out what I wanted and didn’t like on a boat,” Bost says. He spent several months going around Holland “looking at all these little yards for the ideal boat, and I couldn’t find it.” Undeterred, he wrote his own set of specifications, found a naval architect who could interpret them to his liking—fellow Dutchman Willem Nieland—and settled on a concept for Deep Water Yachts.
The two-stateroom, two-head Deep Water Korvet50CLR (Compact Long Range) is the result of the collaboration. The Korvet’s ethos as a no-nonsense cruiser is apparent in the unpainted-aluminum, round-bilge, single-chine hull. It also has a wave piercer that Bost says improves tracking and fuel efficiency.
More lies beneath. The yacht is designed to meet the CE Class A standard, with 7-mm aluminum for the hull and keel, and 5 mm for the superstructure. There are three watertight bulkheads on board, plus a crash bulkhead forward to defend against collisions. The yacht is also self-righting, and has skegs to protect running gear, which means she can be beached.
On board, the builder insisted on a walk-in engine room with a proper access door. “I wanted an engine room across the full width of the boat that I could easily get into,” Bost says. “I didn’t want to go through hatches in the floor to get to parts of the engines. [Mechanics] that come on the boat say, ‘Wow, this is great because it’s easy for us to have access to everything.’”
There’s also redundancy in vital systems, in the engine room and throughout the vessel. It’s a twin-engine boat, so propulsion is covered in case of loss of one of her standard 230-hp Volvo Penta diesels. Bost added extra filtration systems to her power plants and generator. An independent hydraulic pump
handles steerage gear, and there are backups to all navigation equipment, including chartplotters and autopilot.
Bost also wanted the Korvet50CLR to be fuel efficient for longer-distance cruising at an above-displacement speed. Her lightweight aluminum hull, with a 14-foot, 2-inch beam, translates to a fast cruise about 30 percent quicker than a similar-size steel or fiberglass vessel, according to Bost. “We cruise at 10 knots with very favorable fuel economy,” he says, adding that wide-open speed is 18 knots.
At 7 knots, the 50CLR burns 3.2 gallons of fuel an hour for a range of around 1,517 nautical miles. When you double the speed to 14 knots, her slippery hull still manages a stellar 1,213 nm.
A modified 50CLR that Deep Water calls the 50XLR (for Xtra Long Range) proved her mettle on a transatlantic crossing a few years ago. On an Azores-to-Bermuda run, the 50CLR made the crossing at an average speed of 9 knots and 1800 rpm, with the Volvos consuming 0.5 gallons per nautical mile. With her fuel capacity expanded to 1,188 gallons, the 50XLR was able to complete the trip without fuel bladders.
The builder is working on Hull No. 5 for an American client who expects to take delivery in the Mediterranean and spend time on the French canal system. The 50CLR’s narrow beam and hydraulic mast allows transit without compromise.
DEEP WATER KORVET50CLR
LOA: 46ft. 9in.Beam: 14ft. 2in.Draft: 3ft. 4in.Construction: aluminumDisplacement: 37,479 lbs.Fuel: 687 gal.Water: 330 gal.Engine: 2x 230-hp Volvo Penta D4Info: deepwateryachts.com
This article was originally published in the May/June 2024 issue.
