At 72 feet, some owners may wish to employ a captain or, at the very least, a deckhand to help with a washdown at the end of the day. To meet this demand, nicely finished crew accommodations are accessed through a watertight transom door or a ladder via the deck. There are twin bunks, a wethead, and a side-by-side washer and dryer. If an owner has zero plans for crew, this area could also double as a spacious workshop and stowage area.
Forward of the crew area is the engine room access. Batteries are placed so that they can be removed, the Racor fuel filters are on the forward bulkhead for service, and the standing headroom was a surprise considering the 72’s relatively low profile. Our test boat had an optional second 22 kW generator. Both units are mounted abaft the engines. There are generally two schools of thought when considering the kilowatt output of a secondary generator. The first is to go with a smaller unit that would be sufficient to carry nighttime loads only. You turn this off in the morning and power up the larger unit during the day to run heavy-load items such as appliances and air-conditioning units. Or, as in the 72, you have a duplicate unit in case you need a part that is not in your spare inventory. You alternate between generators while cruising. That would be my recommendation on this particular boat. With six a/c chiller systems, several refrigerators and freezers, and plenty of methods of drawing down power, you won’t have to worry about keeping a sufficient load on a 22 kW genset.
Our test boat featured one main fuel tank and four auxiliary tanks. There is a manual, electric transfer system that feeds the main tank. At first, I admit that this struck me as overly complicated for a 72-footer. However, after Chris Keenan, an old friend and a professional captain employed for the 72’s delivery, walked me through the process, I realized it’s easily managed. Just be sure that the CompuTank monitoring system is calibrated, and keep track of what you’re moving around.
If there is ever a moment when you pray for the engines to start, it’s when you’re dangling in a crane’s slings, in 20 knots of wind, off the transom of a container ship. The pleas worked! The 1,015-horsepower Caterpillar C18 ACERT diesels roared to life. Keenan was charged with the not-so-enviable job of backing us out of the slings toward the imposing bulkead. In short order we were on our way to Portsmouth to pick up some fuel and bad lunchmeat for the trip north.
