Ocean Watch is a 64-foot steel cutter designed by Bruce Roberts that’s been outfitted and laid out for extensive long-range voyaging and expedition-style sailing.

Built in Havre de Grace, Maryland, in 1988, Ocean Watch is a stout, rugged yacht displacing 44 tons with a draft of 8-feet and a beam of just over 16-feet.

Built of 1/4-inch steel plate, the center-cockpit sailboat’s underbody configuration is a deep fin with a skeg-hung rudder. The double-headsail cutter rig consists of a high-clewed yankee jib, a staysail, a powerful mainsail with three deep reefs, and an asymmetric spinnaker for off-wind sailing. Ocean Watch (ex-Danzante III) was utilized as a marine-science research platform and live-aboard cruising boat off the coast of Baja California.

Then skipper Mark Schrader set in motion his plan to sail “Around the Americas” (more info on this website ). Following his purchase of the boat in the spring of 2008, Schrader and a crew that included Ocean Watch first-mate and project manager David Logan delivered the 64-footer from La Paz, Mexico to Seattle’s Seaview East Boatyard on Shilshole Avenue near the Ballard Bridge, where underwent a complete, stem-to-stern refit by a talented group of craftsmen including Logan, engineer Paul LaRussa, Andy Gregory, Jon Sebaska, the shipwrights Bakketun & Thomas, and many other local businesses, volunteers and supporters.

The Around the Americas started on May 31st, 2009, and ended on June 17th, 2010, completing more than 28,000 nautical miles.

The boat now belongs to the non-profit organization Spirit of the Sea, led by captain Richard Gillette.